Jesus Warned So We Would Remember

What Did Jesus Do?

“But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes
you may remember that I told them to you.”
John 16.4

We've already discussed how Jesus recognized how powerful fear of the future can be (see WDJD for 5/27/11). It was no premonition the Lord had the night before he would be crucified, he saw clearly and fully what was going to happen. Jesus knew that to his disciples it would appear as if things were quite out of control, out of God's control. And he knew that his suffering would not be the end of it, but that persecution and suffering would soon upon his followers. So the Lord warned them of what was to come, so that they would remember in the midst of their troubles that he and the Father were in absolute control of all things. The problem was, there were many who did not know the Father, nor the Son.

Before long the disciples would be exorcised from the community of Jewish worship in the synagogues. Even more, people who believed themselves to be zealous servants of God would kill Christ's followers, convinced that in slaying Christians they were doing God's work (John 16.2; see Acts 7.51-60). Things were going to go from bad to worse, as they say, so Jesus warned his followers, so that they should remember who was in control when the whole world seemed to rise up against them.

Considering the terrible, and terrifying, weather that has wreaked death and destruction from the Gulf states to New England, there are probably many who might think the world is quite out of control today. There may be some who, having suffered unspeakable personal loss and tragedy, are convinced that God has turned his back on them. And there will be some who will insist that what we've been experiencing is but a small taste of God's wrath. All of these would be quite wrong. The world is never out of control, God remains in total sovereign authority over all things. And the Father who loved the world so much that he sent his Son to die in order that the world should be saved does not turn his back on his children. Nor would God single out Tuscaloosa, or Joplin, or Springfield MA for punishment.

But, hard times, terrible times, come. Sickness, unemployment, tragic accidents, deadly storms, and, still, acts of terror by those who think they are serving God. None of this in any way suggests that the Father and the Son have stopped caring or have lost control over the world. The key is to listen to what the Son says, and when tragedy and trouble come, and they will come, remember what he has told us.

The crucifixion of the Lord would sorely test the faith, and the remembrance, of the disciples. Grief can seize the mind, so that we forget all but our awful, yet ultimately transient, circumstances. This is why the fellowship of believers is so important, for we are to help bear one another up in the midst of struggle and suffering and loss. As members of the Body of Christ, our experience and our remembrance is both individual and corporate. When one suffers, all suffer. When one is comforted, all are comforted. Let us, who know the Father and the Son, remember that Jesus has warned us and told us these things, and comfort and encourage one another with his words and his love.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4