“But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home.  You will leave me all alone.  Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.  I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  John 16: 32-33

I ran across this familiar passage yesterday.  I’ve gone there before and was struck by the part about peace.  It’s a comforting verse.  But yesterday something else jumped out at me.

Jesus is speaking to his disciples here – the very ones who have been closest to him his entire adult life.  The ones who have eaten with him, traveled with him, laughed & cried with him.  His CHOSEN ones.  He knows that he’s about to be killed.  He’s trying to prepare them for that.  But he knows something else – he knows they’re going to fail him.  They are going to doubt him, hide from him and even deny knowing him.  They’re going to argue amongst themselves about who he likes more, and who has the best plan once he’s not right in the middle of them anymore.

All my life I’ve had this fear of failure.  I push myself to not only succeed but to excel at everything I do.  Of course I rarely accomplish this and therefore feel like a failure in my own mind much of the time.  I’ve always had this notion that if I mess something up, do a bad job or make a wrong decision that I’m letting God down.  I guess I have this picture of Jesus in my head – sitting wherever it is that He sits just shaking His head in disappointment and saying “there she goes again…”  My nightly prayer as a child began “Lord forgive me for all the stuff I did wrong today.  I’ll try to do better tomorrow…”  I suppose I went to sleep every night feeling like I had a lot of ground to make up the next day.

But this is a new picture of Jesus.  Jesus wasn’t angry when he said this.  He wasn’t judging them either.  He was simply acknowledging the fact that he knew they were going to screw up.  He knew they would fail.  And he didn’t follow it up with “so you’re just going to have to try harder because until you’ve proven to me that you can make it through a whole day without sinning you are on your own.”  No.  That’s not what He said at all.  HE said “I have told you these things, so that you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”  And then – to drive His point home – He followed through with the crucifixion and resurrection – and…He overcame the world.

How is it that as believers we can at times doubt Him, try to hide from Him and even deny Him?  Why do we argue amongst ourselves about who He likes more and who has the better plan?  These things drive me crazy – especially when I’m taking part in them.  I often feel like Jesus is shaking His head in disappointment at His Church.  But He expected this didn’t He?  He knew we would fail.  And as early as the book of Acts it starts to happen and continues to this day.  I love what the footnote to this verse says in my Bible.  It says “Jesus knew His Church is not built on people’s strength but on God’s ability to use people even after they have failed.”

I’ve taught classes on grace but somehow I still don’t fully comprehend it myself.  I believe that the Church needs to do better.  We need to love each other more and extend grace to one another in the same way it’s been lavished on us.  We need to know when to agree to disagree and move forward.  We need to look to  the needs of others we are serving and become less consumed with our own.  And when we fail – like we are sure to do – we need to remember that the Church is not built on our strength, but rather on God’s ability to use failures such as we are.  God doesn’t like to see us fail – but He isn’t surprised by it either.  He loves to use the weak to lead the strong.  He loves to display His glory through the most unworthy.  Maybe it’s time for the Church to stop arguing about who’s right and to instead accept the fact that none of us totally are.  Instead of bickering over which of us caused our problems – maybe it’s time to start allowing God to work through them.

In the very next chapter Jesus gives believers the responsibility of showing Him to the world – through our unity.  He promises to help us when He prays to God: “I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”  John 17:26

The love God has for Jesus is in us.  Jesus is in us.  Wow.  I pray that this will be the generation that begins to live within that reality and that because of God’s grace and love in and through us the world will know Him too.