Based on John 16:25-33 (King James Version)
“‘These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.’ His disciples said to Him, ‘See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.’ Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’”
Blaise Pascal once said: “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.” Maybe it is not clearly visible that this passage is mostly about the truth, but we will try to explain it so that we not only understand this, but also, so we can get to a deeper place within ourselves and with God. The Lord always speaks to us with the truth, and the truth is not always pleasant. The truth can be many times difficult, uncomfortable, frustrating, and even painful. It doesn’t necessarily happen that way because of the truth within itself, but rather, we always need to keep our primary enemy in mind: the sin that still dwells within our being. Sin is what makes the truth so difficult.
This is the first truth that we all need to keep very present. Satan is not our primary enemy (but be extremely careful with him). You might say, “How can that be?” We are going to dig even deeper so we can understand the issue. Our primary enemy is the sin that is still within us, and Satan only tries to manipulate and stir up that evil that is in us. That’s why we can understand that the Lord never sinned, because even though He was a man with our own flesh, by virtue that His Father is truly God, He did not have within His members the lusts of the flesh. That’s why no matter how much Satan tried to tempt Him; time, after time, after time (tirelessly), he was never able to get anywhere, because in the end, the Lord had His divinity as the substance that composed His flesh. That’s why it is not necessarily our flesh that makes us fall, and sin, and to look for our own self-destruction, but rather, the sin that dwells within our flesh. And that is what is at odds with God, and of course, at odds with the Truth of God. The Apostle Paul tried to explain this in the following manner: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:14-25. This is what explains what happens within us. That’s why when Satan tried to tempt the Lord, nothing would happen, even in the hardest and most difficult moments. But when Satan tempts us, that is another story, and that is what makes the Truth for us feel like it is so hard, and difficult, and painful.
Now then, whether the Lord used a figurative language or spoke clearly to them (as His disciples said in this passage), the Lord never lied to them. He always told them things just as they were. And what was difficult with His declarations was that when they would experience just a glimmer of tranquility, the Lord would reveal something hard and difficult, like what He declared here, that they were going to be scattered, that they were going to abandon Him, and that they were going to endure tribulation in this world. These truths must have not felt very pleasing at the moment. But rather, quite the contrary, because it was very clear that the disciples were hoping for their problems here to be resolved, because they were hoping for the Messiah to establish His reign here on earth. The practical reason (per se) for why they abandoned the Lord in His worst moment was not necessarily because they didn’t appreciate Him, but rather, because they found themselves somewhere completely unknown, somewhere entirely opposite to what they hoped for, no matter how much He had warned them. The unknown and uncertainty was what made them flee, because this went completely against their desires, because it went against the sin that still dwelt within them. And we should not be astonished at this, because I am very sure that each one of us would have fled as well if we were present with Him. We just think differently now because we have complete knowledge over the issue. But even knowing what we know now, we still don’t do what we are supposed to, even in situations that are far less complex than what the disciples faced during the moment of His arrest. We get confused and frustrated with things that are far simpler. So, by our own selves, we are far less than those great men and women that followed the Lord, despite their moment of weakness and frailty.
So then, where does what Pascal said come into play? The Truth and Faith go hand-in-hand. Faith is what makes possible the search for Truth, the desire to want to believe that there is something more than the lies that surround us, the subtleties of deceit, and the superficiality of vanity. Faith is what helps us triumph over the sin that still dwells within us, because you want to follow more what your soul is longing for, something greater than this temporal and superficial world. And this is the mystery behind what Pascal said and what we are trying to explain today: that our faith depends on how much we want to believe, and how much we desire the truth. Faith is what takes us beyond the fear of being scattered, of going through trials, and suffering persecution, even enduring enmity with our loved ones, and suffering tribulation. Because faith is what tells us to: “Keep moving forward because there is something far superior waiting for you that is more worthwhile than what you are going through now, or that you will endure in the near future”. This is the truth that the Lord told us: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32.
And so, we should ask ourselves, especially after some self-examination: “Do I have enough faith in the Lord to be able to desire His Truth, no matter the cost, or what may happen? Do I truly desire for the Truth to set me free? Lord bless! John