Context No. 2619 of 4322 · John

John 16:17-22: in context

17Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?” 18They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.” 19Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? 20Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 21A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world. 22Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

On the night before he dies, Jesus tells the disciples that in a little while they will not see him, and then a little while and they will. They are baffled. He does not explain the timeline; he gives them a picture instead. You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, he says, but your sorrow will turn into joy, like a woman in labor whose anguish is forgotten in the joy of the child born. I will see you again, and no one will take your joy from you.

The labor image is the heart of it. The pain of childbirth is real, not minimized, but it is not the end of the story; it gives way to a joy that swallows the memory of the anguish. Jesus does not promise the disciples they will be spared sorrow; the cross is coming, and grief with it. He promises that the sorrow is not final, that it is the pain before a birth, and the joy on the far side of it cannot be taken away. That changes how present grief is carried, not as a dead end, but as labor pains before a joy that lasts.

Can I carry present sorrow as labor pains, trusting it will turn into a joy that no one can take away, rather than as a dead end?

Sources

John 16:20: You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
John 16:21: A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn't remember the anguish any more, for the joy.
John 16:22: Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.