Mourning Glory
We will mourn for a little while and then our pain will turn to joy.
“A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me." Then some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying to us, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?" They said, "What does he mean by this '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, "Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, 'A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me'? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. "I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father." His disciples said, "Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!" - John 16:16-33
There is pain that leads to joy, like the labor pains Jesus spoke about.
And there is pain that only gets worse and ends in death, which is also the pain that Jesus spoke about, only he didn't say it like that.
He wants us to have hope of eternal life through him, so he will make the journey visible to us.
He will endure the pain that leads to death and then return from death to show us there truly is another phase to our life, one that lasts forever.
He is trying to get us to see the pain that leads to death as a pain that leads to joy.
Can we buy into that?
It's not easy when we are witnessing someone we love go through it. It is horrible, in fact.
We want to believe that there will be joy and celebration after this life ends, but losing someone we love is so hard.
You could say that our loss is their gain, but we only get to see one half of that equation, and the other half is left to faith.
That is what makes mourning so tough.
We want to celebrate the second phase of our loved one's life but we only see loss and we only feel pain.
Maybe if we focus on Jesus and try to see him as one of us, we can get some comfort in knowing where this life ends and the next begins, but it is hard.
He tells us to take courage, and I guess that is what we have to do. What else is there?
More to come...