You know...this is one of the most closely held, and jealously-guarded promises in all of scripture! That whatever is your experience today, "in that day" (verses 23,26), all that Jesus has (vs. 15), will be available to you (vs. 23), and what joy that will be for us!
Now, up to this point in this chapter, Jesus had been dealing with some pretty lofty doctrine...the sending of Holy Spirit; but now, He's getting right down to where those discples were; right down to their spiritual weakness and their earthly sorrow. But do you know, those misunderstanding and unbelieving eleven, still could not fathom the depths of Jesus' promises. Even Jesus admits, in vs. 25, that He has been speaking spiritual truth in the form of proverbs.
Why, do you suppose? Well take a peek at what He says to them in 13.31-33, and Peter's demanding response in vs. 36, "But Lord, where are You going?!" Then, in chapt. 14, when Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for them, Thomas questions... "But Lord, how will we know the way?" They were completely in the fog concerning the whole subject of the Kingdom of God. And the same haze is present here in chapt. 16...they were a sorry lot! But I guess we can relate a little, to how they felt. If we were to lose our closest companion, and teacher and mentor, we would feel pretty lost ourselves, and Jesus is sympathetic to that sorrow, as we see from vs. 19. But again, His disciples appeared to be unresponsive.
In just a few hours, now, Jesus would be arrested in the Garden, and that would be the point where they would lose sight of Him, both physically, and spiritually, and their faith in Him as the Promised One, would really be put to the test!
In Luke 24.21, on the road to Emmaeus, we read the record of their thoughts..."But we trusted that it woud be He, who would redeem Israel!" That was the true state of their hearts...they weren't looking for Messiah through the eye of faith. If they had been listening with their hearts, they would have known by now that after three long days, He would re-appear, after which He would leave them again, for another "little while". But it would then only be "a little while", and they would never lose sight of Him again, as after His ascension, and the falling and filling of Holy Spirit, they would see Him again for the very first time, in a way they had never imagined possible. In Hebrews 10.37 we read, "For yet a little while, He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry!" As we know, today, when Jesus went, He went to the Father to receive His reward for a life of obedience, as "the First Fruit of those who sleep".
Obviously, those disciples didn't know their scriptures, or at least interpret their scriptures in the way that Jesus could. There was no "no room" in their theology for the prospect of Jesus returning to the Father. And yet, if they believed Him to be Who He claimed to be, they would have remembered the prophets...especially Isaiah, the greatest of the great, "For a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with mercies will I gather thee..."; or, "Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of My hands..."; and, "Sing oh heavens, and be joyful, oh earth, and break forth into singing oh mountains; for the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted!" Now those are promises for disciples in any age!
They wouldn't ask Him outright, as we see from vs. 18, but Jesus could hear their most private of conversations, along with their very thoughts. Why, do you suppose, we're so slow to take our issues with Him, to Him? We really do need to walk closer to Jesus, in order to learn of Jesus, and to focus on Jesus, that He might give us peace, when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We can't find the hidden things of God, when we fill ourselves with the "bread" of this world, rather than "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
As Jesus goes on to say in vs. 20, "You shall weep and you shall sorrow and you shall travail, but your lamentaions will turn to joy!" That was all the explaination they were to get, but it's plain to see that Jesus had far more than His present companions in mind...we'll examine that more closely, later on. For now, the fact of the matter was, that regardless of their present pain, that pain would be forgotten once they began to experience that "joy unspeakable, and full of glory", as Peter would later describe it!
Just think, that the very cause of their present grief would be the vehicle by which that unspeakable joy would fill them up...the cross, the grave, and then the joy! Not exactly the sequence you might expect, from what we know about discipleship, but Holy Spirit would make new men of them, as He can, and did, of us. The apostle Paul certainly had a handle on it, as he wrote to the Galatians, chapt. 6.14, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ!"
You know, every Believer will experience this same truth, that, "...weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!" Think of the truth recorded here in vs. 21...the symbolism there is perfect, and Jesus admitted in vs. 25 that He is was speaking to them figuratively...that the pain, the fear, and the anger, would soon turn to deliverance and joy! And every one of us understands the force of that figure. Each and every sorrow, although it may leave a disfiguring scar down here, is really, just another passing life event. Joy, on the other hand (the second of the fruit of the Spirit, by-the-by), will fill our hearts for good and for ever, in eternity-to-come!
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