The Sorrow and the Joy of the Cross

“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).

Jesus’ revelation that He will go and then return confuses the disciples. They are trying to understand all that Jesus said to them. They are wondering among themselves out of earshot of Jesus. Aware of their confusion, Jesus tells the disciples their sorrow will be turned into joy. The very event that plunges them into grief will soon lift them to joy. What is it that will overwhelm them with such sorrow? It is the cross. Jesus compares their coming experience with childbirth. Before the baby is born, there is pain and sorrow. But once the baby is born, the focus suddenly shifts from the pain to the joy of having a baby. The event is celebrated annually, not as a day of sorrow, but as a day of joy. The event did not change but the focus of the event did. The joy of the birthday overcomes the sorrow of the birthday. While the sorrow is temporary, the joy is lasting. Today we see that as Jesus prepared His disciples for His departure, He included a word about the promise of His return. In every age, maturing disciples who are acquainted with His suffering are also confidently anticipating His victorious return as we become more intimately familiar with the sorrow and the joy of the cross.

Once again, our Teacher, the Holy Spirit, confronts our preconceptions and expectations about what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. We’ve recently seen that Jesus taught that a true disciple is one who embraces and abides His truth… “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:31-32). A diligent disciple earnestly seeks out and applies the whole truth of God’s word. The truth about the cross is that it has a sorrowful as well as a joyful side. There are many churches and preachers today that emphasize only the joyful side of the cross. They can leave us feeling like we’re not really saved if we are not joyful all the time. They lead us to believe we must be sinning if we’re suffering. I often wonder what they would say to the disciples who suffered persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death for the sake of the cross. What does Jesus have to say to you and me in the midst of our sickness, persecution, struggle with temptation, and other such trials?

Today we see that Jesus did not deny the sorrow of the cross. He did not tell the disciples to deny the sorrow they were hiding from Him and He does not ask you to deny the sorrow you may be experiencing today. In fact, the Teacher inspired the prophet Isaiah to reveal that the incarnate Word of God was intimately familiar with our sorrow and grief… “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). The Teacher exhorts us to follow Paul’s example and seek to experience both the sorrow of Christ’s suffering and the joy of His resurrection… “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11). Jesus encouraged His disciples to look past the sorrow of the cross where they would discover a truth so incredible, it would transform their sorrow into joy. He experienced this transforming truth Himself in the middle of His dying work on the cross… “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

As we grow up into Christ the sorrow and the joy of this life help us to better know and share…

The Sorrow and the Joy of the Cross.