John 16:16-24 ESV
Forgiveness Series
Clearly from our perspective thousands of years later we know Jesus was trying to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen on the cross.
We understand they didn’t understand what was happening. To quote John 16:18 they did not “know what he is talking about.”
Jesus knew what they were thinking and feeling when He said in John 16:16-20a, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament.”
Jesus knew they were going to grieve many losses when he was no longer with them.
Jesus told them they would weep and lament. Jesus understood grief.
Man had some catching up to do. Many centuries later even after grief has been studied at length, we cannot predict how individuals will grieve and lament.
In 1969 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book entitled On Death and Dying that suggested there are stages to grief that we will go through. Many psychologists today believe, “While some people do experience the stages, and eventually reach acceptance after a loss, grief is now understood to be highly individualized and unpredictable” (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/grief).
Today we do know (as Jesus did) is that grief is real and everyone’s grief is unique.
When we suffer a loss, it means our life has changed. Losing a spouse through death or divorce does mean everything has changed and we have to grieve that loss because we have to re-write our story.
Losing a parent or a child changes you in your core and it changes your whole family dynamic.
Grief is real and it’s incredibly difficult.
What we’ve now learned is that there are no time limits for now long we will grieve or how we will grieve.
In the case of the disciples they would have suffered an all encompassing sense of sorrow and loss. That’s because when we are filled with sorrow because of the loss of a loved one we lose every part that we shared with that person. We can lose a spouse while we retain a job, a home, financial security, and loved ones who understand and support us.
However, the disciples quit their jobs to follow Jesus. Following Jesus became their mission in life. They had no income. They had no home. They had not been with their families for three years.
In addition to that, the disciples were now a moving target for the Roman Government. They were not welcome in the Hebrew Synagogues where they grew up. They were hated by many of their Hebrew brothers and sisters.
The truth is…Jesus was their life.
Jesus was their leader, their teacher, their guide.
Without Jesus they only had each other.
When we think about it, where would they go? Who would they be?
The whole of their life was tied to Jesus.
The loss they were about to experience was complete.
In John 16:20b-24 Jesus gave them the ending to the story. He read them the last page of this part of the story when He told them, “but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
The birth Jesus spoke of WAS a birth.
It was the greatest birth of all time. It was a resurrection birth that would usher in a new day unlike any day before or since.
Even though the disciples didn’t understand the promise that they would see Jesus again and they would rejoice, Jesus knew they would see Him again and they would rejoice!
Jesus also knew not only would He be changed by what was about to happen on the cross, the disciples would be changed.
Jesus knew they would no longer be men who didn’t understand.
He knew Peter would become “The Rock” who would stand firm for the church.
He knew Peter and the other disciples, save John would be martyred for being His followers.
Young John the beloved would be the only disciple present at the crucifixion of Jesus and he would write major parts of the story about Jesus, including the revelation of the prophecy of the future.
In Revelation 1:1-3, We read, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”
Every word Jesus spoke to the disciples in John 16 about the sorrow and the joy to come was absolutely true.
The disciples suffered great sorrow when Jesus was arrested and crucified.
The disciples experienced great joy three days after Jesus was crucified.
Jesus knew ‘before’ what the disciples did not know.
In Revelation 1:9-11, John wrote, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
When John received the revelation, Jesus knew what was yet to come.
There has been and will be sorrow, but great joy will follow!
Joy because of what Jesus did when he conquered death!
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Your Future
Open your hands and ask The Spirit of the Living God what Joy He had for you.
In God, Deborah
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