Do You Want to Grieve or Rejoice?
Do You Want to Grieve or Rejoice?
Read the text: John 16:20
We have been spending Holy Week in the Upper Room. I believe there is significance in the Upper Room. Let me suggest two:
Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. -John 16:20
When Jesus speaks of grieving being turned to rejoicing, he’s speaking of a work God has been up to since the very beginning of time. I want to challenge you with this thought this week by giving you some examples through the Old Testament and then into the New Testament. My challenge for us this evening is to realize that we are worshipping and serving the same God of the Bible who wants to turn your grieving into joy.
Old Testament
We start at the beginning of the Bible with Adam and Eve. Their story is shot through with grief -- story that establishes what will be the story of humanity. We watch as they sin and are cast from the holy garden and cast into a fallen world. What comes with that transition is having to toil for their food, pain in childbirth, rivalry of their sons with the outcome of having Abel murdered by his brother. This story ends with:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” --Genesis 3:15
Jesus is promised and the Last Supper is part of that promise.
We can jump ahead to Abraham and Sarah. We find them grieving because of their inability to conceive, which gives way to a sudden pregnancy, even in their old age.
We can then jump ahead Jacob or Joseph, Esther or Ruth, David or Elijah – and certainly Job. We can look at the story of the Flood. We have the Nation of Israel crying out for deliverance from slavery in Egypt – and then her deliverance. We need to notice all the ups and downs of the wilderness journey until they arrive at the Promised Land. As we saw in the previous devotional, we have the ups and downs of all the kings of Israel as they failed and succeeded. And of course we have the era of the Judges, another season of sin and repentance. These stories drive home the point:
This has been the work of God since the beginning to turn grieving into rejoicing.
New Testament
We see the same pattern in the New Testament. We again find a history of God turning grieving to rejoicing through Jesus. For our purposes we will just look through the Gospel of John. We have Nicodemus, the teacher of the Law who was stumped as to his spiritual health. We have the Samaritan Woman who was grieving just because she was not a Jew, she saw herself as a second-class citizen until she met Jesus and her grieving turned into joy. We travel through story after story until we arrive at the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. These stories show the same message:
This has been the work of God since the beginning to turn grieving to rejoicing.
This work usually took time. It often meant some loss. And it always had some mystery mixed in. But throughout the Old Testament and on into the unfolding story of Jesus, there was God, ever and always turning grieving to rejoicing.
All of this brings us to the Upper Room late on a Thursday night, and those words from Jesus. What does Jesus want his disciples understand as the weekend unfolds. Their beloved leader is going to appear to fail and they, the disciples, are going to grieve and the world will be rejoicing until Resurrection morning and then the friends of Jesus will be rejoicing.
My friends, the same is true for all of us. When we find ourselves in a time of grieving, and we will, our enemies will rejoice. But we need to listen to the teaching of Jesus that as his children we WILL return to our time of rejoicing. A good lesson for this Holy Week so we can live as examples of Christ for our world.
Read the text: John 16:20
We have been spending Holy Week in the Upper Room. I believe there is significance in the Upper Room. Let me suggest two:
- It was where Jesus and his disciples celebrated a supper, the Passover meal, as a foundation to what would soon transpire.
- It was where Jesus offered a final stretch of teaching to his disciples. He taught them about the importance of His body and the power of His blood to take away humankind’s sins. He taught them to love one another through serving one another by washing each other’s feet.
Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. -John 16:20
When Jesus speaks of grieving being turned to rejoicing, he’s speaking of a work God has been up to since the very beginning of time. I want to challenge you with this thought this week by giving you some examples through the Old Testament and then into the New Testament. My challenge for us this evening is to realize that we are worshipping and serving the same God of the Bible who wants to turn your grieving into joy.
Old Testament
We start at the beginning of the Bible with Adam and Eve. Their story is shot through with grief -- story that establishes what will be the story of humanity. We watch as they sin and are cast from the holy garden and cast into a fallen world. What comes with that transition is having to toil for their food, pain in childbirth, rivalry of their sons with the outcome of having Abel murdered by his brother. This story ends with:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” --Genesis 3:15
Jesus is promised and the Last Supper is part of that promise.
We can jump ahead to Abraham and Sarah. We find them grieving because of their inability to conceive, which gives way to a sudden pregnancy, even in their old age.
We can then jump ahead Jacob or Joseph, Esther or Ruth, David or Elijah – and certainly Job. We can look at the story of the Flood. We have the Nation of Israel crying out for deliverance from slavery in Egypt – and then her deliverance. We need to notice all the ups and downs of the wilderness journey until they arrive at the Promised Land. As we saw in the previous devotional, we have the ups and downs of all the kings of Israel as they failed and succeeded. And of course we have the era of the Judges, another season of sin and repentance. These stories drive home the point:
This has been the work of God since the beginning to turn grieving into rejoicing.
New Testament
We see the same pattern in the New Testament. We again find a history of God turning grieving to rejoicing through Jesus. For our purposes we will just look through the Gospel of John. We have Nicodemus, the teacher of the Law who was stumped as to his spiritual health. We have the Samaritan Woman who was grieving just because she was not a Jew, she saw herself as a second-class citizen until she met Jesus and her grieving turned into joy. We travel through story after story until we arrive at the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. These stories show the same message:
This has been the work of God since the beginning to turn grieving to rejoicing.
This work usually took time. It often meant some loss. And it always had some mystery mixed in. But throughout the Old Testament and on into the unfolding story of Jesus, there was God, ever and always turning grieving to rejoicing.
All of this brings us to the Upper Room late on a Thursday night, and those words from Jesus. What does Jesus want his disciples understand as the weekend unfolds. Their beloved leader is going to appear to fail and they, the disciples, are going to grieve and the world will be rejoicing until Resurrection morning and then the friends of Jesus will be rejoicing.
My friends, the same is true for all of us. When we find ourselves in a time of grieving, and we will, our enemies will rejoice. But we need to listen to the teaching of Jesus that as his children we WILL return to our time of rejoicing. A good lesson for this Holy Week so we can live as examples of Christ for our world.
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