For several chapters now, Jesus has been preparing His disciples for what comes next. And they still don’t get it. I wonder if we’re not more like them than we dare to admit. In response, Jesus gives them a glimpse at the future about the unfold. “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.” (John 16:20, NASB95) And that is what happened.
Jesus explains this pain of grief and the advent of Joy as being like a mother giving birth. “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.” (John 16:21, NASB95) An observation so common it is almost cliché, and yet it is also very true.
But Jesus spoke of the grief of sorrow and mourning from loss becoming joy. He is, of course, alluding this His own death and joyous resurrection. But this hasn’t happened yet in the experience of the disciples, although they got a foretaste in the raising again of Lazarus. Jesus knows that this freight train of grief is about to challenge their very core.
Jesus concluded by saying, “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” (John 16:22, NASB95) In verses 20-22, Jesus repeats and amplifies the same thought of grief turning to joy three times. The last time He adds a promise that “no one will take your joy away from you.”
That promise is for us as well. The joy we have in Jesus through His death and resurrection cannot be taken from us. We may push it aside or throw it away, but it cannot be stolen. As Paul wrote, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, NASB95)
History overflows with examples of this truth: Nothing can overcome God’s love for us and our joy in Christ. Nothing, absolutely nothing. So why don’t we act like it?
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