Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
John 13:37-14:1
Do you ever feel like everything is going wrong at once? Do you ever feel like everything you thought you had nailed down is flying loose? There can be times in all of our lives when it feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us. It must have felt like such a time for Jesus’ disciples in today’s scripture. Jesus has just announced that He was leaving them. On top of that, He says that one of them will betray Him, and that Peter the Rock will crumble by morning. But it is to such a beleaguered bunch, in such a mess, that Jesus pronounces some of the Bible’s most beloved and beloved words: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
Due to an unfortunate, poorly placed chapter division in our Bibles — added in the 16th century — we often do not connect the human catastrophe with Jesus’ reassuring words. So, reading past the chapter division, note in today’s scripture that Jesus goes immediately from announcing His departure, Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial, to speaking calming reassurance to confused and fearful men: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”
Jesus says, in other words, “Keep your focus on me, not on yourselves! Do not let any of these things trouble you! You keep believing in God and in me! Or, as The Message nicely translates Jesus’ words: “Don’t let this throw you. You trust God don’t you? Trust me.”
I like this: “Don’t let this throw you.” Perhaps you are troubled by what you see happening in our country. Perhaps like Peter, you have let down our Lord. Or, perhaps you have received bad news. Whatever it is that is troubling you today, Jesus says: “Don’t let it throw you. There is no reason to be afraid. Put your trust in me today. I’ve got this!”
A fellow traveler,
Tim
