"A Little While"

 

“A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me” (John 16:16).

 

Now we come to our next “movement” in the Upper Room, John 16:16 – 22. As we ponder this passage, we may recall John 13:33 – 36 and 14:18 – 19, which is to say that the theme of Jesus going and coming, of not being seen and then being seen, is a theme of the Upper Room.

 

In our passage we see the uncertainty of Jesus not being seen and then seen again, and also of a coming season of weeping and lamentation and anguish, which will be followed by joy. Jesus says, “You too have grief now; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (John 16:22). Note that “joy” Is a theme of Upper Room, as is the peace which Jesus gives to us. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (15:11; see also 16:24, 17:13).

 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27; see also 16:33).

 

John 16:16 - 22 is nestled in the context of Sonship. In 16:12 – 15 we see our inheritance in the Son, and in 16:23 – 33 this glorious inheritance and life in the Trinity is reaffirmed in a striking manner. This in turn leads us into the Holy of Holies of Chapter 17, in the Father’s House, in His Heart, with the Eternal Son our Elder Brother, in the Holy Spirit.

 

Note the similarity between John 16:21 – 22 and Romans 8:22 – 23, the working of the Son comes through anguish and travail – but O how the childbirth is worth it, how the suffering and apparent uncertainty are worth it – to see the Son of God come forth from the bonds of death bringing His brothers and sisters with Him. We hear this cry from Paul when he writes, “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19).  In other words, what we see in Gethsemane, on the Cross, and on Easter morning is produced over and over again in the Church, in the brothers and sisters of Jesus, until the consummation of the ages. The Way of the Cross is our Way of Life, not the way of pleasure and selfishness and materialism, but rather of denying ourselves and losing our lives for Jesus Christ and others.  

 

When Jesus says, “Your grief will be turned into joy” (16:20), isn’t He showing us the Way of the Cross? Tolkien invented the word “eucatastrophe” (good catastrophe) to refer to an apparent disaster that produces wonderful and glorious results. Is not the Cross the ultimate and eternal eucatastrophe? Is it not the catastrophe from which all that is truly living and good and truthful and beautiful flows?

 

Just as the disciples had questions earlier in the Upper Room (John 14:5, 22), so they have questions now (16:17 – 18), “What is He saying? What does this mean?” I rather think that Jesus likes our questions, and perhaps He is sad that we don’t ask more questions of Him. Some of my most precious moments as a pastor have been when people have asked me questions during my Sunday morning sermons. Rather than become irritated by the interruptions, I welcomed the participation. After all, not only did it show that folks felt safe with me and with Christ, but it indicated that they were paying attention and pondering the Word of God and wanted to learn and grow in Jesus Christ.

 

In one sense, much of the Christian life is a “now I see Him, now I don’t” experience with Jesus. While He is always with us, we don’t always see Him clearly, and sometimes we may not see Him at all. This is not necessarily due to anything we have done or not done, it is often by His design to strengthen us, our vision, our faith, and our trust in Him. Too frequently we are like airplane pilots who can only fly visually, rather than by instrumentation; if we can’t visually see where we are going, we panic and need to land – Jesus wants us to trust Him and His Word, He wants us to learn to “live by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). The Holy Spirit and God’s Word will always bring us home.

 

Jesus is telling the disciples that turbulence is imminent, that grief and sorrow await them. They have no real idea what He means, and that is to be expected. Jesus sees what is coming, He has oriented His entire life toward Calvary, His followers can’t really conceive what is about to transpire.  

 

Throughout the Upper Room Jesus calls His friends to intimacy, He challenges them, He warns them, He reassures them. Jesus speaks of the immediate and also of the eternal. He warns of the storm, including the ongoing storm of persecution, and He also speaks of joy and comfort and peace and love.

 

Isn’t there a sense in which John 16:16 - 22 is the Christian life? Following Jesus means crucifixion, death, and resurrection as our Way of Life (Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20; 2Cor. 4:7 – 12). Furthermore, just as Jesus prepared His disciples for sorrow, pain, and joy, so we are called to prepare His followers for the same – we are not to be as the false teachers who teach a Christianity without the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. To follow Jesus is to share in the sufferings of Jesus, any message to the contrary is of the enemy (Matthew 17:21 – 23).

 

Note also the pattern of trial and persecution (John 15:18 – 16:4), vision and consolation (16:5 – 15), trial, suffering, and vision and consolation (16:16 – 22), and then vision and consolation with an element of trial (16:23 – 33). We see the glory of God in the midst of, out of, birthed from, suffering. This motif is similar to Romans 8:9 – 38 in which we see that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him” (8:17).

 

I think we might term John 16:16 – 22 a little primer in spiritual formation.

 

I hope one thing we’ll see in our passage is that it is normal for us to clearly see Jesus one moment, and not to see Him so clearly the next. When this occurs, which it likely will, it need not mean that there is anything wrong with us, what it often means is that Jesus loves us and wants us to grow in Him, to see Him in new ways and in new situations. We can always be assured that Jesus is with us…always, always, always. He is with us to the end of the age, and He will never leave us or forsake us (Mathew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5).

 

To be sure times of darkness can be excruciating, we may be as Paul and “despair of life,” feeling that we have “the sentence of death within ourselves,” but we can be assured that this is a lesson in “not trusting ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (see 2 Cor. 1:3 – 11).

 

The pathway into the Holy of Holies is not only a way of Living Bread and glorious Light, it is also a way of sacrifice, it is the Way of the Lamb, and O what glory to know the Lamb in the koinonia of His sufferings, that we might also know Him in the power of His Resurrection (Phil. 3:10)!

 

Have there been times in your life when you have seen Jesus, and then you haven’t, and then you have?

 

What can we learn from John 16:16 – 22?

 

How can we share this passage with our brothers and sisters?