“But your sorrow shall be turned into Joy”...the Wayfarer 3/6/16

“But your sorrow shall be turned into Joy”

   3/6/16

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

(John 16:20)

Too often, that promise of joy given here is forgotten, is overshadowed by the lamentation that goes on in its place yet and still as we face the troubles and trials that must and will beset us in this world because of the things we see and recognize around us.

A truly Christian people will indeed lament, and have that sorrow, it is required of us, that we identify the cause of that sorrow in order to also recognize the promise, and existence of that joy as well.

The passage from which this verse was taken describes Jesus telling His disciples of the time to come when he would no longer be among them in body as they continued to walk the earth after the coming crucifixion.

He describes the pain they will feel as being like that of a woman in labor, a pain that at the time seems almost unbearable, but a pain that leads to the joy of birth. He states that the pain is then overshadowed and forgotten because of the joy of that birth.

He tells them that the world will rejoice at their pain, and the cause of that anguish, foretelling the persecution that they will face.

The promise is made that despite that separation, they would see Him again, that their hearts would rejoice, and that no man could take that joy from them once he returned.

The promise continued to tell them that because of their love, because of their sorrow, that sorrow would be replaced by the ability to go directly to His Father through him and ask for anything in His name and be given it, a joyous promise indeed!

The passage concludes with yet another promise of that same joy, and a cheer to be had, and the reason for which that cheer and joy may exist:

“Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

(John 16:32 & 33)

Peace and joy go hand in hand. There can be no joy without first having that peace. If the peace is not sought, the joy will not and cannot be found. That peace does not come through acceptation of mankind’s teachings, but through the very words and promises of Christ that promise that peace.

Tribulations must be faced. Trials and tests will and do daily come to each in search of that peace. Sorrow comes with each of those tribulations, each of those trials, each of those tests of our love for Him, and our acceptance of His love for us.

The world rejoices in each of the tribulations, and would only compound them to provide more of that false joy they take through the persecution and denial of Christ that creates the necessary lamentation and sorrow, not for our own sake, but for them, those who fail to comprehend a joy they cannot perceive.

I have a great joy within that cannot be dampened, nor diminished by the sorrow and lamentation that is and must also exist within to recognize that joy. I take that joy from the promises made by Christ. The sorrow comes from the fact, that until I am freed from this corrupt and imperfect body, I am destined to face that same persecution and derision of those whose comprehension of joy is only what they themselves seek through the misery of others…through the carnal eyes of a world still having no recognition of any joy not given through carnal needs and wants…no recognition of the joy available to them, nor any recognition of that joy that does exist in the souls of those having it.

Joy is often sought through the rewards of this world that bring temporary, and momentary, satisfaction. Those joys in and of themselves, are not necessarily sinful, as they can be and in fact are rewards given to be enjoyed for the effort expended and labor given while in that body.

We are expected to enjoy the fruits of our labors, as they are given, but not to enjoy them to the point of failing to realize that they are but fleeting, temporary, momentary things that cannot replace the true joy given only through the love of God and the joy of the soul that must take priority over the joy of our human form and the temporary rewards, to be given thanks for, but given that true priority of place.

“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the Lord your God: mourn not, nor weep, For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

Then said he unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

(Nehemiah 8:10)

This admonition for joy was given as the law was restored to a people long denied it, long ignorant of it, long without understanding of it because of having been immersed only in the teachings of those around them who had no appreciation, nor comprehension of that law, and its intent.

How much more joyous should we be at the coming of Christ and the fact that that law was fulfilled through his sacrifice for us, that the requirements to reach God were superseded by the simple requirement for repentance in return for the redemption that alone is capable of producing that true joy within our soul coming with the promise of eternal life in the eternal love of our God?

Those seeking only the joy of the rewards of this world, while ignoring the joy to be had only through God, will find the joy they have to be bittersweet as well as short-lived.

“Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly”

(Proverbs 15:21)

Zophar in speaking to Job uttered another reference quite appropriate, and as equally true today as it was when spoken:

“Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth,

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a short moment?

Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?

He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.”

Job 20:4-7)

 There will be those who will twist my words, in an attempt to justify the “joys” they think they find through the excess of their sin, and will look no further, even though knowing those “joys” to be inadequate.

There will be others that will twist my words in an effort to justify the joy they take only in the condemnation, pain and anguish of others, because of their own incapacity to truly experience that joy while their head is so far in the clouds that they cannot see anything they feel to be beneath them and their own vision.

I seek to reach a third category, one that will open heart and mind, see that the meager joys of this earth, even when abundant and overflowing are unsatisfying because they are in fact of this earth, and incapable of granting that true joy available through the means of redemption in return for repentance.

These are the ones who will recognize the value of the love offered them by Christ Jesus that is the only means of receiving that Joy.  These are the ones I continue to call the reachable and teachable. Sinners, yes, hopeless, only if they fail to receive that love in the way it was given through the means given for its reception….redemption through repentance!

As Christ stated that he was not come to call the righteous, neither do I seek to enlighten the righteous who have all the enlightenment within themselves they will ever accept, and are satisfied with the joy they choose for themselves. I too call the sinner to repentance, to accept the love that replaces the condemnation they may face from God, not from me, if they fail to accept that love and the joy to be given through it.

They too in turn will accept the sorrow and lamentation that accompany that joy, once having their eyes and ears opened; that must also be part and parcel of attaining peace, and that joy. They too will see their loved ones and friends through the eyes that reveal a need yet unfulfilled to meet that same requirement of repentance go be given for the redemption that may only come through that repentance and acceptance of God’s Love, and following what his Word gives us as the truth of His laws.

They will have attained that joy only through following the commandment left by Christ that we must love one another as He loved us.

They will have the joy that I have that none may take from me of the surety of that love, the certainty of the eternity of that love, and the certainty, not hope alone, of eternal life.

I close once more in prayer that eyes be opened, ears be opened, that hearts become receptive to that love that is to be had. I pray also that the warnings issued by Jesus be heeded as to the consequences of failing to open eyes ears and hearts and accept the requirements for the reception of that love.

I remain, His humble servant, His soldier, a voice crying at the top of that voice in a wilderness that still refuses to accept either the love or joy that is offered, not by me, but by and through Him, through the grace offered and given in the birth, life, ministry, sacrificial death, resurrection and ascension that provides that love, and that joy when accepted.

I, only a simple sinner, found my way to that love, to become a simple sinner saved by grace through faith, in that love, and I would that all who would seek it could find it, despite the scattered debris placed in their path to hinder them, to keep them from finding that love and absolute and perfect joy, in the knowledge that those things of this world have been overcome.  

2 Timothy 1:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Amen and Amen
the Wayfarer