“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” John 16:22
Maybe it’s our hyperconnected world, or maybe I’m just getting to a certain age, but it seems like I hear of some new tragedy or sorrow every day. Sickness, death, misfortune. It’s everywhere. Sin really has made a mess of things here. And as I become more aware of these sorrows, I’m torn between two minds: Fear and faith. On the one hand, I am tempted to be anxious about my wife, my kids, my job, and on the other, I am fighting to believe the promises and character of God. Then I read these sweet words of Jesus.
“You have sorrow now…”
Jesus does not gloss over our sorrow. He acknowledges it. He stares it right in the face and calls it what it is. And He doesn’t rebuke us for the sorrow. It is an unavoidable fact of living in a world ravaged by sin: You have sorrow. And Jesus knows this by experience. He is the Man of Sorrows, the One acquainted with grief (Isa 53:3), and we see Him grieve over human depravity (Mark 3:5), sickness and death (John 11:35), and the unrepentant world (Matt 23:37). Jesus acknowledges our sorrow, and we know that we are not alone in our sorrow. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).
But He also throws in the word, “now.” Yes. You have sorrow… for now. Today is hard. This year is hard. The rest of your life may be hard. But only for now. This sweet word “now” clues us into a beautiful truth: The sorrow has an end. The sorrow is not forever. There is a temporal-ness to this suffering. To quote the Psalmist, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 34:5). And oh the morning! What kind of Day is coming that will make all of our life look like the black of night? What glory is waiting that ends all the sorrow? Can you imagine the tears wiped away and death swallowed up forever (Isa 25:8)? Can you see by faith the eternal joy and pleasure (Psalm 16:11)? We have sorrow, but only for now.
“…but I will see you again”
That temporal sorrow will fade away, but what is it that will drive that sorrow out? What will make our hearts rejoice? The glorious face of Christ will be the sorrow-killer. We will see Him! “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). If now we love Him without seeing Him, and, “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8), then what will it be when we actually see Him? Christ is the jewel of Heaven. He is the One before whom angels worship and elders fall down (Rev 5:8). Our eyes are to be “looking unto Jesus” now by faith, but that Day will not be a day of faith. It will be of sight! “But I will see you again.” What blessed comfort from the mouth of our Lord.
Trying to comprehend this truth is like staring at the ocean and trying to quantify how many molecules of water are held there. It’s an impossible task. But it’s glorious. Our sorrow is real and present, but it won’t always be. Jesus has promised that our sorrow now will be driven away by His coming again. On that Day our eyes will be on Him, and our sorrows will all make sense. I love the song The Sands of Time are Sinking, and I am reminded of this last line:
The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace;
Not at the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hands;
The Lamb is all the glory, of Emmanuel’s land.
The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel’s land. Amen.
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