John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Four questions: What are the tribulations implied here? What does it mean that Jesus has overcome the world? How has He done it? And how does His overcoming of the world fuel our hope and peace in the face of promised tribulations?
Tribulations
The “world” here seems to be short hand for something like, “the fallen system of things” or “broken creation and its broken creatures.” The tribulations that are included in Jesus’ words would be any and all sufferings that we experience as His people. Persecution, unfair treatment, ridicule, to be sure….but also cancer, failing bodies, the rending of a loved one’s loss, imploding families, morrow-deep heart ache, etc. etc….all the “tribulations” of this fallen world are included in this verse.
Overcoming
What Does it Mean?
So, what does it mean that Jesus has overcome the world? Essentially, it means that Jesus has defeated, conquered, overpowered, or mastered the world. The world–and all of its tribulations–have been stripped of final power and left as a conquered enemy at the hand of the Lord Jesus. He has overcome The world.
A further implication of His words is that He has not just overcome part of the world or most of the world, but all of the world. There is nothing left in the fallen universe’s arsenal, as it were, that has not be exhausted and conquered by Jesus.
How Was it Done?
Now, the crucial thing to see is HOW Christ has done this overcoming. When we think of overcoming an enemy, we might envision a display of raw power, something like an overwhelming victory in an arm wrestling competition….but that is now how Jesus overcomes the world. How then does He overcome? Revelation 5:5-9 explains that the Conquering Lion of Judah has overcome the world as the Slain and Risen Lamb of God.
Jesus overcomes the world by offering Himself up to every tribulation, every hardship, every calamity that the world can inflict. On the cross our Lord and God truly bears the equivalence of every suffering–mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual–that can be experienced….both in this world and in the next.
And remember that Jesus does not bear this desolation in Himself as one who is in gracious fellowship with God….No, He bears it as one who has bcome sin (2 Cor.5:21), He bears it as an enemy of God, He bears the fullness of the world’s tribulations as a man of the world condemned under the holy anger of God. The God man is lifted up on the cross and the venom of the ancient Serpent is spent to the last drop into His veins…..nothing is left for the world, sin, or the devil to do, they are utterly spent in Calvary’s holocaust.
But then–gloriously–He rises again. And this is how He overcomes….He has exhausted every tribulation the world can give and–since He bore them as a sinner–He has exhausted divine wrath for those who will trust in Him. And now, having denied suffering, sorrow and sin any possibility of a final victory, He turns to us and says, “take heart; I have overcome…”
Hope
And so, lastly, how does the overcoming of Christ translate into our hope in the midst of tribulation? Of course, there are many answers that could be given, and I try to explore a facet of this question in almost every picture I create, but today I’ll mention just one. One way the overcoming of Christ gives us hope in the midst of our tribulations is by showing us the narrative structure of suffering for the people of God.
In Jesus we have seen the worst evil, horror, tragedy, agony imaginable (the crucifixion of God) turned–by the illumination of the resurrection–into the wellspring of all joy, hope, glory and love for the Christian. I am not saying that the suffering of the cross was followed by so great a joy at the resurrection that the joy eclipsed the suffering, rather I am saying that the illumination of the resurrection causes the cross itself, the horror itself, the suffering itself to become a glory, a beauty, and a source of devotion and worship to the Lord…..
And upon His resurrection, it is as if Jesus plucks the fruit of His Passion–the fruit that shows His cross turned to beauty in the light of His resurrection–it is as if Jesus plucks this fruit and hands it to His Bride who still stands in the midst of temporal tribulation and says, “I will do the same to all of your sorrows, beloved.” And He will….partially in this life, perfectly at the Final Resurrection
And though we–like the disciples on Holy Saturday–cannot say exactly how our tribulations–our personal Good Friday’s–will be turned to our good and God’s glory….we can look to the cross, to the First fruit of our Lord’s world-overcoming work and say with blood-bought assurance, “Resurrection Day is coming, and my sorrows will turn into joy.”….and this, Jesus says, ought to cause us to take heart.
