Let not your heart be troubled
Easter, or Resurrection Sunday is the most important day so far in His Story. When Jesus was sharing with His disciples before His crucifixion, He pulled no punches. When Peter vowed, “I will lay down my life for You,” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times.”
Chapter 13 of John’s gospel ends there, but Jesus continued, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Today’s “news” has made so many of us so weary for so long. We want to do something about things, and we try to do things to help, but many times we fail just like Peter did. The news these days is not much different from Jesus’ warning Peter about his own failure. But then Jesus comforted Peter with “Let not your heart be troubled….” If we don’t want our own hearts to be troubled, we need to look somewhere besides today’s news.
Jesus comforted His disciples mere hours before suffering and dying. His death crushed all hopes He would conquer the world as Messiah. From the trials that night to the third day, could any of His disciples remember Jesus’ words of comfort? Not likely. What good news? It’s all over.
Sometimes when things can’t get any worse for us, they do. Then what? Do we remember any words of comfort? Jesus’ words of comfort pertained to new dwellings in the Father’s house, not to any answers here and now.
During the next 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and many others offering them comfort in their time remaining on earth. Yet, the disciples still slid a bit back into lives and habits ingrained in them well before Jesus called them to follow Him.
Our lives are not that much if any different from the disciples’ lives before the days of Pentecost. We tend to fall back into old habits and worries, forgetting about future promises. The daily news continues to be bad and many of us fall back into lives of quiet desperation.
Fifty days after that darkest of days, the Father sent His Spirit to indwell those who had believed Jesus, and God’s power sparked new energy into lives that would never end. These believers trusted Jesus and lived far above all the bad news this world could muster. The world we live in hates us because it hated Jesus and crucified Him. There is no love or comfort in this world for believers except that supplied by the Spirit inside each of us even in the midst of the worst that could happen here.
The news will continue to grow worse every day and will multiply misery among those who have no hope for the future. Those who believe will confidently hope in Jesus our Savior, and we will not let our hearts be troubled because we believe in God. Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!