Jesus Foretold Sorrow And Promised Joy

What Did Jesus Do?

“You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
John 16.20

The world always lamented death, until the crucifixion of Jesus, then the world rejoiced (John 16.20a). Jesus' disciples lamented his death, but their sorrow was turned to joy. And, ever since, the world has thought Christians strange because we celebrate and rejoice at the time of death. The difference between Christians and the world is in the “delivery.”

Everyone knows that the travail of labor is just about the worst pain anyone can experience. The comedienne Moms Mabley described the pain of childbirth by saying, “Imagine taking your upper lip, and pulling it up and over the top of your head.” Ouch! Jesus understood that his followers would be familiar with the anguish of a woman in hard labor. He also knew that they had all witnessed that pain and sorrow disappear in the joy of the delivery of a new life (John 16.21).

Using the example of labor and birth known to all, Jesus foretold the sorrow and pain that would suddenly, and soon, come upon his followers. Like a woman whose hour comes, and goes into labor with the first unannounced contraction, Christ's disciples would experience anguish and travail when a mob would appear out of nowhere, as it were, and seize him and take him off to be “tried,” beaten, and crucified. With the Lord's death upon the cross, and his burial in the tomb, it would appear as if there would be no end to the disciples' sorrow, even as it often seems to women in labor that there will be no end to their pain. But, with the delivery, suffering is transformed. The travail of labor gives way to the joy of birth. The anguish of death was banished forever by the joy of the Resurrection. The suffering of Jesus upon the cross was the means by which the Father delivered those being saved from death to life.

Yes, their hearts would know real sorrow, but Jesus would rejoice his disciples' hearts through his resurrection appearances to them. And this joy is an everlasting joy as opposed to the sorrow that comes to an end, even as the rejoicing over the birth of a child long outlasts the travail of labor (John 16.22).

Everything a mother desires is fulfilled in the safe delivery of her child. All that Jesus' followers could ever ask is fulfilled in his resurrection, their joy in and through Christ is as full as that of a new mother holding her child. What else sustains a woman through the sorrow and suffering of childbirth but the promise of new life? What else sustains believers through the sorrow and suffering in this world but the promise of new life in Christ?

How can we comfort and encourage those who suffer now, or who will soon experience suffering (And all of us have or will know deep suffering and sorrow at one time or another)? By holding out the promise of joy that is in Jesus Christ, who delivers us from the sorrow of death into the joy of life everlasting.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4