³³ “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

One might be hard pressed to take Jesus seriously, in context of all that was happening: “I have overcome the world.” Right. From outward appearances, Jesus was huddled with His disciples in an Upper Room, speaking of His departure which, if the disciples hadn’t figured out by now, would come about by dying.

However, the disciples had witnessed great things where Jesus gave a foretaste of that “overcoming.” He routinely mastered the religious leaders with His responses and retorts to the many traps they laid for Him—with the Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes routinely exiting in what came to be their signature slinking-away move.

Jesus commanded the winds and waters, and they obeyed Him as their Master. He had command over every kind of sickness and disabilities, the only exception being where there was a concerted lack of faith. Demons trembled in His presence calling Him the “Son of the Most High God.”

Why leave, now that He has “overcome the world,” at the pinnacle of His mission? The answer is that though He has demonstrated mastery over the world, He has yet to finally overcome death and Satan. It may be true that Jesus is speaking with a prophetic sense of completeness which will take place at the cross and resurrection, when He finally overcomes the world. And it is true that Satan is as good as defeated. But, we believe that the term “world” does not include death (which is the exit from this world), which would be “swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15:54). Neither does it include Satan who is “now the ruler of this world” who “will be cast out” (John 12:31). These are yet to come.

Christ’s life on the earth was continually validating Him as the Sovereign of all that lives. He is Master over a broken world, He is Lord over sinners and He is the promised victory over the seed of the Serpent (Gen 3:15). From our perspective, on the one hand, we can see all this clearly, for God’s written revelation is now complete, unlike for the disciples who had not yet come into the full knowledge of these things. They simply had the word of Jesus, “I have overcome the world.”

Today, we can struggle with this concept, though, in view of the decaying morality of our present world and the suffering many experience. His “overcoming” the world must still be taken by faith. The victory is His, even when, from outward appearances, things look dire and out of control.

Lord, help me live knowing that You are in fact, in control!