The Resurrection: Joy Replaces Grief

Grief is difficult to live with.

keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

Grief - keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.

Grief is a normal emotion that follows some type of loss.

We have experienced grief in our lifetime over something.

Grief can catch up with you without you even realizing it.

Many ministers I know along with me struggle with grief. We don’t know how to deal with it. It’s as if we can let it pass us by without having to experience it. Not true. The grief bug is real.

The disciples, during the ministry of Jesus were unable to fully wrap their mind around what Jesus had been telling them.

On several occasions, Jesus stated that He would be handed over to the authorities, crucified, and buried.

The disciples didn’t get this. Jesus could have said it 100 times, and they still wouldn’t grasp the magnitude of what was going to happen.

We are one in the same church. People can explain something major that’s about to happen and we will not be able to comprehend it fully until it already happened.

It’s simply in our nature to not understand.

Question of the day: What were the 3 days like for the followers of Jesus after He was crucified?

It was a short amount of time, but can you imagine the despair and fear that the disciples dealt with?

Just imagine being in the presence of Jesus for 3 years only to instantly lose Him.

How would you feel?

The grief was unmatched.

What did Jesus tell us about the grief of the crucifixion?

John 16:16–22 NASB95

16 “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” 17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘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, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

In these verses Jesus begins to deal directly with the effect of his departure upon His disciples: “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

1. “I’m not meant to stay here.”

Jesus loved His disciples. He wanted them to understand that they would presently see Him no more.

“Ye shall see” (opsesthe) Emphasizes seeing Jesus in a different way than ever before. “The man you see today will no longer be here.”

As long as His earthly presence was the object on which their eyes were fixed, their view was necessarily imperfect.

(opsesthe)

The disciples responded with, “What is he talking about?”

They were thinking logically. When a man dies, he stays dead. Simple enough.

They still saw Jesus as a man of God and not as God in the flesh.

But they wanted to know so badly.

In their world, Jesus had to stay on the earth so that they could follow Him. Without Him physically with them, they would not know what to do.

Jesus being aware of this, prepared the disciples for His death knowing that they would not understand in the moment.

I still haven’t been able to accept that my grandmother is gone from this earth. She was a fixture for our family. Do you have a person in your family that’s like this?

Jesus came to carry out a purpose for His Father. His ministry on earth had a deadline. He was not meant to stay on their earth and die of old age. He was born to die.

There are certain messages that the Lord will send you that you’re not supposed to understand right now.

Has this happened to you before?

There’s a purpose for everything that the Lord says to you. Don’t assume everything is supposed to be understood in the present.

2. “Grief is guaranteed for everyone, but it’s not eternal.”

Jesus continued, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn until the world rejoices. You will grieve, but you grief will turn to joy.”

The events that would unfold would cause great grief.

Jesus’ betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot.

Pilate, the Roman governor handing Jesus over to the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Excruciating and embarrassing pain.

Crucifixion.

Instead of outrage, the disciples would grieve for their own loss.

Evert type of grief in of pain, of body or of soul would be experienced. There would be great sorrow.

There would be great weeping and sadness.

Grief is real.

And yet, Jesus taught that grief would not be able to stay.

The process of their grief would end in joy whenever they saw Him again three days later.

They would see the resurrected Jesus. The Jesus that we pray through.

This is the portion of Christianity that we often leave out when sharing the gospel of Jesus. Following Jesus means guaranteed earthly grief.

Jesus was aware of the emotions that the disciples would experience. He knew that things would be tough. He was aware of the struggle.

This is the portion of Christianity that we often leave out when sharing the gospel of Jesus. Following Jesus means guaranteed earthly grief.

Struggle has a purpose in the Christian faith.

He wants us all to know that yes it’s going to be tough, but the pain and sadness is not eternal.

3. “Your grief will be short-sided.”

Women in childbirth is a craziest experience I’ve ever seen. These women suffer for 9 months only to look at this baby as if it has never done anything wrong to it.

Jewish people believed the age of the Messiah would be brought in only after a time of distress.

“The birth pangs” of the message, the tribulations that preceded the end of this age and ushered in the new age.

Sorrow would not and could not last!