Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
For the Christian short term sorrow is destined to give way to lasting joy. In the moment, however, the world may seem to have preferred the better option. They rejoice in power, oppression, and pleasure. They snatch what they can get while they can get it and try to make the most of the brief moment of their lives. But the party that the sinful world is celebrating cannot last forever. The vindication of the righteous, though it is not something we can empirically verify, is nevertheless inexorably on the way. The reason for this is that the righteous one who suffered at the hands of the world has been vindicated by the resurrection. Sin and darkness seemed to be ascendent and the world rejoiced. But the Son of God rose and sin was condemned. Although the world itself has not yet been fully restored, and although the times and seasons are not given to us to know, we do know for sure that creation itself will share in the resurrection of Jesus and be set free.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (see Romans 8:20-21).
The level of suffering that Jesus had to undergo was so great that it was enough to make the disciples forget about the promise of joy that awaited them. It is no doubt hard for a mother giving birth to think of much besides the pain. But the analogy is poignant in that it promises that the joy waiting to be revealed is so great that it will relativize all previous suffering which will one day be gone and forgotten.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
The promise of joy Jesus gave was not merely a one time consolation for a particular trial. He promised a joy that the world could not take from his disciples. This promise that "no one will take your joy away from you" is surely one of the greatest promises of the Gospel, and it does not apply only to the first generation of disciples who witnessed the resurrection firsthand. It is meant to apply to all of us, in whom the Spirit bears witness to the risen Lord.
On that day you will not question me about anything.
There is a day in awaiting us in the future where all of our questions will be so satisfactorily answered that we will no longer have any need or desire to ask anything else. We will be so viscerally satisfied by the reality of the resurrection that all of the sorrow and hardship of the world will appear in the larger context of God's loving plan for humanity. We can draw nearer to this day by experiencing the reality of the resurrection here and now through the gift of the Holy Spirit. This will build up trust in our hearts in the power of Jesus and the goodness of the Father and teach us to pray prayers that will be answered, ushering the coming Kingdom into the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment