Sigurd Grindheim

Reunion

I remember once I had to go to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. It is the second busiest airport in the world. Thousands of people are always coming and going. Some are waiting to meet friends or family members who are flying in from somewhere. This day I was going to pick up someone who came to visit. But I was early, so I had to walk around the airport and wait. Among the many, many people I saw, there was a mother and her little daughter. They were also waiting. Suddenly, the little girl started running towards a man that was coming out of baggage claim. She climbed up on him like he was a tree, until she could throw both her arms around his neck and hug him. The man had to drop all his luggage, so that he could grab the little girl to keep her from falling down and hurting herself. It was such a beautiful moment. All the other people who were waiting in the same room, started clapping for the little girl and her love for her dad. She had missed him so much while he was gone. And now she could not wait to be close to him again. As close as possible. With both arms around his neck.

The text for today also talks about separation and reunion.

John 16:16-23a ( TNIV): Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything.

This world is a cruel place. Evil people have success and good people suffer. Those who rise to the top in this world are often those who are best at stepping on others, those who don’t have any scruples, but can use other people for their own advantage. Why is it that some people work very hard all day long but at the end of the day they hardly have enough money to buy a decent meal? Whereas other people don’t have to work at all and yet they have so much money they don’t know what to do with it? The world is a cruel place. The world is a place where evil often prevails. Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, had experienced this. He knew that the world was an evil place, and it made him sad. He envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked (v. 3). “They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong” (v. 4). “This is what the wicked are like—always free of care, they go on amassing wealth” (v. 12).

One of the reasons why I like to read the Bible is because it describes the world in a way that I can recognize as true. It does not say that those who follow Jesus will always be happy. If the Bible had said that I would have had a problem. Because I’m not always happy. Sometimes I am sad. Sometimes I am sad because this world can be a cruel place. If the Bible had said that Christians would always be happy I would have had to do one of two things. Either I could not be a Christian or I would have to pretend that I was happy all the time. But that would have been a problem. Because it would not be true. Because sometimes I am sad. But I like reading the Bible because the Bible describes the world in a way that I recognize. It does not say that Christians will be happy all the time. It says that sometimes we will be sad. In the text for today, Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy” (v. 20).

What Jesus had in mind was that he would soon be handed over to be crucified. He was going to die and the disciples would no longer see him. Jesus wanted them to be prepared for that. He knew that they would have sorrow. But he did not want them to be without hope. Your grief will turn to joy, he told them. Their grief would not prevail. To help the disciples understand, he made a comparison. It is like a woman giving birth. I have never given birth myself, so I don’t know what it is like. But people tell me it is one of the most painful things you can experience in your life. Just to try to imagine it is painful to me. Yet, women who have recently given birth are very happy. Their friends and family can’t wait to visit them and congratulate them on their happiness. Because the joy of new life is so much greater than the pain. The joy of seeing one’s own newborn baby is so much greater than the suffering. I don’t know very much Amharic, but I have learned that all Amharic names mean something. My favorite name so far is Desalegn (“I am happy”). I have a Desalegn in one of my classes at the seminary, and he smiles all the time. I can imagine that when he was born his parents were so happy they just had to call him Desalegn.

It is something like this Jesus says that the disciples have to be prepared for. They will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. When Jesus went to the cross his enemies were happy. They thought they had won. The disciples thought that Jesus had lost and that evil prevailed. But Jesus knew better. He knew that his crucifixion was not the victory of evil. In fact, the crucifixion was Jesus’ victory over evil. When he was in pain on the cross he exclaimed: “It is finished” (John 19:30). When Jesus died he won his victory over all evil forces. When Jesus died he brought salvation to the world. Because Jesus is the only human being who has ever lived who did not have to die. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23), the Bible says, and, therefore all human beings have to die. “For all have sinned” (Rom 3:23). But not Jesus. He was without sin. He did not have to die. “I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord,” Jesus says in John 10:17-18. Jesus laid down his life so that he could give life to us, so that he could save us from sin and death. That is why Jesus looked ahead to the time of his death as the time of his victory, the time of his glorification. He knew that he was going to lay down his life, and he knew that he was going to take it up again. For death had no power over him. Evil had no power over him. Pontius Pilate had no power over him. Jesus died because he voluntarily gave up his life for you and me. And because of that he also had the power to take his life back. He had the power to throw off the chains of Hades and rise to life again. That is why he tells his disciples: “your grief will turn to joy” (v. 20). It will seem like Jesus has lost. It will seem like evil prevails. And for that reason the world will rejoice. But it will only be for a moment.

“At this, some of his disciples said to one another, What does he mean by saying, In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me, and Because I am going to the Father?” (v. 17). “The disciples were puzzled about what Jesus meant when he said this. They kept asking, What does he mean by a little while? We don’t understand what he is saying” (v. 18). Later interpreters have also wondered what Jesus refers to when he says that after a little while you will see me. Could he be thinking of his resurrection? But later on he goes on to say: “In that day you will no longer ask me anything” (v. 23). That does not seem to have been fulfilled at the resurrection. The disciples still need to ask something of Jesus. Perhaps Jesus is talking about his second coming? Then his disciples will rejoice and they will not need to ask anything. But could Jesus have meant that his second coming was taking place in a little while? Maybe Jesus instead meant that the disciples were going to see him in a spiritual way, when he sent them the Holy Spirit. A little bit earlier, in v. 7, Jesus had said: “Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

I think all of these answers are true. Jesus did see his disciples again after his resurrection, and then their grief was turned to joy. But Jesus is also saying this to us. He knows that we will have grief when we lose sight of Jesus and when it seems to us that evil forces prevail in this world. He reminds us of three things.

1. Evil forces have been defeated once and for all when Jesus triumphed over them on the cross. The apostle Paul says in Col 2:15: “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

When we see evil forces in the world today, what we see are the spasms of death. It is like when you chop the head off a chicken. It keeps running around for a little while, until it realizes that it doesn’t have a head, and then it falls dead. The evil forces are already defeated. Christ triumphed over them on the cross.

2. We experience the victory over evil forces through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The worst thing about the evil forces is that they are not only at work in the world around us. They are at work in you and me, too. We experience it every day. We experience it in our family. I know that even though I love my wife, sometimes I am not very nice to her. Sometimes I say things to her that are not very nice. Sometimes I am not being a very nice person, and it is ruining the atmosphere in our home. Evil forces are at work in our home and the worst part of it is, those evil forces are me. And when I lose sight of Jesus it seems like the evil forces will prevail.

Jesus’ promise to his disciples is that he will come to us through his Holy Spirit, and he will dwell in our hearts. The Holy Spirit “will teach [us] all things and will remind [us] of everything [Jesus] have said to us” (John 14:26). He will remind us of the forgiveness that Jesus has given us. He will remind us that Jesus has triumphed over evil, and most important of all, that he has triumphed over the evil that is in our own heart. That means that not even all the evil we see ourselves can condemn us before God. Not even all of our sin can separate us from the love of God. Our deepest grief in this world is caused by our own sin, and our own evil heart. But also this grief will be turned to joy. For Jesus gives us victory over evil.

And the Holy Spirit will teach us the way that Jesus has showed us, the way of love. The way of not seeking our own. The way of honoring one another above ourselves. The way of forgiveness. When we see Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit our grief will turn to joy. Because we will see that evil does not prevail. The Holy Spirit will teach us to break the chains of evil. The Holy Spirit will show us the face of Jesus.

3. One day Jesus will come so that we can see him with our eyes, on a day when we will not have to ask him anything. Then he will make everything new, and there will no longer be any evil in the world. At that time “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). And best of all is that we will “not need the sun or the moon to shine on [us], for the glory of God gives [us] light, and the Lamb is [our] lamp” (Rev 21:23). Then we will see Jesus face-to-face, and we can climb right up to him and throw our arms around his neck.