Two weeks ago I finally gave in and started getting a subscription to the Boston Globe. I was tired of repeatedly feeling dumb because people would tell me about stuff that was going on in the world and I hadn’t even heard about it. Some people kept telling me, just go online or watch the news, and as easy as that sounds it seems that the only time I go anywhere non-youth ministry related on the web is either sports or music related. The same thing goes for my TV.
I think part of the reason that I have always had a hard time keeping up in the news is because the news tends to depress or disgust me most of the time. I mean, listen to some of the headlines from Saturday’s Globe. ***Read headlines***
It is no hidden fact that the world is full of sorrow and pain. Sorrow and pain aren’t only in the headlines though; they seem to weave in and out of our every day lives as well. We’ve all gotten a bad grade before on a big test. We have all heard our parents fight and yell at one another. We have all been made fun of or degraded at different times. We have lost loved ones or friends because of death or people moving.
I remember when I was young and having a particular conversation with my best friend Jon that left me devastated afterwards. He was moving because his Dad’s job relocated him. He wasn’t just moving to a different town near by or to a different state in New England. He wasn’t even staying in the country. He was moving to Scotland! I wouldn’t even be able to visit him! This was before e-mail really got big too so I barely had the ability to talk to him!
This was a big deal because Jon and I had known each other since I was one month old and he was two months old. It was at his house that I went to my first sleep over. We hung out all the time and loved video games and baseball. After my birthday, because his was just before mine, we would get dropped off and spend an entire day together at the baseball card store and spend all our birthday money. We were great friends!!
I was crushed when he moved away. I had lost the only friend that I had had consistently growing up. I was so upset! “Why do you have to go to Scotland?,” I asked him. I was mad at his Dad for taking the job. I’m sure I offered to have Jon stay with me and my family instead of moving. It was definitely a painful time in my life as I lost my best friend.
In our scripture for tonight, the disciples went through a very similar situation that I went through with my best friend Jon. Please open your Bibles to John 16:16-22. Please keep your Bibles open and follow along with me as I will be looking at the verse piece by piece.
In the verses that preceded what we are going to look at tonight, Jesus had been talking to the disciples and saying things to them like, “I am going away,” “I going to the Father where you can see me no longer,” and “in a little while you will see me no more.” These words left the disciples very confused!
***Read John 16:17-18***
I think there was also a hint of sadness and fear in their questioning of Jesus. “We’re not going to see you for a while?! Why?? Where are you going?! We’ll go with you.” Jesus was their best friend, their mentor. They had followed him constantly and practically didn’t leave his side the better part of three years. The disciples were sad and confused to loose their teacher.
Jesus, as he can see the sorrow and confusion on their faces, speaks to them in verse 19. ***Read John 16:19*** I think what Jesus is saying to the disciples here is, “Ask me, don’t ask each other! If you are confused, if you are hurt by the fact that I am leaving, just ask me about it!” Jesus is letting them know that it is ok to have questions and that it is ok to feel sad or upset.
I don’t understand why we do this but sometimes we can get the impression that things always have to be good. When someone asks, “How are you are doing?,” we almost always will respond, “Good!” It doesn’t matter usually what has happened during the day. You could be having an awful day where you had a fight with a friend, then got a bad grade on a paper and then you come home from school and you have to do a bunch of chores. But yet, that evening, someone asks you how you are and you smile and say, “Good!” Jesus is telling the disciples here, “It’s ok to be confused and upset. Talk to me about it!”
Jesus goes on to try and encourage the disciples in verses 20, though the disciples still don’t really understand what he is saying to them.
***Read John 16:20***
Because we know how the story of Jesus’ life plays out, we can shed some light on this response from Jesus that the disciples didn’t understand when Jesus was speaking to them. Jesus is talking about his death and resurrection here! “I tell you the truth,” he says. “You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” It was that very night that Jesus was arrested and the next morning when Jesus was killed on the cross. When this happened the disciples all scattered and mourned the death of Christ. As they mourned and looked on in horror, the Jewish leaders, the Romans, and others looked on Jesus death and looked at it as a triumph over a heretic. As the disciples wept and mourned, the world rejoiced.
“You will grieve,” Jesus goes on to say, “but your grief will turn to joy.” Because Jesus spoke figuratively, they didn’t understand what he was saying. Jesus was indirectly saying, “I will be risen from the dead! You will see me again after I have been in the tomb for three days! Your grief will turn to joy because I will come back to life from the dead!” Once Jesus was raised from the dead, all these words that Jesus spoke were understood and came true. After Jesus’ death, the disciples were all together, no doubt mourning and confused. They were also scared of the Jews, fearing that they too may be killed. But as they sat in the house, Jesus appears to them after he has risen. John tells us that “The disciples were overjoyed when they saw their Lord.” Their mourning and grief was changed to joy!
Jesus tries to further help the disciples understand as he compares the grief they will be going through to a woman giving birth in verse 21-22. ***Read John 16:21-22***
The last part of this verse is very important. Jesus tells them, “no one will take away your joy.” That is a bold comment!! NO ONE, not anyone, anytime, can take away your joy! How is that possible? It’s possible because their joy is found in Jesus and nowhere else. Jesus has already conquered death! Nothing is going to knock Jesus down and take him out of the picture! Jesus promises at the end of the book of Matthew to always be with the disciples and never to leave them! In Matthew, Jesus also tells them that even though he is going to go away again, meaning that he is going to ascend to heaven, he is going to prepare a place for them in heaven! That will be their home and final resting place for all eternity! Their joy comes from these promises that Jesus gave them.
As I started off talking about all the pain and sorrow in the world, we need to know that these words that Jesus spoke to the disciples pain and sorrow, also applies to our pain and sorrow. We have the same promises that Jesus gave to the disciples. Jesus promises to never leave us! As we begin a relationship with Christ and grow in it we too have a home being prepared for us in heaven that we will have for all eternity. As we experience pain and sorrow, we need to remember that it is only for a time because eventually Jesus will come back and take us to heaven or we will die and be in heaven.
Because of this, this joy that can never be taken away by anyone is available to us here on earth! As we learn to look at life through the perspective of Christ’s promises and the hope we have in heaven one day, our sorrow on earth can begin to be changed into joy. The stuff that we face here on earth is only temporary! In heaven we will never have to deal with death!! In heaven our parents will never fight. In heaven we will never have pain or suffering. In heaven we will never loose friends. In heaven it will be perfect and full of joy and not a hint of sorrow will be found!!!
