John 16:16-33

 

¹⁶  “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” ¹⁷ So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”¹⁸ So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” ¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.²¹ When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² 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. ²³ In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. ²⁵ “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ²⁷ for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” ²⁹ His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! ³⁰ Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”³¹ Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

 

Emily Bronte only wrote one novel in her lifetime:  Wuthering Heights.  I’ve been intrigued by Emily and her sisters ever since reading Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte’s novel Jane Eyre some years back.  It was an intriguing, odd and fascinating family.  Emily, her two sisters and her brother were all the children of a pastor.  They lived a fairly bleak but not unhappy life.  Emily died in the mid-19^th century, but not before writing her fascinating novel and also a number of poems.  As a matter of fact, she wrote her poetry in secret and, when her sister Charlotte found the poems and demanded that she publish them, Emily was initially very angry at her snooping sister.  In time, however, Emily would relent and her poems would be published.

One of Emily’s poems is entitled, “A Little While, A Little While.”  It is about the joy of going on vacation and the privilege of getting away from the burdens of life for a little while.  The poem begins with Emily recognizing that, for a moment, she has escaped the difficulties of life:

A LITTLE while, a little while,

The weary task is put away,

And I can sing and I can smile,

Alike, while I have holiday.

 

Where wilt thou go, my harassed heart–

What thought, what scene invites thee now

What spot, or near or far apart,

Has rest for thee, my weary brow?

She then proceeds to talk about where she has gone on vacation.  She describes the place she has gone and, in general, rejoices that she has escaped the difficulties of life for a little while.  But, alas, it is only for a little while.  The poem concludes with these words:

Even as I stood with raptured eye,

Absorbed in bliss so deep and dear,

My hour of rest had fleeted by,

And back came labour, bondage, care.

I understand her sentiments perfectly.  Do you?  I suspect most of you do.  It seems like much of life involves navigating the various challenges and difficulties and cares that present themselves to us on a day-to-day base.  Sometimes life can feel like a struggle punctuated by “the little whiles” here and there that we manage to steal from the grind and in which we exult.  And, regrettably, like Emily Bronte says, our hour of rest goes fleeting by and back comes labor, bondage, care.

A little while.  It seems sometimes like joy lasts just for a little while.

Emily Bronte knew this and she experienced the fleeting joys of “the little whiles.”  But I cannot help but wonder if she might have been up to something more with her poem.  She was the daughter of a preacher, after all, and had almost certainly heard her father preacher from the gospel of John.  Had she heard her father preach from the latter half of John 16?  I wonder.  I wonder because in John 16, Jesus speaks, enigmatically and provocatively to His wondering disciples, of two “little whiles.”  Now, I do not know that Emily had the words of Jesus in mind.  If she did, she was possibly turning around in a playful manner the essence of Jesus’ teaching on “a little while.”  For whereas Emily Bronte saw joy as “the little while” in a sea of worries and caries, Jesus says that the troubles we face are ultimately “the little while” in a sea of divine joy.

Jesus spoke of “the little while” to prepare His disciples, once again, for what they were about to witness in the final events of Jesus’ earthly incarnation.  But I believe He also did so to offer us a context for understanding “the little whiles” in which we find ourselves today.  In other words, He spoke thus to comfort His people as they travel the Christian journey.  As such, it is important that we listen closely to His message today.

I.  The Christian Life is One of Momentary Sorrow Eclipsed By Eternal Joy (v.16-22)

He begins with a puzzling and almost riddled statement:

¹⁶  “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”

The reaction of the disciples is mildly humorous but also, frankly, comforting to us today.

¹⁷ So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

This is mildly humorous because we can imagine them whispering their confusion even as they try to keep up appearances.  After all, they only grumble “to one another.”  And the last sentence – “We do not know what he is talking about.” – is disarming in its honesty.

But it is also comforting, is it not?  After all, have we not, at times, whispered the same to ourselves and to one another?  Have we not struggled at times to understand what the Lord Jesus is trying to tell us? Take heart when you struggle to understand the words of Jesus.  You are in good company.

Of course, they may whisper this to one another, but the Lord Jesus knows perfectly well what is being said.

¹⁹ Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. ²¹ When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²² 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.

Jesus acknowledges their confusion and offers a further explanation of “the little whiles” about which He has spoken.  He does this by adding a new dimension to the two “little whiles” He has mentioned.

The two “little whiles” are sequential and chronological:  “A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me.”  So we have two “little whiles,” the first following the second.

In Jesus’ further explanation, however, He links sadness and pain with the first “little while” and joy and gladness with the second “little while.”  Let us consider the attributes He gives to both:

The First “Little While”

• “you will not seem me” (v.19b)
• “you will weep and lament” (v.20a)
• “you will sorrow” (v.20b)
• likened to a woman in labor and pain (v.21a)
• “you have sorrow now” (v.22a)
  

 

The Second “Little While”

• “you will see me” (v.19c)
• “your sorrow will turn to joy” (v.20b)
• likened to a new mother who “no longer remembers the anguish” because of her “joy” (v.21b)
• “I will see you again” (v.22b)
• “your hearts will rejoice, and nobody will take your joy from you” (v.22c)
  

So Jesus speaks of two “little whiles” to His disciples, the first of which is marked by pain and the second of which is marked by joy.  The dominant “little while” is the second.  It will overcome and eclipse the first.  That is, the joy will overcome the pain.  The first is one of momentary sorrow.  The second is one of eternal joy.  Whatever these “little whiles” are, this is undoubtedly the nature of each.

I say “whatever these ‘little whiles’ are” because at least one of these, the second, remains disputed to this day.  Most interpreters are in agreement that the first “little while,” the one marked by sorrow and pain and sadness and separation from Jesus, is the crucifixion of Jesus.  I agree completely.  After all, for a number of chapters now Jesus has been repeatedly and through various means preparing the disciples for the coming agonies and horrors of the cross.  Of course, they cannot comprehend what is about to happen until it happens, but Jesus prepares them even so.

So this is the first “little while.”  In a little while the disciples are going to drink the cup of pain and loss and heartbreak and tragedy.  In a little while they will see their Savior and their friend nailed to a cruel cross.  In a little while they will watch Him die a horrible death before a jeering mob after being convicted by a kangaroo court.  In a little while, these men are going to suffer.

But what of the second “little while?”  What is the “little while” that is marked by a restoration of their relationship with Jesus, by joy, by gladness, by a happiness so overwhelming that it drives out their former pain?  Over the years, three schools of thought have sprung up concerning this second “little while.”  They are:

• The second “little while” refers the resurrection of Jesus after the crucifixion.
• The second “little while” refers to Pentecost and the joy of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
• The second “little while” refers to the second coming of Christ.
  

To be sure, good cases can and have been made by good Christians over the years for each of these positions.  We could spend a very long time weighing the pros and cons of each.  In truth, though, I do not think that is necessary.  Regardless of whether you see the second “little while” as the resurrection, as Pentecost or as the second coming, we would all agree that each of these three fulfills in powerful ways that hope and joy and gladness that Jesus said would characterize the second “little while.”  In other words, in a very real way, the principle of the second “little while” rightly refers to all of these gloriously joyful and cataclysmic events:  resurrection, Pentecost and second coming.

Be that as it may, I personally feel most persuaded by the first of these three options.  I believe it is most natural to view this second “little while” as a reference to the resurrection.  The resurrection of Jesus will come just a little while after the horrors of the crucifixion and it will eclipse and obliterate the despair that gripped the disciples just a little while before at the crucifixion of Jesus.

The resurrection was the rising of the morning sun of joy that drove back the black night of the horrors of Calvary.  I agree with A.T. Robertson who defined the first “a little while (mikron)” as “the brief period now till Christ’s death” and “again a little while (palin mikron)” as “the period between the death and the resurrection of Jesus (from Friday afternoon till Sunday morning).”[i]

It is important for us to understand two things when we consider the two “little whiles”:  the particular situation about which Jesus was referring and the principle that emanates from these particles now and into eternity.

Specifically, Jesus is telling the disciples before the events play out that the momentary sorrow of the cross will be eclipsed by the eternal joy of the empty tomb.  In principle, and on this basis, Jesus is telling us all that the Christian life is one of momentary sorrow eclipsed by eternal joy.  What this means is that Jesus speaks to us today about “the little whiles” just as He spoke to His disciples about “the little whiles.”  Because the sorrow of Golgotha gave way to the ecstatic joy of Easter morning, so too we may know that whatever sorrows we are suffering under are but temporary in the face of the eternal joy Christ has purchased for us.

Are you suffering this morning?  It is just for a little while.

Are you in pain this morning?  It is just for a little while.

Are you confused this morning?  It is just for a little while.

Are you in tears this morning?  It is just for a little while.

It is just for a little while because the resurrected Jesus has driven back the darkness with the glorious light of His triumphant life!

We must understand the temporary and transitory nature of “the little whiles” in which we find ourselves. Some of you are here this morning and you are languishing.  All you have is the first “little while,” the “little while” of pain, of sorrow, of doubt, of grief, of fear, of despair, of judgment, of no peace.  Your “little while” has become a “long while.”  In truth, your “little while” has become “all there is.”  This is all there is for you because you have not come to Jesus and accepted Him as Savior and Lord.  You are stuck on the dark side of “the little whiles.”  You stand yet on the far side of the cross and all you see is the sin within you for which Jesus died.

But if you would come to Jesus, if you would dare to embrace the cross that you think condemns you, you would find that the cross is the gateway to eternal life and to a joy that you cannot fathom.  The cross was the road Jesus walked to the empty tomb.  The first “little while” of Good Friday gave way to the second and more glorious “little while” of Easter joy!

Do not stay in the first “little while,” believer!  Christ is risen and the Spirit has come and Christ shall come again!  Let the light of the gospel beat back the darkness of your own pain.  Do not stay in the first little while!

And you need not stay there either, unbeliever.  Come to the crucified and risen again Christ and enter the joy of the second “little while.”  All is not as it seems.  The black night has given way before the rising Son.  The momentary sorrows of this life have been defeated by eternal joy!

II. The Christian Life is One of Ever-Filling Joy Through an Ever-Closer Walk With Jesus (v.23-28)

And this joy, Jesus says, is ever-growing.  The second “little while” will be marked by an ever-closer walk with Jesus culminating in an ever-filling joy from Jesus.

²³ In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Do you see?  The new life we have through the resurrected Jesus is one in which our wills are increasingly fused.  We take on, in other words, the mind of Christ increasingly as we walk with Him. This does not mean that we become Jesus.  It simply means that the resurrection of Jesus leads us into certain inescapable conclusions concerning His deity, His mediatorial role of intercessor, the need to begin viewing life through His life and the need to call upon the Lord in Jesus’ name.  The result of this deepening relationship will be an ever-increasing joy, a deeper understanding of what was previously mysterious and a greater grasp of just how very much God loves us in Christ.  Listen:

²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. ²⁵ “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; ²⁷ for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

The Christian life, then, is one of ever-filling joy through an ever-closer walk with Jesus.

“Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full!”  We learn to ask because we learn to trust.  We learn to trust because we learn to walk with Jesus.  We learn to walk with Jesus because He lives now and forevermore.

Pain lasts for just a little while, but, in Christ Jesus, the pain of life loses its grip because it has increasingly less and less room in the face of greater and greater joy.  The ever-filling joy of Jesus, poured into us as we receive the Holy Spirit of God and as we learn to walk in His ways, leaves no crevices for the miseries of the first “little while” to hide.

“That your joy may be full!”

That you may know Jesus!

That you may love Jesus!

That you may learn to think with the mind of Jesus!

That you may learn just how much Jesus loves you!

“That your joy may be full!”

That darkness of the first “little while” is retreating even now in the face of the second.  The resurrected Jesus comes carrying a joy that the darkness cannot overcome.  Oh come out of “the little while” in which you are stuck and let Jesus fill you with joy!

III. The Christian Life is One of Temporal Defeats Conquered by an Eternal Love (v.29-33)

What this means is that the Christian life is one of temporal defeats conquered by an eternal love.  In v.29, the disciples speak:

²⁹ His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!³⁰ Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

Let us not judge our brothers, the disciples, for thinking they knew more than they knew.  After all, we would not have grasped the full significance of the enigmatic words of Jesus at this point either.  We, too, would have been, and are, hard of hearing and learning.  But at least they begin to grasp that whatever dark thing of pain Jesus is alluding to, it will not last forever, for Jesus, they realize, “knows all things” and “came from God.”

This is true, but Jesus’ response reveals that they do not understand the battle that lies ahead.  He turns on them, as it were, in order to reinforce the fact that while the second “little while” will carry great joy with it, the first “little while” will indeed carry with it a bitter pain.

³¹ Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? ³² Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

The first “little while,” Jesus reveals, will not just be something that happens to them, it will shame them as well.  For while the disciples will “be scattered” at the crucifixion, they will “leave [Jesus] alone” in His time of greatest trial.  In other words, the first “little while” is not merely a trial, it is also a personal defeat, a personal failing.

The Christian life is one of temporal defeats.  We, like the disciples, are not only victims of the first “little while,” we also contribute to our own shame therein.  Who here today has not known the bitter pain of failing in “the little whiles” of life?  Who here today has not known what it is to look back on your pain and realize that oftentimes we contribute to the darkness of the bleak “little whiles” in which we languish.

“In the world you will have tribulation.”  That is true.  And sometimes we invite it.  And sometimes we even cause it.  And oftentimes we are shamefully weak in the midst of this.

Even so, Jesus does not say this to crush them.  “I have said these things to you,” He says in v.33, “that in me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Two “little whiles”: the first is one of defeat, the second is one of eternal and conquering love.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, dear friends, listen to me:  there are two “little whiles.”

In the first, we weep.  In the second, we laugh for joy.

In the first, we fail.  In the second, we are victorious.

In the first, we are sinners.  In the second, we are saints.

In the first, the Lord is crucified.  In the second, He rises again.

In the first, we are on our own.  In the second, the Spirit has come.

In the first, we wait.  In the second, He comes again.

In the first little while, our hearts give up.  In the second little while, our hearts dare to believe.

In the first, I am a worm.  In the second, I am a new creation.

In the first little while, I am alone with my misery.  In the second, I am forever with my Savior.

Oh come to the Jesus of “the little whiles.”

Oh come to the Lamb of God.