As he approached his death, Jesus became increasingly focused on establishing the joy of his disciples in the face of the impending crisis. In John 16:4-24, he deals with two main threats to his joy. First, he leaves them and leaves. The Father, secondly, will die soon. Both seem to have the potential to undermine lasting joy.
In responding to his astonishment, Jesus speaks in a way that extends over the centuries to establish our own flickering joy. This isn’t fortuitous. Here’s what I meant to do: “Did I tell you these things to make my joy in you and your joy complete?(John 15. 11).
- First.
- You leave them.
- Isn’t that good news for your ears?.
- Now I go to the one who sent me.
- Because I told you these things.
- Did sadness fill your heart?(Jn 16.
- 5?6).
- This sadness is due to love and ignorance.
- Love.
- Because his joy is in him.
- Out of ignorance.
- Because they have no idea how their physical absence might be an advantage to them.
Thus, Jesus seeks to solidify their joy in their absence, not by diminishing love, but by suppressing ignorance. He said, “But I tell you the truth: you must go, for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come for you; But if I leave, will I send it to you?(John 16. 7). Of the many reasons why this is advantageous, the main one is that the Spirit will make the glory of Jesus more real. Yes, more real than if He was there in the flesh: when the Spirit of truth comes, yet He will guide you through all the truth; . . . He will glorify me, for he will receive what is mine and announce it to him. has is mine (John 16:13?15).
Can we see what this means to the disciples and to us?How many Christians say today, “If I could be there and see you face to face!?Or: “If I could have a vision of Jesus as it really was in history. “Something tangible?”
Such aspirations reveal a serious disrecognise of the advantages we have, precisely because Jesus is dead, risen, and here he is not bodily, but present by His Spirit. Help, the Spirit of Truth sent by the Father, is the Spirit of the Risen Christ. “I will not leave you orphans, will I return the others?(John 14:18). When the Spirit comes, Jesus will come, and this presence, he says, is better than the bodily presence of his earthly days. .
Does the Spirit of Christ act in us, glorifying the risen Christ and making real to us all that the Father is to us in him and in his triumph over death?It is an infinitely superior wonder to what the disciples have experienced in their lives. There is no greater glory than the glory of God in the face of the Risen Christ (2 Corinthians 4. 6). The more full we are of the Holy Ghost, the more clearly we see and appreciate this glory.
This is the first way Jesus sought to affirm his joy in those last dark hours before his death, and although this is a long-term result, He will be with them better than if his mortal stay extended indefinitely.
The second way Jesus affirms his joy is equally remarkable: did his disciples know that he had heard him when He said: ?. . . why do I go to the Father and you will never see me again?(John 16:10). Did you understand this? For a long time, probably for life.
But suddenly Jesus said these unexpected words: “A little, and you will never see me again; a little more, and you’ll see me?(John 16:16). Now they’re confused. He said, “I. “I go to the Father’s house. ” He had said that he would instead send the Spirit of truth. I hadn’t talked about a quick change. Then they began to wonder, “What is it?Do we understand what that means? (John 16:18).
Whenever Jesus tried to explain to the disciples that his way to the Father passed through a horrible crucifixion, they resisted or were confused: “Nevertheless, they did not understand this and were afraid to question him” (Mark 9:32). But that’s what I’d address later. They still do not understand the magnitude of the threat to their joy over the next three days, if their joy needs to be stable and sustainable, he must prepare them for it.
He does so by warning that sadness is on the way, he does not try to confirm his joy by saying that their lives will be without sadness, on the contrary, the sadness will be intense. And it’s happening very soon, just “a little bit. ” Then he said, “A little time and you’ll never see me again. “It’s the source of his sadness. What he doesn’t say directly is, “You’ll never see me again, why am I going to die?” but that’s what he means. He said these words indirectly: “Did I tell you these things through images?”(John 16:25).
The way he puts the realism of his sadness at the service of the stability of his joy is, first, by saying that sadness will be brief (?. . . still a little, and you’ll see me?), and then contrasting his sadness. with three things: (1) the joy of the world, (2) the future joy in itself and (3) the joy of a mother after childbirth.
“Really, really, do I tell you that you will weep and mourn, and that the world will rejoice?
Why does Jesus say this in the last hours of his pains?Because hard things are less likely to shake your world if you know what’s going on. This is Jesus’ way of saying: The world will shed salt in the wound of your sadness. to my death. In the midst of your sobs, you’ll hear the mocking voices:?He saved others; save yourself, if you are, in fact, the Christ of God, the chosen one?!(Luke 23. 35)
The disciples needed to know this. This was part of God’s plan for his deliverance. Herod’s mockery of Jesus was part of the eternal plan (Acts 4:27-28). This joy of the world for the death of Jesus did not take him by surprise. He knew the miseries of his death would be compounded by a ruthless ridicule. “The world will rejoice. “
The disciples needed to know this. Knowledge does not make them less sensitive to sadness, but it would make them less vulnerable to sadness. Now they knew that even the mocking joy of the killers was part of God’s plan. And Jesus said unto them, though it is inevitable, He will. be brief.
“You will be sad, but your sadness will become joy. “(John 16:20)
It is Jesus’ interpretation of the words they found so disconcerting: “A little, and you will never see me again; a little more, and you’ll see me again?(John 16:16). In a few hours, he”would die and be buried. They’d never see him again and they’d be sad. Intensely sad. Then, in three days, they’d see him again. “A little more, and you’ll see me. ” And sadness becomes joyful?(John 16:20).
On the other side of my death, he says, there is my resurrection, on the other side of your sadness is your joy, when you see the horrors of tomorrow morning, remember that I told you. Let your love for me break your heart sadly, but don’t let your ignorance break your hope.
The joy of the world will suddenly change. What made the world happy and sad will no longer exist. I’ll be alive, they’ll have failed. You, not them, will rejoice now. Your sadness must come, just as my death must come. But you won’t be sadder than I’ll be in the grave.
When a woman gives birth, she is sad because the time has come, but when she gives birth to the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for the joy of a human being who was born in the world (John 16:21). )
There is more to this style figure than the obvious fact that the joy of birth follows the pains of childbirth. It’s true and meaningful. First the pain, then the joy. This will be true for Jesus and the disciples in the next three days.
But labor pains don’t just precede a child; they have a son. It’s not that there’s labor pain and, in time, a stork flies out the window with a baby. The baby won’t arrive alone after the pains of childbirth. The baby suffers from labor pain.
The same goes for this new joy on the other side of Jesus’ death. The pains of the mother’s work in this style figure are not related only to the disappearance of Jesus (?Will you not see me?), but also with the anguish of Jesus. Not just for the farewell, but for the pain. Therefore, the joy on the other side is not alone behind this pain; goes through there. Jesus’ pain on the cross not only precedes new joy; but he produced it.
Jesus insists at this point on the words He uses in verse 20 and said, “Your pain will become joy. “He does not say that his sadness “will be replaced by joy,” but literally “will become joy. “Henry Alford expresses it this way: “Not only does it become joy, but it becomes so that the question of sadness itself becomes a matter of joy; How did the cross of Christ’s shame become the glory of the Christian, Galatians 6. 14?(Greek New Testament, Volume 1, 870).
From where we are, on this side of the cross and the resurrection, it is clearer how the agony of the cross becomes our joy; Christ’s sufferings take away our sin and God’s wrath and lead us to God and joy. he also died, once, for sins. to take them to God?(1 Peter 3:18), and is there a fulness of joy in your presence? (Psalm 16:11). by whom [through their sufferings] we have also gained access, through faith, to this grace in which we are; and do we glorify ourselves in the hope of God’s glory?(Romans 5. 2).
So when Jesus says that after the birth of a child, the mother no longer remembers affliction, for the pleasure that a man must have been born into the world, it means that the pains of childbirth have been transformed from a memory of anguish into something that brought them joy. The same goes for Jesus’ pains and his effects on his disciples. Jesus wanted them to know beforehand to confirm their joy: Will it be all this sadness?(John 16:20).
There is another impressive thing Jesus says about his joy that should make them stable enough to withstand the coming storm on Good Friday. The child born of this woman in it?He represents Jesus after the resurrection. And Jesus, after the resurrection, could never die. “Having risen Christ from the dead, he no longer dies; death no longer has power over it (Romans 6. 9). When the labor pains of life generate life, this life is immortal.
This means that the joy that Jesus promises is an immortal joy. Will your heart rejoice and no one can take away your joy?(John 16:22). This indestructible joy is due to “I will see You again”. I will be resurrected from the dead; I will be alive and with you, by my Spirit, forever; your joy cannot be taken from you because I will not be taken from you. I am your joy (John 15:11; 17. 13). ). I won’t let them be orphans, will I give you back the rest of you?(John 14:18).
Many times we do not pay attention to the fact that it was better for us that Jesus would leave us and go to the Father, but if I leave, did I send it to him?(John 16. 7).
Surely the Holy Spirit helped him was active in the world before Jesus went to the Father, but there is one thing he had never done before Jesus’ resurrection: he had never glorified the risen Lord of the universe!This is now your main job in the world. ? Will you glorify me?(John 16:14). He does it every day, and he does it sovereignly, in all of God’s children. Every time we see the glory of Christ, here is why:?We are transformed, . . . as by the Lord, the Spirit?(2 Corinthians 3:18). Without it, we would all be destroying our own faith.
Through this stimulating work of Christ, the Spirit fulfills Jesus’ promise that no one will take away our joy (John 16:22). Skeptics and those who mock cannot rejoice; the doctor with the biopsy report cannot be happy; your adulterous spouse cannot rejoice; their lost children cannot rejoice. The political climate, global terror, school shootings, racial injustice, financial disaster, unemployment, theological controversies, unfulested dreams, and memories of your own failure cannot take away their joy. No one can.
? Will your heart rejoice and no one can take away your joy?(John 16:22). Meaning: I will rise from the dead. I will check it by looking at you face to face, then I will go to the Father and spread my Spirit upon you, and until I return, my Spirit will make my glory so real to you that no one can take away the joy of you.
Jesus not only promises joy. ” In the world, you are going through afflictions; But be in a good mood. I conquered the world (John 16:33). But how can we not?just won the world?and hell, the devil and death?but it also remains with us and in us as a powerful warrior against all our enemies. “Little children, you are of God and have overcome false prophets, for you are greater than that which is in the world?(1 John 4. 4).
Then, yes, there will be tribulations. Pains of the most varied forms of this fallen world that we cannot count on. But the world that saddens us won’t have the last word. Therefore, the Christian’s slogan in this world is “saddened, but always joyful?”(2 Corinthians 6,10). Through all suffering, we are repressed by the power of Help, so you rejoice in this, although for the time being, for a short time, if necessary, you will be saddened by various trials (1 Peter 1. 6).
He may be tempted to shout, “Oh, if I could go back and see him for what it was in the flesh!”But remember, you see it more now, by the Spirit, in your word, than by the disciples during your mortal life. And you’ll see him again. But not like he was. Your face will shine “like the sun in your strength” (Revelation 1. 16). Encourage yourself by the words of Peter: “Who, having not seen, your love; in which, without seeing now, but believing, you rejoice with ineffable joy and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8:9). Such is the joy that cannot be taken from you.