Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have confident trust in God; have confident trust also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms for eternal and secure rest;[1] if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3
Note: Jesus tells Peter that Peter is about to exhibit massive failure in discipleship. Unthinkable betrayal of his rabbi. Jesus follows that up with words of hope and peace, not rebuke or scorn. He still loves Peter. Peter is still a child of God. God’s love, as expressed through Jesus, did not waver. Peter remained a loved child of God in the midst of his greatest failure.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. [2] And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.[3]
Note: most commentaries suggest that this discussion of “works” was a prediction about the spread of the Gospel – the introduction of Jesus and the establishment of the church - which was the work of the Father that Jesus started and we continue.
“If you love me, you will obey (keep and guard) my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you throughout the age — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.[4]I will not abandon you as orphans,[5] I will come to you. In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.
The person who has my commandments and observes and watches over them is the one who agapes me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”
“Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot)[6] said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will keep and watch over my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. #holyspirit
The person who does not love me does not keep and watch over my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. I have spoken these things while staying with you. But the Comforting Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.
“Peace (wholeness; harmony; well being) I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage…
I will not speak with you much longer, for the archon[7] of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.“
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What kind of peace does the world give? I think this is a reference to the Pax Romana, the ‘peace by the sword’ for which the Romans were so famous.
· Peace happened at the other end of power flexes, coercion, violence, war, and subjugation. Peace meant the powerful had gotten their way, usually at the expense of the powerless.
· Peace was fickle and elusive. It was bloody to find and easy to lose. I suspect Jesus was reflecting on the Zealots’ wars when he wept over a city saying, “peace, peace” when there was none, and there would be none with the methods they were using.
· That kind of peace is paranoid (think of Herod ordering the killing of the babies to try to get the “King of the Jews.”) There is always the risk that someone will break that peace – and they did. You start to keep an increasingly paranoid eye out for disruptors.
· That kind of peace is contingent on so many factors. Natural disasters; war; political infighting; economic hardship…
The peace that Jesus offers is a reconciliation with a loving God from which nothing can separate us.
· The battle for it is over, and none of us were trampled or subjugated. Satan, sin, death, hell and the grave were subjugated. God Himself battled on our behalf, offering Himself to save us.
· This peace is confident, because God bought it and keeps it on our behalf. We don’t have to worry about it wavering or disappearing. “What can separate us from the love of God?” asked Paul. Nothing.
· This peace is not at the mercy of outside elements taking it away. It is established by God, maintained by God, protected by God. His love never fails. His peace endures forever.
· This peace is not contingent on anything around us, or any work we can do. It’s offered with grace, enacted “while we were yet sinners,” and offered to all.
I think we find it easy to search for contingent peace. If I were in a country where Christians are being killed, or where there is a physical war, I would focus on different things. The way it is, I will focus on common challenges in the United States. We are so used to seeing it happen in that way all around us.
· Health – If I stay fit, I will be happy.
· Beauty – If I can look young, or dress nicely, I will be content.
· Productivity – If I can accomplish just a little more, I can relax.
· Organization – If I can manage things just right, nothing will go wrong.
· Knowledge – If I read and study enough, I will understand life.
· Money – If I didn’t have to worry about the next bill, I would be okay.
· Relationships – If I had the right people around me, I would never be unhappy. Or if I could just have the sex life I want, I would be at peace.
· Reputation – If I can get other people to always view me well, then I’d be okay.
· Value – Maybe if I’m indispensible, I will feel that elusive sense of worth.
If I seek my peace this way, I suspect I will fluctuate between two extremes: Fear (What is everyone thinking? What if I lose this? Who will I be if I don’t have this? Am I good enough?) or Worship (“Ah. This thing can save me…make me happy…bring me peace. I want more…. I can sacrifice more. I NEED THIS”).
And when that happens, we practice our own Pax Romana (peace by the sword).
· Peace happens at the other end of our power flexes, our coercion, our trampling on others to get that think we so desperately think will bring us peace.
· When we do feel peaceful, it will be fickle and elusive. It was so hard to get and so easy to lose. One wrong word; one bad day; just one thing….
· We can get paranoid about all the things that will interfere with our costly and fickle peace, and suddenly everybody and everything is a source of worry, because they could undermine us yet again….
· That kind of peace is contingent on so many factors, many of them out of our control.
The way the world would have us pursue peace asks us to believe that the world is the source of our peace and peace is ours for the taking if we are just smart enough, or rich enough, or strong enougn – and that’s just not the way it works. “Not as the world gives,” said Jesus, if we are looking for peace.
When the angels came and announced that peace had arrived on earth, it was not because Herod was dethroned, or the Jewish people agreed on who the King of the Jews really was, or because schools were exempt from tragedy, or because there would be no more hurricanes, or political differences dissolved, or because cancer was gone. The circumstances didn’t look any different, but the implications for what was going to happen inside of people was significant.
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you,” in the middle of the most tumultuous and violent events of his life. Judas was hatching a plot to betray him. The crowds were in an uproar. The chief priests, Sadducees, and Pharisees were disturbed, fearful, hatching their own plots to rid themselves of this menace to their power and position. Even the Romans could feel the atmosphere of tension in the city. Yet in the midst of all this, Jesus talks about peace.
The Jewish people were expecting political, religious and financial peace – the common external markers. But that was their definition. It was contingent; hard to fight for (!); easy to lose. No wonder they were disillusioned and disappointed time and again.
Skip ahead about 70 years after the birth of Christ. Paul was writing letters to the start-up churches helping them to better understand the true message of the gospel. When he wrote to the church in Ephesus, he was writing to a largely Gentile audience. They were having trouble forming a church community with the Jewish converts. Paul lets them know that God has broken down the divide between God’s “chosen” people and the “unchosen” Gentiles. Here we see a specific explanation of peace:
“Remember that at that time you (Gentiles) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace…. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.“ (Ephesians 2:12-17)
Paul was jailed, beaten, shipwrecked, chased; people tried to kill him; he had his infamous ‘thorn in the flesh’ that God refused to take away so that Paul would understand God’s grace was sufficient. Yet Paul clearly believed he was one who had experienced the peace that Jesus brought.
What is this peace? Reconciliation with God through Christ, empowered by His Spirit. Peace begins in us, not around us when we are in right relationship with Christ.
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* “New Testament The Greek word eirene corresponds to the Hebrew shalom expressing the idea of peace, well-being, restoration, reconciliation with God, and salvation in the fullest sense. God is “the God of peace” ( Romans 15:33 ; Philippians 4:9 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ;Hebrews 13:20 ). The Gospel is “the good news of peace” (Ephesians 6:15 ; Acts 10:36 ) because it announces the reconciliation of believers to God and to one another (Ephesians 2:12-18 ). God has made this peace a reality in Jesus Christ, who is “our peace.” We are justified through Him (Romans 5:1 ), reconciled through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20 ), and made one in Him (Ephesians 2:14 ). In Him we discover that ultimate peace which only God can give (John 14:27 ).
This peace is experienced as an inner spiritual peace by the individual believer (Philippians 4:7 ; Colossians 3:15 ; Romans 15:13 ). It is associated with receptiveness to God's salvation (Matthew 10:13 ), freedom from distress and fear (John 14:27 ; John 16:33 ), security (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 ), mercy (Galatians 6:16 ; 1 Timothy 1:2 ), joy (Romans 14:17 ; Romans 15:13 ), grace (Philippians 1:2 ; Revelation 1:4 ), love (2 Corinthians 13:11 ;Jude 1:2 ), life (Romans 8:6 ), and righteousness (Romans 14:17 ; Hebrews 12:11 ; James 3:18 ).
Such peace is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22 ) that forms part of the “whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11,Ephesians 6:11,6:13 ), enabling the Christian to withstand the attacks of the forces of evil. Thus, the New Testament gives more attention to the understanding of spiritual peace as an inner experience of the individual believer than does the Old Testament. In both the Old and the New Testament, spiritual peace is realized in being rightly related—rightly related to God and rightly related to one another.” (From the Holman Bible Dictionary. “Peace, Spiritual.” www.studylight.org)
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[1] “Our Lord alludes here to the temple, which was called the house of God, in the precincts of which there were a great number of chambers, 1 Kings 6:5; Ezra 8:29; Jeremiah 35:2; Jeremiah 35:4; Jeremiah 36:10.” (Adam Clarke)
[2] “A measuring of miracles of this kind by their magnitude is throughout foreign to the N. T. Rather in μείζονα τούτων… its predominant signification is…world-subduing apostolic activity generally, produced by the Holy Spirit (John 16:18) in the diffusion of the gospel, with its light and life, amongst all peoples…” (Meyer’s New Testament Commentary) “The explanation of these greater works is…in the whole work of the Church. The Day of Pentecost witnessed the first fulfilment of this prophecy; but it has been fulfilled also in every great moral and spiritual victory. Every revival of a truly religious spirit has been an instance of it; every mission-field has been a witness to it.” (Ellicott’s Commentary For English Readers) “These ‘greater works’ refer rather to the results of Pentecost… (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)
[3] “The name of a person can only be used when we seek to enforce his will and further his interests... Successful prayer must be for the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom.” (Expositor’s Greek Testament) “ ‘In My name’… means praying and working as Christ’s representatives in the same spirit in which Christ prayed and worked…”(Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges) “Praying in the name of Christ" means to pray as directed (authorized) by Him, bringing revelation that flows out of being in His presence. {It} is not a "religious formula" just to end prayers (or get what we want)!” (HELPS Word Studies)
[4] “In Scripture, God’s Spirit sometimes filled his agents (e.g., Ex 31:3; 35:31; Dt 34:9; Mic 3:8), was often upon them (Nu 11:17,25 – 26; 24:2; Jdg 3:10; Eze 11:5), and was sometimes said to be in them (Nu 27:18; cf. Ge 41:38). In the promised time of restoration, however, God would pour his Spirit on all his people (Joel 2:28).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)
[5] “Ancient writers sometimes used “orphan” to refer to those bereaved of others besides a father (in this case, their special teacher).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)
[6] “The name "Ioudas" in the New Testament refers to several individuals, most notably Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, and Judas (not Iscariot), another disciple. It is also used for Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, and for Jude, the brother of Jesus and author of the Epistle of Jude.” (Strong’s Lexicon)
[7] This word means, broadly speaking, a ruler or leader. A few commentaries apply this to Satan; the majority see it as a reference to either the head of the Sanhedrin sending his mercs to the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, or to Roman authority.