Vol. 11 — No. 18 May 3, 1970
John 16:16-23
A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves. What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is comes but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
In Christ Jesus, whose mission to earth was to turn our sorrows into joy. Fellow Redeemed:
Our text speaks of two emotions that are common to all mankind—sorrow and joy. A child experiences these emotions, so also a teenager, young married people, people at the middleway of life, and the aging. Sorrow and joy are not the exclusive experiences of any one race, of any one geographic region of the earth, or of any particular economic level. The young and the aging, the affluent and the poverty-stricken, the white and the black, totalitarians and democrats—all experience both sorrow and joy. They are universal emotions.
But our Lord was not speaking philosophically of sorrow and joy as emotions common to the human race. No, He was speaking of experiences limited to His disciples, to children of God, to Christians. How can we be sure of that? The answer most obvious would be the context. In the verses of our text the Lord was addressing eleven of His disciples on the night of His betrayal. It was after Judas had left to lead the chief priests to Jesus. But there is another factor that reveals that Jesus is speaking of emotions that His disciples will experience. That factor is the sequence of those emotions. Jesus spoke of sorrow followed by joy. After the joy a new sorrow may arise, but that will be followed by another joy. The final, and so dominant emotion is always joy. This does not hold true for the person estranged from God—the sophisticated or primitive, affluent or poverty-ridden, cultured or culturally deprived, educated or illiterate unbeliever. True it is that he may experience sorrow followed by joy, but the dominant emotion of his life, especially when we take into consideration the eternal extension of his life, is sorrow—sorrow for evermore. What a depressing, doleful, truly sad outlook! With the Christian it is just the opposite! With us the dominant and final note—held eternally—is JOY!
Let us reassure ourselves of this by meditating upon—
Let us observe that—
What brought about this discussion of sorrow and joy? It was the situation in which Jesus and His disciples found themselves. They had just finished eating the Passover together. Jesus had interrupted the prescribed ritual of that feast by instituting the new Supper for the New Covenant. Then Jesus began to talk very seriously. He spoke of leaving them, of sending unto them the Holy Spirit. He spoke of their relationship to Him as branches on the vine. He gave them His commandment that they love one another. He spoke of the hatred that they would experience in the world. He spoke of His leaving them. None of this was conducive to joy. It rather brought forth sorrow in their hearts.
Then Jesus said, “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” What was He talk ing about? What did He mean? He mentioned two “little whiles,” and He talked about going to His Father. The disciples were puzzled. They were talking amongst themselves. No one had quite enough courage to ask Jesus just what He meant. The whole situation was so human. We would have felt and acted the same way—had we been there. St. John reports, “Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them. Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?” Jesus knew that there were question marks in the minds and hearts of His disciples. He knows the same thing about us. He sought to remove the question marks of His disciples by speaking to them. He has done the same thing for us in His Word, if we but listen to Him in that Word.
The disciples were sorrowful, and so it had to be. There is no escaping sorrow in this life for a child of God. “Verily, verily, I say unto you. That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.” They could count on it as most certain—that they would weep and lament. And they did so a few hours later when the band of Judas found them in the Garden of Gethsemane and took Jesus captive. “But the world shall rejoice,” Jesus added. When the child of God weeps, the world rejoices. The disciples wept that night when their Lord was bound and dragged off a prisoner. The world—in the persons of the chief priests and scribes, the religious establishment of that day—rejoiced. They finally had their hands on this Jesus fellow. They could get rid of Him. Again Jesus repeated, “Ye shall be sorrowful”—but then He added—“your sorrow shall be turned into joy,” And it was—for them on the third day when they saw Him again as their resurrected Lord.
Note what is distinctive in the life of a Christian: Sorrow is always turned into joy. This point Jesus emphasized by citing a common experience in human life—that of a woman in labor. That’s not a time for rejoicing, but rather a time for concern, anxiety, pain. Put it all together and you get sorrow. But, Jesus says, “as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.” The sorrow of labor is replaced by the joy of birth. This common human experience is typical of the experience of every child of God. It occurs and re-occurs in his life.
Jesus applied this truth to the emotional situation that His disciples found themselves in at that moment. “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” At that moment they were experiencing the “little while” of sorrow. For them it would last until the third day. But that “little while” of sorrow would be followed by a joy that ”no man taketh from you.” So it was! The joy that the resurrected Lord brought them carried them through the rest of their lives, sustained them when the day of persecution came, and saw them through the valley of the shadow of death into life beyond.
When the “little while” of sorrow comes, the child of God is plagued with questions. The disciples wondered what Jesus meant with that “little while” before He would leave them and then the next “little while” when they would see Him again, and about His going to the Father. Jesus assured them that “in that day ye shall ask me nothing." After the resurrection and after His ascension they would understand. Their questions would fade away.
But other “little whiles” of sorrow would come up again in their lives. Their hearts would be filled again with question marks, but He would be gone to His Father. What could they do then? What can we do when such “little whiles” of sorrow come in our lives? Jesus told His disciples and us what to do: “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” When the “little vihiles” of sorrow come our way, as come they do, we are encouraged to take them to our Heavenly Father in prayer. Ask your Father, but ask in My name—Jesus said. What does that mean—to ask in Jesus’ Name? It means to approach the Father with Jesus as Mediator. It means to pray, believing on the Lord Jesus as your Savior from sin, who has removed the barrier of sin betiveen you and the Father. It means to cast aside all pride in one’s own spiritual accomplishments and to stand there exposed as a beggar pleading for divine mercy. That appears to be a rather weak and insecure stance for one praying for help. But it is a most effective stance, for it stands on the promise of the Lord: “He will give it you.” The Father will and does hear when we cry unto Him from the midst of our “little wliile” of sorrow.
The “little while” of sorrow followed by the joy that “no man taketh from you”—that is the re-occurring experience of Christians. Is it? Let us test this statement.
The chief characteristic of a Christian is daily repentance. What is repentance? It consists in stepping in two opposite directions. Repentance is always a stepping away from sin and a stepping towards the Savior. Repentance always involves two contrasting emotions, sorrow and joy—the sorrow of penitence and the joy of divine forgiveness. Sorrow always precedes joy, and always joy is the dominant emotion. We have gone through that emotional experience again this morning in our service. We begin our service with the confession of sin and guilt. If this is not a matter of sorrow, of grief, that can at times cause weeping and lamenting, then we simply do not understand the nature and consequences of our sins. Have you felt your mind and your body responding to the lusts of your flesh during this past week? Don’t excuse yourselves by saying that this is just natural. This is the way we are built. Certainly, it is! But that doesn’t excuse us. When the lusts start arousing themselves in your heart and when you and I respond with thinking adulterous or hateful thoughts, with speaking foul or dishonest things, this is not permissible weakness, but open rebellion against our God, who shouts at us, “Thou Shalt” and “Thou shalt not!” Rebellion is punishable by death, and since sin is always rebellion, every sin is punishable by death. We stand before our God guilty of death. No excuse avails. We deserve the sentence of death. If this isn’t a situation that creates within us a “little while” of sorrow, we are insensitive and hardened by our sins. “But your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” That joy is brought by the absolution, by the assurance that the Lord hath had mercy, that the righteousness and blood of Christ cover our unrighteousness and wash away the stain of our guilt. This assurance creates and sustains faith and brings with it the joy of salvation. Many people, suffering mental illnesses, are in hospitals because of guilt complexes. The “little while” of sorrow over sin has become a continued state of mind, a state of mind that causes melancholy, fear, frustration, terror, despair, and thoughts of suicide. What these people need is not rationalization of their guilt but rather the joy-creating Good News of full and free pardon in the holy life and innocent suffering and death of Him who was made sin for us. That is a joy that “no man taketh from you.”
Is the experience of sorrow being turned into joy a constantly re-ouccurring experience in the life of a Christian? Yes, even more. It is a life-long biography of every Christian. Sorrows are inevitable in anyone’s life, also in the life of a Christian. We have spoken of the daily sorrow of repentance. The Christian experiences sorrow when he observes the Word of the Lord blasphemed, not only among the heathen, but also among those who claim the name “Christian.” It is a matter of deepest sorrow to see one denomination after another exchange the Christian birthright of the joy of divine love that forgives sin for Christ’s sake for the mess of pottage that promises some kind of a utopia here upon this earth. There is sorrow in persecution. So far we are being spared by a gracious God the sorrow of loss of personal property and injury to body and loss of life. This may still come in our lifetime. Yet there is sorrow in being the victims of whisper campaigns, in being lied about, for such lies and falsehoods may prevent some from experiencing true joy with us. St. Paul went through this all, but he was certain that final joy would follow all earthly sorrow. He wrote to the Romans: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18) The resurrection Psalm assures us that “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:11) Surely we all have our “little whiles” of sorrow. But be of good cheer! There lies ahead of us the unending joy that “no man taketh from you.” Amen.
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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.