Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:32-33
Just a few hours before it happened, Jesus informed the disciples that they would be scattered and flee to avoid being arrested. He further told them that in the days that would follow there would be trouble and trials and tribulation.
On the surface, Jesus’ warning seems to be a depressing message—a warning that everything we do in following Jesus will not be painless. We are not being carried to the skies on “flowery beds of ease” as Isaac Watts put it. But Jesus didn’t end there. He continued to promise the disciples, and us, that He has already triumphed, and it is His strength rather than our own in which we follow and serve Him.
In her 1871 hymn “The Master Has Come” Sarah Doudney wrote:
The Master has called us; the road may be dreary,
And dangers and sorrows are strewn on the track;
But God’s Holy Spirit shall comfort the weary;
We follow the Savior and cannot turn back;The Master has called us: though doubt and temptation
May compass our journey, we cheerfully sing:
“Press onward, look upward,” thru much tribulation;
The children of Zion must follow their King.
The appearance of opposition, hardship, and even persecution is not evidence that things are out of control, but that the promise Jesus made has been fulfilled. And from the actions of the disciples on that evening we can draw another lesson: We should not allow anything to separate us from God, but instead stay as close to Him as we can.
