Rescue Thanksgiving in Just Four Words

Ruin Thanksgiving in just four words.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed somewhat of an online Thanksgiving tradition – to think up a four-word phrase that would ruin even the best Thanksgiving dinner. For example:

There’s no pumpkin pie.

We forgot the stuffing.

What’s that awful smell?

Who invited your ex?

We’re out of gravy.

We’re out of butter.

I lost a fingernail.

I found a fingernail.

The oven isn’t working.

The oven is smoking!

The turkey is frozen.

The turkey just exploded!

Can you microwave turkey?

Where’s the Pepto Bismol?

Those are just some of the four-word phrases I found online. I’ll let you be the judge of whether those four-word-phrases and what they describe would ruin Thanksgiving for you. But what if these were the four-word phrases you heard at the dinner table?

I’m about to die.

Tonight, I’ll be betrayed.

Tonight, you’ll abandon me.

Tonight, I’ll be arrested.

I will be slandered.

I will be flogged.

I will be condemned.

I will be crucified.

That hour has come.

“You Will Have Trouble…”

The disciples didn’t have to imagine what phrases like that would do to the ambiance at a dinner-party; because Jesus said all of those while they were celebrating the Passover meal. And if the disciples weren’t already tense or troubled, Jesus starts dropping new prophetic details about what was imminently about to go down.

Jesus tells them that one of them would betray him. He tells them they would all desert him and disown him. He tells them he would be “delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified…”.

You think an undercooked turkey is cause for emotional crisis? How would you be feeling if your teacher, your leader, your best friend told you he was about to die? How would you feel if the person you hoped would be the Savior of the world tells you he would soon be seized and murdered as a blasphemer and an enemy of the state?

But the disciples were tense even before the dinner began. The disciples knew the religious leaders had it out for Jesus. They knew going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover was dangerous, so dangerous that Jesus could possibly die and the disciples die with him.

But Jesus never talked about his death as merely an ‘occupational hazard’. He never spoke about his death in terms of a possibility – or even a probability.

No, Jesus spoke of his death as an inevitability.

And not just that he would die – but that he deliberately came to die. His death was by divine purpose.

In a little while, Jesus would accomplish his divine mission.

In a little while, God the Son would return to God the Father. Jesus was nearing the finish line – but the race Jesus was running on the world’s behalf ran right through Calvary.

In a little while [his disciples would] see [him] no more…

Talk about some heavy subject matter to share at a dinner table! Jesus shared this to brace his disciples for what was about to happen. The next several hours would be absolutely traumatic – an emotional rollercoaster of anxiety, grief, and guilt.

And Jesus doesn’t just forecast the next 72 hours. Jesus forecasts years beyond that.

The disciples would be dragged before kings and cast out of social circles. The world’s joy would often coincide with their suffering. Just as the world hated Jesus, the world would hate his disciples. And Jesus doesn’t speak of that in terms of possibility or probability, either. He speaks of the world hating his disciples as an inevitability. Jesus summarizes that inevitability in four words: “You will have trouble.”

We Will Have Trouble

But Jesus isn’t just foreshadowing their future in those four words. He’s foreshadowing your future, too. As Christians, the joy you and I have in Jesus will inevitably put us at odds with the world today. After all, we follow a crucified God. Jesus is bracing us for the inevitable – that, wherever our world hates Jesus, their joy will frequently coincide with our grief.

But the inevitability of our sorrow and suffering isn’t exclusively the result of us being persecuted. No, there are other ways living in a sinful, broken world brings us to weep and mourn. In fact, I’m willing to bet most of you aren’t worried about whether you’ll have enough gravy or whether there will be pumpkin pie. There are other four-word phrases weighing on your heart – phrases that completely trivialize smoking ovens and frozen turkeys.

I miss my mom.

I miss my grandpa.

I lost my job.

I filed for bankruptcy.

She cheated on me.

He doesn’t love me.

My parents are divorcing.

I didn’t get accepted.

I’m starting to relapse.

I’ve hit rock bottom.

No one loves me.

My relationships are crumbling.

My cancer is back.

I’m afraid of dying.

I can’t forgive myself.

God, where are you?

Has God abandoned me?

Suddenly, the fear of a bunch of trembling disciples two-thousand years ago doesn’t sound so unrelatable, does it?

We get it. Because we’re afraid our inevitable troubles mean’s our God isn’t in control, that he’s abandoned us like orphans, that he doesn’t care, or he isn’t there.

For a world full of violence, we’re looking for reasons to be full of hope.

For people who are full of anxiety, we’re itching for answers that leave us full of peace.

For hearts full of regrets, we’re starving to know that we’re fully forgiven.

Thankfully, that kind of fullness and fulfillment isn’t far from any of us. That kind of fullness and fulfillment is found in Jesus.

Yes, “You will have trouble…” Jesus says. But those weren’t the only four words Jesus spoke at that table; that same Jesus closes that dinner conversation saying, “I’ve overcome the world” (ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον).

“I’ve Overcome the World”

In a little while, Jesus’ disciples would no longer see him, because he had come to be the Lamb of God slain for the sin, guilt, and shame of the world.

In a little while, Christ would endure the divine justice we deserved on a cross, so that we would be set free.

In a little while, the eternal Son of God would bleed and die – all because of his undying love for you!

And in a little while, Jesus’ disciples would see him again! Jesus wouldn’t stay dead; he rose – and visibly appeared in the flesh to his disciples – not with judgment and condemnation, but with words of absolution and peace!

“Now is your time of grief,” Jesus says at that dinner table, “but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

You, in Christ, do have peace with God – and the grubby hands of this world will never steal it.

The peace that Jesus gives is a relational reality with God that this world cannot assault. Because it’s a peace that isn’t produced or procured by this world.

It’s a peace that proceeds from Christ, our Prophet, Priest, and King. It’s a peace that pours from the punctured hands and feet of our Savior. It’s a peace that penetrates and permeates every aspect of our lives. And how do we know this promise is genuine?

Because you will see him again. Your Savior lives.

He died your death and swallowed death in his victory! Death has been decisively defeated!

In Christ, death is devastatingly demoted to nothing more than a midwife – a midwife that transitions us from a life of pain and suffering to an eternity of joy with God.

Just like a woman in labor, now is our time of grief. But that grief only lasts for a little while – and then it is infinitely overshadowed by the joy she holds in her arms. How much greater the joy we hold within our hearts in Christ! How much greater our certainty of seeing our Savior again!

Whatever four-word phrases threaten to ruin your Thanksgiving, remember that, from the vantage point of eternity, such suffering and sorrow are just a little while. But your Savior doesn’t make you wait until the end for comfort. While there will be trouble in our future for Christ’s sake, Christ’s accomplished victory already speaks to our present. Jesus’ victory doesn’t just get the last word; it get’s the first word, too!

So, wherever you are this Thanksgiving, remember your Savior’s gracious four-word phrases he shared from the dinner table: “Do not be afraid. You trust in God. Trust also in me. You will see me. And you will rejoice. You can take heart. I’ve overcome the world.”