Thoughts on the Gospel of John (159) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
John 16:21–22

Thoughts on the Gospel of John (159)
Mysterious sounding words that Jesus shares with His disciples: they would not see Him for a short time and would be very sad because of it, but the world would rejoice. Then they would see Him again and their sadness would turn into joy.

The solution is simple: it is about death on the one hand and the resurrection and ascension of Jesus on the other. The labour pains at the birth of a child serve here as an impressive illustration to show the great sadness of the disciples. How it pained them when they thought of their crucified and dead Lord after Jesus’ burial! Incomparably worse, however, were the pains of Jesus, which the prophet Isaiah calls “the labour of His soul”, when “the chastisement for our peace” struck Him that He “might taste death for everyone” (Isaiah 53:5, 11; Hebrews 2:9).

How great is the joy of a woman who has given birth to her child! And how quickly the intense pain is forgotten! Thus, after the resurrection of Jesus, the sadness of the disciples turned into great joy.

No one can rob Jesus’ disciples of their joy. So, this is probably not just the joy that filled the disciples during the 40 days between the resurrection and the ascension, when the Lord appeared to them and another 500 brothers (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:6). To this day, believers rejoice in the Lord because they know that He is alive and will soon return.

Today’s reading: 2 Kings 12:1-17 · John 21:15-25