TITLE
John 16:16-33 – Ascending to the Mountaintop
EXPLANATION
Hind sight is always so clear to we humans with our
limited myopic perspective. In verse 16
Jesus offered a riddle to His disciples.
To us, it seems rather simple and obvious. In a short time, the disciples would lose
sight of Christ, when He died and went into the tomb. Then, a little while after that, they would
see Him again, after He arose from the dead.
But of course, the only reason we know that is because we know how the
story ended. The disciples, lacking this
perspective, were understandably confused by their Master.
Yet, in spite of their confusion, Jesus revealed how
they would feel when the time came. They
would mourn intensely. They were going
to see their Lord arrested, tortured, and murdered. However, this agony was absolutely necessary,
because it was the only way for all righteousness to be fulfilled, according to
the Father’s plan of redemption. And
besides, the grief of the disciples was only temporary. Their sorrow would turn into joy when Christ
was resurrected.
Then Jesus, the master of illustrations, gave them one
for the record books. The experience of
the disciples was going to be like that of a pregnant woman who is about to
give birth. Her labor pains intensify
until the point of utmost agony. But
then, the birth comes, and the former pain is forgotten in the relief of birth
and the bliss of new life. This was how
it was going to be for the disciples.
And, upon attaining to that future state of joy, the
disciples could look forward to an intense joy that would be unmatched by
anything else in the world and that was incapable of being stripped from them
by any form of persecution or trial.
The disciples, of course, were only human. A typical tendency of our species is to be
over-confident and think we have a handle on things, when in reality we are far
from such a state of control. True to
form, the disciples thought they understood.
They felt confident, with the Lord still by their side. He disabused them of their arrogance by
prophesying that they would all desert Him in a little while. Yet, in spite of this failure, their joy was
going to be complete. They were going to
be persecuted by the world. But they
were able to take courage from the fact that Jesus had already overcome the
world.
APPLICATION
It is easy to read the Bible clinically. It all seems so far removed from us,
sometimes. We are reading about
historical events that occurred thousands of years before we were ever born. It is hard to treat this record of the past
as different than any other ancient history we may read about. In lives of comfort and ease, for those
Christians God has blessed in that way, we run the risk of not empathizing with
the people in Scripture.
Because of this, I think it is very helpful to try our
best to put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples. We should imagine what it would feel like to
be them. These men were thoroughly
perplexed at much of the teaching of their Messiah. They trusted Him, but their trust only went
so far at this point. They were frail
and fallible in their faith, which would be demonstrated conclusively in a few
hours. And, when the time came, they
would be utterly discouraged, thinking that their world had completely fallen
apart. Every hope and dream they
possessed would seem shattered and torn to pieces.
It would be in this context that they would eventually
come to the stunning realization that everything that they had dreamed of,
everything they had poured themselves into for the past three years, everything
they had staked their reputations and future on, was all true. Not only was it true, but it was so in a
manner wonderfully richer and deeper and surer than they ever could have
imagined. In about four days time, these
men would truly ascend to the mountaintop of joy. In order for us to join them there, we must
try to see through their eyes and experience the depths to which they would
sink before rising above the clouds.
Only by doing this, only by recognizing the gravity of our own hopeless
condition prior to coming to Christ, can we possibly value and appreciate what
we are in Him appropriately.
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