March 13, 2016    John 16:21 – 33

Download discussion questions:  John 16_21-33 plain words

Our discussion began with an invitation to the mothers in the group to comment on verse 21.  The consensus was that the pain of childbirth was real and intense.  The responses clearly revealed that none of the women who had borne a child had any trouble remembering the experience.  But the significant pain, though remembered, was immediately eclipsed by the joy of seeing and holding a newborn.  Jesus’ words were not intended to suggest that the anguish and grief we experience is to be minimized or ignored.  Rather He was saying that no matter what we experience the joy in store for us surpasses the pain.

That joy is to be full, the joy of Jesus Himself (cf. John 15:11).  The joy is the result of the relationship with the Father as we experience the freedom to approach Him in our prayers in the name of Jesus (16:24).  One person in our group noted that the disciples had not asked the Father for anything in Jesus’ name (as He points out, v. 24) because Jesus was with them.  They could just ask Him directly.

Now, He was preparing them for His departure.  He began instructing them about the ministry of the Holy Spirit (14:16-17, 26; 15:26-27; 16:13-15).  Now He introduces a new idea about their relationship with the Father, that they will be able to approach the Father directly:  “I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you” (v. 26b-27a).  We discussed the question of Jesus’ role as the mediator.  How does that statement relate to His role of reconciling us with the Father?  The basis of our direct approach to the Father is based on that very work of reconciliation.  Our direct access to the Father grows out of His (the Father’s) love for us.  That love is based on our relationship with Jesus, our mediator, and our faith in Him:  “because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from the Father” (v. 27).  As we have seen repeatedly (and will continue to see in John 17) Jesus’ emphasis has been on His mission as One sent by the Father, and His passion was to accomplish that mission and glorify the Father.  The core belief that Jesus points to as our basis for direct access to the Father is our belief in the relationship between the Father and the Son.

At this point in the passage (v. 29) the disciples make what seemed to most of our group to be an odd statement.  Their reaction might be paraphrased as, “Now we understand.  Now we really believe.”  We discussed what might have changed.  Was there anything in Jesus’ words in this passage (or recent passages) that was significantly different from what He had been saying throughout the Gospel of John?  We didn’t find anything that seemed dramatic to us, except perhaps for Jesus words about direct access to the Father.  But even that idea doesn’t seem to explain the disciples’ sudden enlightenment.  One person suggested that maybe the Holy Spirit was already at work to clarify the disciples’ thinking.  Another participant pointed out that, while the Spirit’s work is certainly possible, there is no mention in the text.

Then someone noted that maybe the disciples were not as clear on what Jesus was saying as they thought.  In verses 21-28, Jesus clearly and intentionally mentions the Father eight times.  (In the previous passage, John 16:6-23, He mentioned the Father three times.  In verse 17 of that passage, the disciples were clearly confused about His comments referring to the Father.)  Yet when the disciples assert their sudden understanding, they described their belief that Jesus “came from God” (John 16:30).  Jesus has continually tried to teach them about His unique relationship with the Father, carefully choosing His words.  In John 16 the only time Jesus uses the word “God” is in verse 2 when He describes false service to God as the result “because they have not known the Father or Me.”  Jesus was accentuating the distinct Persons of the Trinity rather than a generic conception of God.

British theologian Leslie Newbegin points out how central that understanding was in the early church:

When the Christians of the early centuries faced the task of saying who Jesus is in terms of the ‘lords many and gods many’ of the classical world, they could only do it by means of the Trinitarian’ model.  It is significant that when the word ‘God’ is spoken in discussions such as the present, few Christians think immediately of the Trinity. The operative model is not trinitarian but unitarian. [1]

Whatever the disciples thought they understood, they seemed to still be missing that critical difference between a vague God and the distinct Persons of the Trinity.  Jesus recognized the deficiency in their belief (v. 31) and predicted that they would soon desert Him.  But He also told them that they should have peace in Him (v. 33a).  That sequence (a prophecy of inconstancy followed immediately by reassuring words) sounds a lot like Jesus’ words to the over-confident Peter (John 13:37-14:3).  The disciples’ overconfidence results in a similar solemn response and immediate encouragement from Jesus.  Perhaps that solemn warning was important in light of the tribulation He knew the disciples would be facing.

The word tribulation (thlipsin, θλῖψιν) is the same word used of the anguish in childbirth in verse 21.  This passage begins and ends with Jesus encouraging His followers to judge difficulties in light of the anticipated joy of the relationship with Him and His Father.  Jesus is the model for that approach.  He knew that in a matter of minutes His closest followers would abandon Him, fleeing in terror, and they would leave Him alone.  He also knew that His deepest support and joy and fulfillment was not dependent on any human circumstance.  His joy came from His relationship with the Father.  That was the essence of His assertion that He had overcome the world (v. 33b).  We face tribulations (difficult circumstances, disappointing relationships, physical discomfort, emotional pain, etc.).  Like the moms in our group, we don’t deny the pain or pretend it doesn’t hurt.  We overcome those hardships as we consciously and intentionally find our deepest joy in our relationship with the Triune God.

[1] J. E. Leslie Newbigin, Christian Witness in a Plural Society (London: British Council of Churches, 1977), 7.