John 16.16–23a
Jubilate, the 3rd Sunday after Easter
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
On the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” This enigmatic statement sends the disciples into a tizzy. “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 go to the Father?’” It is a bit cryptic. “A little while” isn’t a definite period. And “going to the Father?” He had told them in John 8:16, “I am with the Father who sent Me,” and He will tell them in a few verses after today’s reading, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). What does it meant to “go to the Father” if the Father is always with Him?
The “little while” of which Jesus speaks is His death. “A little while, and you will not see Me,” means that in a little while they will not see Him because He will be taken from them, scourged, crucified, and buried. This is how He will go to the Father, for when He dies, He says, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Lk 23:46). His body is buried, laid to rest in the heart of the earth. His soul goes to His Father in paradise. But this, too, will last a little while. He will rise from the dead on the third day. Here He says it this way, “And again a little while, and you will see Me.”
The disciples don’t understand what He’s talking about. Jesus knows that they ask each other about this saying of His. He explains His words, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me,” this way: “More assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.” That doesn’t seem like much of an explanation of the disciples not seeing Him, then seeing Him, and His going to the Father. But Jesus doesn’t tell them this to prophesy His death and resurrection. He had done that on several occasions already. On that night He wanted to teach His disciples how to deal with His suffering and death, and not only this trial, but all the trials they would face for His sake.
During the little while when they did not see Him, they would weep and lament. They loved Jesus. They were His closest disciples. And Jesus loved them. They would weep and lament because their Lord was taken from them and would be killed. The world, on the other hand, would rejoice at His going away, at His death. He said in John 7:7, the world “hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” Jesus had preached against the world’s wickedness, especially its chief wickedness—unbelief in Christ and its’s idea that it can get to God by its own works and merits. It’s one thing to condemn the vices that everyone sees. It’s quite another thing to identity the chief underlying vice, that the world wants to forge its own path to God, its own worship, and its own righteousness. The world hated Jesus because He exposed that. And just as Herodias could not bear John the Baptist’s preaching, but had to silence him by chopping off his head, so the world could not bear Christ’s preaching, but had to silence Him by trial, conviction, and crucifixion. Not only would the disciples weep and lament at the loss of their Lord for this “little while,” but the world’s rejoicing would make their grief heavier.
But just as He would be gone “a little while,” so after a little while they would see Him again. This is what they were to remember during the little while of their suffering. They would see Jesus again! And seeing Jesus again, seeing Jesus alive, would turn their sorrow into joy. For as painful as their suffering would be, it would only last “a little while.” Then they would have joy. Jesus compares it to woman in labor. She has sorrow because her hour—the hour to deliver the baby—has come. She must suffer the pains of childbirth, the physical as well as the emotional. But there is an end to the suffering. The suffering gives way to joy when the child is brought safely into the world. Holding her newborn child, “she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” Once Christ was raised form the dead, born into the world alive from the womb of the earth, the disciples’ anguish would be a distant memory, having been overwhelmed by joy.
Then Jesus explains, “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” There is sorrow. There is suffering. These cannot be averted, bypassed, or circumvented. If they didn’t have sorrow, if they didn’t suffer at their loss of Jesus, they wouldn’t have been true disciples of Jesus. They wouldn’t have truly loved Him. But since they do love Jesus—and know that Jesus loves them—they will suffer.
But the suffering lasts only “a little while.” When He rises, when they see Him again, their hearts will rejoice with a joy that no one can take from them. It is the joy that Jesus lives! His enemies did not destroy Him. The world, for as much as it hates Christ, cannot silence Him. Death, the final enemy of us all—for all must die—is destroyed by the fact that Jesus, who died, lives! All who are in Christ by faith will then live and be raised on the last day even as He was raised from the dead. Our sins—the reason for which Christ died, so that He might make perfect payment for all of them—can trouble us no more because God raised Jesus from the dead to show that He accepts that perfect payment for the sins of the world. The devil—who desires our downfall and our eternal suffering in hell with him—has no power over all who believe in Christ and trust that His death atones for their sins. Jesus is alive! Let sin, the world, and the devil do their worst, it matters not. The joy of Jesus’ resurrection. Nothing in all the world, no among of sorrow, suffering, or misfortune can take that joy from you.
Isn’t there something refreshing about this, to hear Jesus say, “You now have sorrow?” So much of our life is aimed at mitigating, or at least minimizing, suffering and sorrow, because no one wants to suffer. Yet for all our medical technology and psychological tools, suffering still happens. Affliction bears down on each one of us in different ways, in our bodies, our minds, and our situation. Along with afflictions there are crosses which we must bear specifically for the sake of confessing Christ. The world—and our own sinful flesh, for that matter—encourage the wringing of hands accompanied by the litany, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” But that is not the way forward. That’s the way of self-righteousness. God, after all, makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). Job asks his wife—and all the faithful who suffer—“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). It isn’t a question of whether suffering will come. It is a question of how God’s people deal with it.
Which is one of the many things Jesus teaches His disciples on the night in which He betrayed. He taught them to endure suffering and sorrow in patience and trust that it would last but “a little while.” And then they would see Jesus again. Then they would have joy, and it would be a joy that no person, no situation, not even hell or the devil, could take from them. It was in that same joy with which the disciples were to endure every affliction and bear every cross that would come upon them after Christ’s ascension.
It is the same joy with which you are to bear every cross and endure every affliction that God, in His holy wisdom, allows to come upon you. It will last but “a little while.” And however long that “little while” is, you have the joy of the resurrection. Sin cannot harm you. Jesus lives to justify you each day by repentance and faith. The devil cannot hurt you. Jesus lives to defeat the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8). The world, though it hates you because you love Christ, whom it hated first, can do its worst. But Jesus still lives and has overcome the world. And death? If that is how God choose to relieve your affliction or cross from you, then rejoice, for Jesus lives to bring you through death, so that you might see Him face to face. This is a joy that no one can take from you, no one can invalidate for you, not even affliction and suffering, not even cross and trial. Those will surely come. They cannot be avoided. But they will only last “a little while,” and your Father in heaven knows how long that little while is. And during that little while, whatever its duration, you have the joy of the resurrection. Jesus lives! What can sin, death, the devil, or the world do to you if your Savior lives? Nothing. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
