Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Wow! What more can I add to this. If you ask any mother what giving birth is like they will tell you this exact same story, albeit in different words. Every human child-birth is painful, sorry, extremely painful. The comedienne Carol Burnett once said that to experience childbirth all one needs to do is grab the lower lip of your mouth and pull it as hard as you can over the top of your head. And yet the joys which come with holding that baby as soon as it is born immediately take that pain away; immediately.
This is what Jesus is talking about to his Disciples in this teaching moment. I say teaching moment because this story is told while the Disciples and Jesus are gathered for what we call The Last Supper. John's version of this supper is the longest and is more of a summary of what Jesus has been trying to teach them during his formal ministry.
This passage particularly speaks of what the Disciples will soon experience as Jesus is taken away, beaten, and put to death; the extreme sorrow of losing someone whom they deeply love. It also has Jesus reminding them that not too much after that loss, however, they will also experience extreme joy as he returns to us alive. Again in this week where we're being asked to focus on Jesus' suffering we see how God has a purpose for the suffering. In this case it's not the suffering itself (actually in every case it's not the suffering itself...hmmm) but rather it's about how we see God at work in the actions following and/or during the suffering.
Sometimes there's nothing we can do to stop the suffering, and it's going to hurt us emotionally when the inevitable results of that suffering happens. What Jesus is reminding us is that if we allow it to the grief we experience will make us stronger in our faith. And when we're finally able to see how God is alive in the pain we're going through the joy we'll experience will be unmatched.
If you don't believe me ask a mother.
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