Just for a season...

“A Little While”

(John 16:16-22, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 17, 2010)

John 16:16-22 ¹⁶ "A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me." ¹⁷ 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'?" ¹⁸ So they were saying, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We do not know what he is talking about." ¹⁹ 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'? ²⁰ 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. ²¹ 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. ²² 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.

Q: What does Jesus assure His disciples concerning His resurrection?

A: “Your hearts will rejoice.” (John 16:22)

We do not know what He is talking about (16-19)

Jesus has been warning His disciples that He is going to the Father, and that they will face persecution. Those two facts will shape the rest of their lives. Some of these men will live for many more years. During almost all the rest of their days, Jesus will be at the right hand of the Father in the highest heavens. Also, during almost all their remaining days, they will have people in their lives who will be deeply critical of them, of their Master, and of the message that He gave them to preach. This much the Lord has already revealed to His disciples, and though He has not told any of them how long they will live, or exactly when He will return, we understand that He is preparing them for the long haul, for the many years they may have remaining on this earth.

In the verses before us today, we have something different, something very imminent, something that will happen soon, something they will experience and even see with their own eyes in “a little while.” It makes a great deal of difference to us to know how long we will have to wait for something. Most people find it very hard to be patient. In these verses Jesus is speaking to his friends about something that will take place in a little while, followed by something else that will take place just a little while later. This is not the long haul. It is all happening very soon.

We know very clearly what Jesus is talking about here, but His disciples did not understand it at all. We understand that in a little while Jesus will be crucified, He will die, and He will be buried. We know that a little while after that Jesus will rise again. We understand because we live after all this has taken place, and it is obvious after it has happened. They don’t understand because they could not think about a man like Jesus, a great miracle worker, actually dying, and in the most disgraceful way, and then somehow coming back to life. Once this all happens, it will be very obvious to them as it is now to us. Until that time, even when they think that they understand, they really are not able to take it in. As they admit among themselves, “We do not know what he is talking about.”

This ignorance about the specifics of the future is a normal part of our existence. Even when we think that we know what is going to happen next in our lives, it’s just a little game that we play with ourselves. We don’t know what is ahead of us. We do have some information given to us in the Scriptures to help us to understand our destiny over the long haul, our life in heaven, and our eternal life in the resurrection at the return of Christ, but we find it very hard to say with true certainty what will happen to us or to anyone else in a little while.

Weeping and rejoicing (20)

Jesus is different on this point. He is not just guessing when He indicates that something very major is going to happen in a little while, and that a second major thing will take place a little while beyond the first event. We know that these events of not seeing Jesus and then seeing Him again are major because of the reaction that people will have to them. The Lord indicates that the response to the first event, his death, will be divided. The disciples will weep and lament in a little while when they do not see Jesus any more. A second group, called here the world, will have a very different reaction to the death of Jesus. He says here that the world will rejoice.

“The world” as Jesus uses these words here refers to those who do not believe in Him. We all live in this world, and all of us here under the sun have much in common. But there are some in this world that are somehow different. The Bible uses the word “saints” in certain places to refer to those who are in the world, but are not of the world. This word “saints” means “the ones who are set apart,” or “holy ones.” These saints who would be deeply saddened to be separated from Jesus are simply called here “you.” We know that Jesus is talking to the eleven disciples, but they stand for the larger group of those who love Jesus. They are like the world in very many ways, but at least in this one thing they are different than the world. They love Jesus and they will be very sad when He is gone.

This sadness will be temporary. Their sorrow will turn into joy, not because they will have more time to think about the death of Jesus, and to decide that it is a good thing that He died. That will happen, but it is not what Jesus is talking about here. Their sorrow will turn into joy because in a little while they will see Him again. As Jesus speaks these words they are moving toward the end of one week, but by the first day of the very next week, he will have risen from the dead, and they will see him again, and that’s why they will be so happy.

Why can’t everyone be happy about seeing Jesus again? Paul says that in one of Jesus’ resurrection appearances more than 500 people saw Him. The apostles who gave their lives to bring the message of that resurrection to the world were convinced that it had happened. Why is it that the world would rejoice when Jesus died, and that His disciples would rejoice when He had risen? We are not given an answer to that question here. We just listen to what Jesus says, and we notice that there will be a difference between the world and the disciples, and that the weeping of the disciples will turn to joy in just a little while, since they will see the Lord again.

The trial and joy of new life (21-22)

If the weeping of the disciples will turn to joy in such a short time, is there any point to the weeping? Can they just skip it? There is a purpose in the three days of weeping, though I won’t presume to tell you what it is. Some things have to be experienced rather than talked about. Joy will come in the morning. God has made life that way. There is a future joy that somehow touches our present distress if we are ready to receive it. That joy may even come whether we think we are ready for it or not. “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.”

Too often we find ourselves coming back to the same disturbing thoughts, the same struggle between two good goals that don't seem to fit together, the same problems that we cannot seem to fix. It can be maddening. Could it be that we need to entertain the thought that the difficulty we face today is only for a season? Is there some lesson in the death and resurrection of Jesus that God has written into our lives, some pattern reinforcing this truth into the details that we care about the most, that in a little while, we'll see Jesus, and then no one will take our joy away?

Naomi and her two sons went to live in Moab, because there was a famine in Bethlehem. It must have seemed that the famine would last forever. However long it did last, it is not the big story now. While their family was away from home, her husband and two sons died. She came back to Bethlehem with her daughter-in-law Ruth as an empty woman. She thought that nothing good could ever come of her life, but that is not the way her story ended. It was not long after she and Ruth had returned before hunger and wisdom brought the young Moabite woman to the property of a man named Boaz. Before much time had passed Naomi actually had a plan. When Ruth came home from seeing Boaz one night, do you remember what Naomi said to her about how long it would take Boaz to be their kinsman-redeemer? “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.” In a little while Boaz married Ruth, and God had soon provided a new generation. He does that sort of thing. So Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. Life went on. Compared to the vastness of eternity it was just a little while until another descendant of Ruth, Mary, gave birth to the One who was the called by the apostle Paul, the image of the invisible God, the icon of God, Jesus the real “Son of David.”

There was a man called Bartimaeus, a blind beggar. Maybe he thought that nothing dramatically good could happen to his eyes. As Jesus was leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus heard about it. His eyes did not yet see, but his ears heard.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." And they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take heart. Get up; he is calling you." Throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

That's from Mark 10. Mark loves the word "immediately." You can be locked in some trouble that seems like it will never end, but it will. Many things can change for the better in a moment. It may not be today, but can you entertain the thought that winter will only last for a season? Maybe you have to wait your whole life as a blind man because the Son of David does not seem to pass by your house, yet because of the death and resurrection of the Messiah, we can say this with confidence: "In a little while you will see Jesus.” (Consider Colossians 1:15-23.) Borrow joy from the future today because of the Jesus who the disciples would see again after he died and rose again, and don’t be surprised if impossible problems that seem to last forever will soon be over because of Him.

1. What is Jesus talking about when He speaks to His disciples about “a little while” and why are they confused by His words?

2. What explains the different response of the world and the disciples to the events that will soon take place?

3. Is there some purpose to the anguish and sorrow that the disciples will face? Is there some purpose in waiting?

4. If you are in the midst of some present sorrow, could it be that you will be rejoicing in a little while, even in this life?