“YOUR JOY NO ONE WILL TAKE FROM YOU”
The Text, St. John 16:16-23 (v. 22).
“Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
Risen Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Dear Lord, sometimes it’s hard to believe that our sorrow or pain is only for “a little while,” and will be “turned into joy.” Teach us to cling to Your words, “I will see you again,” and believe that this knowledge is joy; the joy no one will take away from us. Teach us to see You our risen Lord by faith. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ who is risen indeed: Grace to you and peace from God the Father through our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ words in John 16 were spoken to the disciples as they went from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane. We consider these words now in the Easter season, since He said these words for after He was gone.
Especially we consider these words: “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” That’s verse 22 of John 16; it’s worth learning by heart so you use them to take courage in times of need. But before we get there we have to spend some time with His words that begin our text: “A little while and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
Jesus really, really wants the disciples to understand this. See how He takes time with it. We hear the disciples mulling it over. Jesus lets them. He repeats His statement again. When He begins explaining it, first He says what they don’t want to hear, but is actually real and unavoidable: “Most assuredly you will weep and lament and the world will rejoice.”
Then Jesus gives a promise, very briefly: “Your sorrow will be turned into joy.” He inserts this into the middle of the meditation on “a little while,” so you almost have to go searching for it. Sometimes that’s what Jesus is doing in our trials and sorrows: makes us search for His promises. He then illustrates this promise, “your sorrow will be turned into joy,” with the picture of a woman’s thoughts and feelings in childbirth, how her pain is so great but then the joy puts it in the rearview mirror.
Jesus finishes with one of His greatest promises ever: “your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
It takes patience to get to that. You lack this patience if you’re in the midst of sorrow, suffering, hardship. We have sorrows of many kinds. It’s hard to remain patient. You say this is forever, Jesus says “a little while,” and you say this is not just a little while. We forget:
God oft gives me days of gladness;
Shall I grieve If He give
Seasons too of sadness?
But what is it you want? What are you really struggling with? We get upset with God over things He hasn’t promised. That shows the idols we set up. We’re used to life going a certain way, being able to count on this or that, and what are they? Blessings God gives – not things He owes us.
So this exposes our sinful thinking. The devil loves to get you alone. To sever you from the knowledge of God’s love. To inflame your itch for temporal peace and prosperity. To have you hear the voices of temptation, dissatisfaction, guilt and blame, shame, worry and fear – and especially not to hear the voice of Him who loves you most, not to hear the tender forgiving voice of your God and Savior. A Christian alone with his sin is truly alone (Bonhoeffer). Of course, the purpose of Christ’s word in this gospel lesson, His purpose in building His Church, is to remove the sin so you aren’t alone with your sin – for there is no sin when it’s taken away – and you aren’t alone at all, for He your living Lord who loves you, is with you and puts you with all others whose sins He takes away.
Perhaps we think things would be better if God would not make us go through this. He’s God, He can do anything. Jesus has something to say: it’s only “a little while.” He’s teaching patience. Patience means to suffer long, but really the heart of it is waiting. It’s hard to wait. Waiting is suffering something. But what does it mean that our Lord has patience with us? He suffers us. In this we see His compassion.
You can see that with these apostles. He knows the first “little while” they’re going to experience: that time between Jesus’ death and His resurrection. The enemies would rejoice; Jesus’ friends would “weep and lament.” For that time it seemed that the mockers and despisers of Christ, those who tortured Him, had the last word. It would be so dark for the apostles in those few days. His death left them hopeless, in total despair. Jesus knew what it would be like for them.
Imagine, as you saw your child off to college, or to a war zone, or just seeing them go off to a job in another city, if you would know ahead of time exactly what was going to happen, the times it would fall apart for them, exactly how it would be dark for them, and when their hopefulness, optimism and joy would vanish. This is what Jesus knew. The natural response is to think, if He knows this, Jesus is cruel to let them go through it, why not shield them from it, not let them go through it. Jesus doesn’t do that. It’s not about living a wish dream (Bonhoeffer).
Instead Jesus’ patient teaching of them here is to let His words have the last word. To have these words take root is what He wants, and this is His compassionate heart. He’s preparing them, preparing for other things too.
For they would see Him again when He was risen. They had joy. But then comes the second “little while.” After 40 days Jesus ascended to heaven. They couldn’t see Him with their eyes anymore. He also knows what will happen to them as His “witnesses.” As He speaks these words, Jesus is looking at His 11 friends and followers, 10 of whom would die violent deaths for His name. Every one of them would die alone. What meaning Jesus ‘words have! “A little while, and you will not see Me … again a little while, and you will see Me.”
This was such a great promise to the apostles. As their executioners taunted them and said, “Where is your Jesus?” His words came true: “The world will rejoice.” But they had the rest of the promise, that it will be “be turned into joy,” as He said: Just a little while – only the moment of death – “and you will see Me.” It’s why they went to martyrdom rejoicing. Death sent them into the arms of Jesus, bringing them to heaven and the joy “no one takes from you.”
We aren’t facing violent death for His name, but that doesn’t mean these are insignificant “sorrows.” The point isn’t to compare our sufferings, but that in all these things we’re called to confess our faith, to confess who our Lord is, who He is for us. God doesn’t call us to confess our faith in a rose garden. You might be tempted to despair at how it is for you or how you handle it. We don’t handle this with much patience. We wonder: Are we such disappointments? Is He disappointed in us? What He suffers in us!
Well, as to being disappointed in us He is never pleased by our sin, but remember, He died for that. As to how He suffers us – yes! He does suffer us. That means He has patience. He is patient with you. He has patience for you. He suffers long and is kind. He grieves what the devil can do, He grieves your losses. That’s why He came down from heaven: to defeat the devil, not to take away the possibility of losses.
He groaned at the effects of sickness and death on us His children. He grieves with you. So He sees your sorrows. They matter to Him. He became the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with griefs. The Father knew what His only Son would suffer. It wasn’t child abuse for God the Father to send Him to do it; it was love! Love for you, from the Father and the Son.
See what the Son was willing to do: to be gotten alone by the devil, to make your experience of alone-ness His own. Jesus, “for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross” (He 12:2). He didn’t pretend the cross wasn’t there. Just as He doesn’t hide the hard things from His disciples. He doesn’t keep us from the suffering that’s part of life in this world. He doesn’t pretend it isn’t there. “God will not permit us even for a moment to live in a dream world” (Bonhoeffer).
Jesus doesn’t prevent the crosses but prepares us to bear our crosses after Him. We hear this gospel lesson every Easter season. He’s really been preparing us to respond to this time of these particular temptations, to say as Christians: “No matter how my heart and my flesh fail, no matter how my Old Adam rages and makes me impatient, no matter how forever these hardships feel, my Lord teaches me to say it’s just ‘a little while.’ No matter what the devil may throw at me, it’s ‘a little while,’ that’s what my Lord tells me, and I’ll believe Him. Soon my hardships, as He says, ‘will be turned into joy.’ ”
So we sing: God is good! and tempers ever
All my ill, And He will
Wholly leave me never.
Singing this, we confess our faith!
Even if we don’t respond with strength or steadiness, Jesus your risen and living Lord sees it all, not in judgment but in compassion, patience. Here’s the real patience: in between the words, “you now have sorrow,” and the promise “your hearts will rejoice” comes this: “I will see you again.” We know this will be in heaven, where our sins are like a dream that is past, and all Christians look forward to that. It also comforts us about our loved ones: Jesus sees them again and they’re rejoicing.
But it’s not only then. You even see Him now, when He stands before you in His word and in the absolution, in Baptism and His Supper. This is Jesus keeping the promise He makes to us: “I will see you again” – that is, He who sees all your sins, but loves you the sinner, He sees you again to give you His grace, kindness and His long-suffering in person. He takes away your sin and gives you the joy no one takes from you. Amen!