From being called a Nazarene (Mt 2:23) to being the cornerstone that was rejected by the builders (Mk 12:10-11) and riding on a donkey (Mt 21), the Gospels are filled with accounts of the fulfillment of prophecies so that the people would know and recognize that Jesus was the Messiah. But the promise and prophecy that Jesus gives us this week is something very different. He tells the disciples that He will be leaving to go to the Father; in His place He would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, so that they would receive His Peace; that He would return and they would see His Kingdom in the fullness. All of these things He concludes by saying “I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”
Several years ago I had decided to leave Columbia, MO and move to North Carolina where I knew a couple of friends. I packed up everything I could in and on my 2-door Nissan Sentra, tying things down so well that after my first departure, I had to return after only a few miles because the bottom of the car was hitting the road. After I had removed enough weight and finally gotten on the road, everything went smoothly, until I was in the middle of nowhere in South Carolina. Then, I heard a loud thunk from the engine, looked in the rear view mirror, and saw chunks of metal bouncing, trailing behind the car, as it coasted to a stop. There it was. I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with everything I owned strapped to a car with a blown engine.
This was not the greatest catastrophe in my life, nor the darkest hour, but it was certainly a moment when everything I had planned, and thought God had planned for me hit a brick wall. We have all had these times when it looks and feels like God has left us and abandoned us alongside the road. When, just as quickly as my car came to a stop, we go from full faith at 60 mph, that we are on God’s Mission and nothing can stop us, to crashing into a wall that came from nowhere, or the rug pulled out from under us; darkness, confusion and uncertainty threaten to settle in. Sometimes, our visions of God’s plan for us blows up.
This is the reason for the prophecy that Jesus gives the disciples. He tells them, and us, that we will hit times when things do go the way we think they are going to go. There will be times of hardship and apparent failure. But God has it in hand. He tells us that the road is going to get rough so that when it happens, we might continue to believe in the promises of the Kingdom. This is not a belief that the troubles come from God, or that He is the cause. But belief in the Kingdom that is coming in its fullness; belief that He will return, even as the night grows late; belief that He will send the Advocate; and belief in His Word.