In John 16:33, Jesus tells His followers that “in this world” they will have troubles or afflictions, but not to worry: He, Jesus, has “overcome the world”. Which I take to mean that whatever trouble you face as a Christ-follower can be easily overcome by the Lord, depending on how He weighs the relative advantages of your ongoing chastisement or your immediate succor.
Now earlier, in Luke 8:7-14, Jesus had told “the parable of the sower”, in which He had made the point that some of His followers were going to fail to mature as Christians, because they would become entangled in a host of troubles (as well as “pleasures and riches”). The questions that arise in my mind, when laying these passages alongside one another, are these:
- Does the fact that the Christians in the parable merely “fail to mature” mean they nevertheless go on to glorification, having never lost their salvation? Or are they the trees that never produced fruit, and are thus cut down and thrown into the fire?
- The Christians who become painfully emmeshed in the thorns of life’s afflictions, as in the parable – are they not to worry, because Christ has overcome the world? Or are they to worry that they may not mature as Christians are intended to? And can they do both simultaneously?
The Apostle Paul is of little help to us on this very specific set of questions, when he tells the Corinthians, in his second letter to them, that God the Father “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” I say this is of little help because the troubles he’s referring to are “the sufferings of Christ” – that is, those sufferings we incur as penalties for being followers of Jesus. Paul says that “if we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation”. Again, he is not making mention of worldly troubles like those “thorns” Christ refers to in the parable; he’s talking specifically of pains incurred while laying himself out for others.
It’s altogether possible, certainly, that Jesus may have had self-sacrificial labors and worries for others (loved ones in particular) in mind when He spoke of those caught in the thorns of life. And Paul does use the phrases “all our troubles” and “any trouble”, even though he’s probably thinking of afflictions more suited to his immediate circumstances. Or is he?
Still, the questions I asked above remain, and remain vexed. Jesus can indeed overcome any trouble we may encounter in this world. But to what extent will He allow those thorns to grow up around us, like the briars and brambles that grow up and surround Sleeping Beauty’s castle after she succumbs to the cursed spindle? To what degree will He watch us fail to mature, without overcoming our particular troubles with a helping hand? (I understand that the “thorn-people” in the parable may be saved individuals who simply under-utilize their talents, and escape damnation like one escaping a fire narrowly, with the smell of smoke still on them. See 1 Corinthians 3:15.)
One always has the recourse of believing – as we certainly should and must – that all will turn out exactly as it should, and all will be for the best. Such assurances, of course, can be extremely comforting when one is in Paul’s situation of suffering directly for Christ, and immediately for others. But for we who are merely trying to get through a commonplace day, while hurting from an embarrassing array of bodily ills and fractious family-members, the context is just a bit more plaguing. And a bit more puzzling.
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