Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Jesus told his disciples that in him they could have victory, even in spite of their trials in the world, because he himself had "overcome the world" (see John 16:33). Believing in Jesus unites us to him and his victory so that it becomes true of us that "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (see First John 4:4). The victory that Jesus promised did not naively ignore the difficulties of life nor the tragedy of death. Those things would continue, just as Jesus would go on after speaking of overcoming the world to face his own crucifixion. But in him those things were no recast as harmless and emptied of the strength of fear which they once wielded over humanity. He invited his disciples to share in this fearlessness before suffering and death that was properly his:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (see Matthew 10:28).
The holy fear Jesus had for his heavenly Father kept him in perfect freedom from earthly fears and the slavery that was their inevitable result.
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (see Hebrews 2:15).
Perhaps this is part of the reason John was insistent that it was not by water alone, but by water and Blood that Jesus came to us. We remember that the Spirit testified that Jesus was the Son of God when he was baptized in water.
On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open
and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
But Jesus also spoke of his cross as a baptism (see Luke 12:50), and that baptism was to be of Blood. He came in flesh and blood, partook of the same things, the same struggles that were common to all of humanity, in order to free those who believed in him of their power over them.
This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and Blood.
We can imagine a temptation to try to overly spiritualize Jesus, to focus on the heavenly, and ignore the earthly, to dwell upon water which seems clean, while shutting our eyes to the messy reality of the Blood. Water alone might mean we could hope for lives free of suffering, operating in entirely spiritual and otherworldly mode. The Blood means that suffering and death are still a part of the story which cannot be ignored, but which, praise God, no longer have the final say.
In his Gospel John cited the Scripture that said 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water', and said that this was in reference to how Jesus himself would pour out the Spirit, but that it would not come to pass until he was glorified (see John 7:37-39). This was reality that was witnessed when the soldier pierced the side of Jesus upon the cross and blood and water flowed out from him (see John 19:34).
We are probably tempted at times to prefer a safe and bloodless Christ, but the flesh and blood together with water and the Spirit provide a greater and more reliable testimony of the reality that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God. The Spirit, the water, and the Blood point to the fullness of the reality of Jesus as human and divine, as the one through whom the Spirit is given. Further, they reveal Jesus as one with whom we, who are flesh and blood, can be united, and his victory as one that we can share.
These three witnesses persist as ongoing realities in the life of the Church. We receive the grace of the Spirit in the waters of baptism and are strengthened whenever we receive the flesh and blood of Jesus himself in Holy Communion. As we continue to partake of these gifts the testimony about the Son of God becomes something that is no longer merely external, but a testimony that we have within ourselves. This is exactly what John was trying to communicate.
I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
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