By Mark Grace, CCCNZ Ambassador
Kua korerotia e ahau enei mea ki a koutou, kia whai marietanga ai koutou i roto i ahau. Ko ta koutou i te ao nei, he mamate: otira kia maia; kua taea e ahau te ao.
Ua ou fai atu nei mea ia te outou, ina ia outou maua le manuia ia te au; e maua foi outou e le puapuaga i le lalolagi, a ia outou loto tetele, ua ou manumalo i le lalolagi.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
Sin and death and evil are all around us.
A movie came out recently that told the story of Rudolf Höss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He lived with his wife Hedwig and their five children in an idyllic home, just on the other side of one of the camp walls. Höss often took the children out to swim and fish and Hedwig spent time tending the garden. Servants handled the chores and the prisoners' belongings were given to the family. Beyond the garden wall, gunshots, shouting and sounds of trains and furnaces would ring out occasionally.
I was watching an interview about the film, and the director Jonathan Glazer asked, “Are they us? Is there a darkness in all of us?”
Peter McBride said something striking at a 50th wedding anniversary recently. He remembered his father always saying, “Where two or three are gathered… there will be problems.” We are problematic.
These stories recognise the issue of the human condition. They show the reality of evil and the power of sin that lies at the heart of the world.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “Through my life, death and resurrection, I have overcome the world.”
In the disciples’ distress and disquiet, when Jesus wants to comfort and strengthen his disciples, he doesn’t encourage them to look at things through the world’s lenses.
He encourages the disciples to look at the world through the lens of his life, death, and resurrection.
When Jesus wants to strengthen the disciples in their despondency, he doesn’t focus their gaze primarily on what humans are doing in the world; he focuses their gaze on what he is doing to the world.
When Jesus wants to strengthen them in their desolation, he doesn’t challenge them to overcome the world. He comforts them by telling them he has already done it.
In all that we go through, we can see that Jesus has the upper hand because of his outstretched hands on the cross.
