MY PEACE!

"Peace, I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, not let it be fearful" (John 14:27).

We, humans, perceive peace as the absence of conflict, chaos and disorder.  Jesus presents peace as the presence of harmony, wholeness and order.  Biblical peace is not the absence of negative emotions. Christ's peace is the presence of personal convictions leading to a sense of well-being. Peace (ειρηνη) reflects the Old Testament teaching of "shalom." Biblical peace is an assurance of order in the midst of disorder, wholeness in the midst of chaos, and well-being in the midst of conflict because we know all matters are in our Father's hands.

Jesus leaves us peace and gives us His peace. The two verbs help us understand the peace we have in life.  First, Jesus leaves (αφιημι) peace to us. The word is often translated "forgive" or "pardon" and can even mean "divorce" in the sense of sending someone away. Here, however, Jesus uses the word in its most common sense of leaving behind something in the manner of a bequest to a loved one. The same word was used in John 14:18 where Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans."  The bequest of Jesus is peace not abandonment. Jesus leaves behind a sense of inner wholeness and order despite outer chaos and conflict.

Second, Jesus gives (διδωμι) us His peace.  Peace is a gift or a bestowal in the midst of our personal experiences.  Jesus leaves us with a sense of order in life because He is in control, but He also gives us a sense of well-being that we can experience in the middle of our circumstances. We will be alright in the end because He controls the end!  Three times He uses the verb to give (διδωμι). Jesus tells us "I, myself (εγω), give you My (εμην) peace. Wholeness in the midst of chaos, order in the midst of disorder, and harmony in the midst of conflict are His personal gifts to us. His peace is not like the peace of this world. The peace of the world is dependent on circumstances - actually, the absence of bad circumstances. The peace Jesus gives is our inner wholeness to transcend our circumstances.

Life is filled with troubles and fears, but we don't have to succumb to either troubles or fears. The verb "to be troubled" (ταραςςω) means to be stirred up, unsettled or thrown into confusion (cf. John 14:1), but we don't have to be unsettled or stirred up because our trust is in Jesus.  The verb for "fearful" (δειλιατω) means to be cowardly or timid.  Jesus commands us not to be confused or cowardly because He gives us inner assurance that everything is under His control.

We can face any situation with His peace.

FULL DISCLOSURE

How can we know Jesus?  We can know Jesus only to the extent that He discloses Himself to us just like in any intimate relationship. Intimacy requires self-disclosure, and self-disclosure only takes place in the context of a committed and trustworthy love.  Apart from a commitment to love, there will be limited self-disclosure, so the depth of a friendship depends on love's commitment.

"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him" (John 14:21).

Obedience to Jesus is the evidence of our love for Jesus.  It is not enough to have (εχων) His commands. We must keep (τηρων) them. The "having" and the "keeping" are ongoing actions that prove an ongoing love (αγαπων). My friendship with Jesus does not depend on what others think about me or how successful I am in ministry. My identity does not come from my ministry.  My identity comes from my identification with Him. The level of intimacy I enjoy with Jesus depends on my obedience to Him as the proof of my love for Him.

Jesus promises to disclose Himself to those who love Him as demonstrated by our obedience to Him. The word "disclose" (εμφανισω) is in the future tense. Jesus promised to disclose Himself to the disciples in a way that He had not yet disclosed Himself to them although serving together for the past three years on earth. The word means to "reveal" and emphasizes a self-revealing or self-disclosure. It was a word used in the Greek translation of Exodus 33:13 in the context of a theophony - a self-revelation of God. Jesus promised full disclosure of Himself but only to those who love Him.

Jude was shocked (John 14:22). He expected a visible and public revelation of Jesus as God. He could not grasp a self-disclosure that was personal, private and intimate. How could Jesus reveal Himself to those who loved and obeyed Him in a way that He did not reveal Himself to the world? Isn't full messianic disclosure public?  This was Jude's expectation. He did not grasp the point Jesus was making about the intimacy of true friendship and the self-disclosure that takes place between friends.

The self-disclosure Jesus promised was a spiritual, personal and private illumination in the heart of a true disciple. Jesus said, "I will disclose Myself to HIM." The word was used figuratively in the Jewish wisdom literature of something that took place in the soul of a person (BAGD, p.257; Bernard, John, p.550). Jesus promised to disclose Himself to those who love Him in the intimacy of a personal friendship. This is the language of the Spirit with our spirits (John 14:26; 16:14-15). It is relational language.  The greater our love for Jesus, the more He discloses Himself to us and the deeper our friendship grows.

LIFE IN LIFE

Jesus promised His disciples that He would not abandon them as orphans but would come back to them after the resurrection (John 14:18-19; 16:16-22). "In that day" (εν εκεινη τη ημερα) after the resurrection they would experience a mutual indwelling with the triune God (John 14:20). Jesus must be referring to the period of time from the resurrection to the ascension. He has just promised them the indwelling of the Spirit (John 14:17), and, after the resurrection, Jesus breathed the Spirit on them (John 20:20-23) as a temporary infilling until the Day of Pentecost following His ascension to heaven.

Our deepest intimacy with God comes from this mutual indwelling. Jesus said, "In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in ME, and I in you" (John 14:20). The triple repetition of the preposition "in" (εν) indicates "the space within which something is found" (BAGD, p. 258).  Jesus is in the Father. This is the foundational indwelling for our benefit.  We are in Jesus, and Jesus is in us. The Son and the Spirit are in us who are in the Son who is in the Father. It is a position of amazing security like our most precious documents placed inside a fire box that is, in turn, placed inside a bank vault!

It is also a position of deepest, life-giving, life-sustaining intimacy. Jesus is in us, and we are in Jesus like a fish is in water, and water is the fish; or like a bird is in the air, and the air is in the bird (Johnson, private notes). This total and mutual immersion of life in life forms a spiritual connection deeper than the most intimate human bond can ever hope to achieve.

Here, in this verse, we find the basis for the extended metaphor of the "Vine and Branches" (John 15). Jesus explains our deep connection with Him in the analogy of the vine and branches.  A cleft graft uniting a fruit-bearing shoot with the stock of a vine is literally a linkage of life inside life. The stock is split, and the branch is sliced so that the branch fits deep into - and matches up with - the stock. The life of the stock flows into the branch.

We are in Jesus, and Jesus is in us - life in life. His life flows in us who are living in Him.