Jean’s Gospel: A Little While…
A Little While
“ ‘A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.’ So some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What is this that he says to us, “A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”; and, “because I am going to the Father”?’ So they were saying, ‘What does he mean by “a little while”? We do not know what he is talking about.’ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me”? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.’ ” (John 16:16-22)
The words, “a little while” are three key words, which Jesus wished to impress on His disciples. These words are repeated seven times in this passage. They signify Jesus’ promise to His disciples that what they were about to face would be temporary, and their suffering would give birth to something far greater. When all seemed lost and grief unbearable, the disciples were to cling to three little words: “a little while.”
Jesus’ Passion was not a bump in the road of the disciples’ lives. Jesus asked His disciples to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him. The disciples entrusted themselves to Jesus, body and soul, even if they did not yet fully understand Him. To them Jesus was their Lord, father, teacher, friend and companion. As Peter, speaking for the disciples, earlier said: “See, we have left everything and followed you.” (Mark 10:28)
When someone close to you dies, it may feel as though part of you died with them. The closer a person was to you, the more of their life you shared with them, the more of you may seemingly die with them. Death is a brutal enemy when it signifies the end of life and hope, when it signifies eternal separation from God. For the disciples, who had cleaved to Jesus, like a bride to her Bridegroom, the coming loss of Jesus would feel like death and hell to the disciples.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.” (John 16:20a)
The sorrow the disciples would feel would be magnified by the world’s joy at getting rid of Jesus. The world and its prince would celebrate its apparent victory over Jesus at Golgotha: “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ ” (Matt 27:39-40)
It strikes us as despicable that anyone would mock, cheer or celebrate the torture and execution of any human being. How would the disciples cope with their loss when the world around them is rejoicing at Jesus’ death? Besides the sheer terror of being found out, would they capitulate to the popular narrative that Jesus was a false messiah and they had gotten it all wrong?
Peer pressure is a powerful force for evil. We see it today all the time. When we are lured into sin, we turn away from Christ. When we snicker at the scandal befalling a pastor or church, we turn away from Christ. When we gossip about the broken marriage or business failure of a Christian brother, we turn away from Christ. Christ and His Gospel are despised by the world in every generation, and His own Christians are often tempted and join in.
“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” (John 16:16)
Jesus would not prevent his disciples from sharing the agony of His Passion. This was the world into which He was sending them as His apostles. They needed to be prepared.
Jesus did not teach His disciples to deny or repress their suffering or sorrow. Feelings of joy and sorrow are part of what make us human beings made in the image of God. Jesus, who shared in our humanity through His incarnation, also had feelings. But when it came to His separation from them or the sorrow they would share on account of His death, Jesus taught his disciples to trust not in their feelings, but only His Word: “a little while and you will see me”; and “your sorrow will turn into joy.” Their experience would be like the pangs of a woman during childbirth. Sorrow and death would be swallowed up in joy and victory in “a little while.”
We have the privilege of knowing how the story unfolded and of Jesus’ triumph over death. We also have His post-Easter promise: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20b) So we will never be tested in exactly the same way as the disciples. However, many of us will experience intense grief in this life, which may test our faith and hope in Christ. This grief may be the result of personal tragedy, a sin or illness. Grief can feel eternal and lead one into total despair and unbelief, unless we cling to three little words given us by our Lord: “a little while.”
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22)
Jesus left His disciples for a little while, so He could complete His vocation. He came as God’s Suffering Servant. “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Is 53:4-5)
After a little while Jesus did see His disciples again and they rejoiced. By His resurrection Jesus defeated the devil and the powers of sin and death. This he accomplished for us: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (1 Cor 15:22-23)
By rising from the dead, Jesus made good on his promise to the disciples. To us, His Christians, we have Jesus’ promise that all our sufferings and sorrows in this life are temporary. When we feel the heavy weight of our sufferings and sorrows, we must not trust our feelings or what the world says to us; we must trust only His three words: “a little while.”
Jesus has redeemed us. In Baptism He has received us into His Father’s family. In a little while our hearts will rejoice, and no one will be able to take our joy from us. Amen.
“Sometimes I feel discouraged and think my work’s in vain,
But then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.”
(There is a Balm in Gilead, verse 1) Amen.
Well done, Jean.
Sometimes a little while seems like an eternity…but it really is just a little while…
What I always found interesting is that Jesus talked about taking up a cross, yet no one asked him exactly what he was talking about. “Cross? What cross?”
It’s interesting that the “wicked generation” asked for a sign, Jesus coming down from the cross (has anyone else seen the body-builder Jesus ripping the cross apart that I’ve seen on social media? *eyeroll*). He arose 3 days later and was seen by hundreds. The miracles weren’t signs enough, nor were the Apostolic miracles recorded in Acts.
Abraham’s words to the tormented rich man: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (foreshadowing the rejection of the Resurrected Christ).
During the times of the Patriarchs, God talked directly to people, and still they sinned, starting with Cain. If talking directly to God wasn’t enough, definitive proof that He exists, then it calls to question how fruitful it is to engage and argue with atheists.
“Cross? What cross?”….
Thanks for getting me to consider it that way, Victor.
It never hit me that a cross wouldn’t seem arbitrary to them when Jesus said that.
A cross seems common to us.
It would have been shocking to them.
i often wonder why humanity is so vulnerable to perspective… “thousand years are as a day” with the Lord…
looking at Michael’s illustration for Jean’s post reminded me of visual perspective (after i got past wondering if it was high or low tide 🙂 )
reminded me of a teaching moment i received years ago
the neighbors’ house – which was really quite far from ours by city standards – back home after a month out on the water among the islands up in this part of the world, glancing out my kitchen window, the house next door startled me – it was right on top of us! – if we’d been two boats navigating among those islands that would have been true… don’t we make most of our judgements by our own experience/perspective? i wish that i walked close enough to the Lord to judge more by His perspective… these crosses, these burdens are not too heavy if our perspective can just line up with His… all flesh is grass, withering grass, but we are more than flesh – Praise God (excuse the fundy moment)
For the Christian, there is a battle for perspective between the Spirit and the flesh which each of us lives with.
For the non-Christian, the dominant perspective is informed by the flesh.
Without hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the perspective of time, which Em wisely reminds us of, suicide, overdose, addiction, etc., become tools for coping or solving the sufferings of human existence. Lord have mercy.
Victor and Costco #’s 2, 3,
Regarding, “Cross? What cross?”
In the time of Jesus the cross of crucifixion was well understood by the people of that day. Jesus’ being on the cross was preceded by many, many persons. Either way (the cross of Jesus, or the cross of the common men) the term of taking up a cross would have been easily understood as accepting your punishment by the laws of the time.
Of course it is just as common as when we say – pick up your electric chair and follow me. 😉
well, the comments have me thinking again (and learning, maybe)… MLD is wrong because the murderer’s last walk today doesn’t require carrying his own chair… i thot that and then i thot about what carrying a cross meant then… you were a public display, headed for a crucifixion… talk about a “perp walk!”
i remember a song from my youth: “Are ye able, said the Master to be crucified with me and the sturdy dreamers answer, “To the death, we follow Thee …… Lord, we are able, our spirits are Thine, remold us, make us like Thee, divine…. ” we sang it, probably meant it, but were clueless….
A cross is just as much a sign of God’s wrath as an electric chair or any other source of death. Death is the wages of sin. The thing that separates the the Christian from the unbeliever is not sin or even Christ’s atonement. It is the Christian’s faith in Christ and His Gospel.
This Gospel changes death from eternal separation from God into sleep “a little while.” And this worldview changes our ability to have joy and hope, endurance and patience in the midst of suffering. For me, I can’t even begin to imagine what an unbeliever of my age might be thinking as he/she goes to bed every night.