John 16:16-33 NIV
16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Life in the Valley of the Shadow of Death
Jesus is preparing His disciples for the days immediately to follow, some of the most significant days in all human history.
It is Maundy Thursday. Jesus has not finished His work. He has not yet accomplished the reason for which He came, and the sacrifice for man’s sin has not yet been made.
On Good Friday Jesus, rejected by His people Israel, condemned by both the church and state, and abandoned by His closest friends, is crucified outside of Jerusalem. His death was for our sins and was ultimately a marvelous triumph over death, but no one perceived it at the time. His enemies gloated and His friends wept.
Holy Saturday. The disciples each retreat to their own quarters left alone with their troubled thoughts. Remorse at their forsaking of the Lord. Grief at the loss of their gracious Master. Fear that they might be next.
And there was evening and there was morning. Resurrection Sunday. The disciples grief and sorrow is turned to wonder and joy. He is risen! Hallelujah! This Day made sense of everything. Scripture was fulfilled. Jesus’ words were understood. Their faith was rewarded. The desire of the ages was finally met. Praise the holy name of Jesus!
Written April 11, 2020 on Holy Saturday (the Day before Easter). Consider also the date and where you were in the earliest days of the Covid pandemic:
How do we live between the cross (Good Friday) and the resurrection (Easter Sunday)?
Truly, our whole lives our lived in the shadow of death as we await our future resurrection. Not unlike the disciples on that first Holy Saturday, our days on earth may be filled with great sorrow and uncertainty. We may never “go back to normal” – to baseball and barbecues, going to all the places we loved with the people we loved (Ecclesiastes 7:1-10). But our blessed hope is this: that because Christ has raised, we will be raised as well (Romans 6:8-10).
The glories of that Sunday that awaits us far exceed any fleeting pleasures we may experience along the way. Every day, in fact, until that Day, may be unceasing hardship, for we don’t know what our futures hold. All the more reason we must not cling to the shallow hope that what is considered “normal” in this fallen world will be restored to us.
Further, we are not to live as slaves of the moment. And our lives, when compared with eternity, are just that – a fleeting moment. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (2 Peter 3:8). How will today’s events be looked at in a thousand years? That’s kind of how God sees it- and how we should begin to see it.
When we’ve been there a thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing His praise
Than when we first begun
To my Christian brother or sister, the one who has clung to Jesus for hope and peace, and in Him is all their righteousness: be encouraged that your prospect is joy! Though your hope may be delayed, it will not be denied, it will be fleshed out in living color, far greater than your wildest dreams, and will never be taken from you!
To my non-Christian friend, the one who has rejected Christ and has trusted in themselves or in other people, who’s deluded self-righteousness is graded on an infinitely sliding scale: be warned that your hopes will come to nothing (Proverbs 10:28). Your best days are being lived in the shadow of death, and everything you hope will never be realized, and you everything you think you had will be taken from you.
I adjure everyone who reads this – Christian and non-Christian alike- to cling to Christ and set your hope on that eternal Sunday. COVID will pass, along with all other sorrows. All wickedness, and the wicked likewise, will perish. But those who trust in Christ will live forever and rejoice forever with Him.
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58