Ever since the Fall (Gen.3), this world has had ‘tribulation’ written all over it. When Amy Carmichael was included in the Royal Birthday Honours List, she was horrified, and wondered what she had done wrong: ‘It troubles me to have an experience so different from His Who was despised and rejected, not kindly honoured.’ We do not naturally think like that.

In the rough and tumble world of rugby league, one of the most unpleasant, and at times dangerous, things can occur when a player is ‘blindsided’. This happens when a player has just passed or kicked the ball, and there is a momentary relaxation of his body, and he is unaware of a tackler who is often to the side of him or behind him. There is no ‘brace position’, and the impact of the tackler is far more pronounced than it normally would be. Football can sometimes illustrate spiritual truths.

So, the Litany of the Book of Common Prayer contains a prayer which pleads for deliverance from ‘sudden death’. On the night before His crucifixion, Christ told His disciples of what would take place. It would have been rather bewildering: one of the Twelve would betray Him; another would deny Him three times; Christ would go away; the Holy Spirit would come; the world would hate Christians; but ultimately the sorrow of the disciples would be turned to joy. Jesus tells them these things that they would not be ‘blindsided’ nor even simply know the brace position, but rather have peace.

Before the High Priestly prayer of John 17, Jesus comforts the eleven who are left with Him: ‘I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

In the world there is tribulation

Jesus is not just referring to the events that would unfold the next day – the injustice of the trials, the vicious mob, the cowardly governor, the mocking soldiers, the pain, and the unprecedented sense of being forsaken even by His Father in heaven. He is also laying down a general truth for all time, regarding the nature of the world.

The world is not realistic about itself, but the Lord is realistic about the world. This is a fallen, sinful, hostile and rebellious world. There are wonderful marks of its original goodness, both in nature and in humanity, but there is much tribulation. Near the end of his first missionary journey, the apostle Paul warned new believers at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in Pisidia, and, in a strange way, encouraged them, by saying that ‘through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God’ (Acts 14:22). He knew what he was talking about. As a Christian and as an apostle, he worked hard, was imprisoned many times and beaten, was once stoned and left for dead, shipwrecked three times, and faced dangers everywhere including from false brothers (2 Cor.11:22-33).

If your most compelling goal in life is health, wealth, and a good time – a long life of ease and comfort – Christianity is not for you. We yearn for the quiet life, but tribulation is never far away.

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