Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. – John 16:20

 Today's Scripture Reading (December 31, 2020): John 16

In his classic work, “Les Misérables,” Victor Hugo writes that “those who do not weep, do not see.” It sometimes amazes me the lengths that some of us are willing to undertake to avoid our tears. I know of people who say that they avoid relationships to avoid the grief that happens when those relationships disappear. You won’t cry at the deaths of those important to you if you don’t allow anyone to become important. There are those walking among us who keep their eyes firmly closed so that they cannot be disappointed by anything currently taking place in our world. If we deny reality entrance into our lives, there will be no reason to weep. Unfortunately, there will also be no reason for joy. In fact, the only reason why we weep is that something, or somebody, which has caused us delight has been removed from our presence. If they didn’t make a difference in our lives, there would have been no reason for weeping.

Of course, we also value different things. An election might be an excellent example of that. A result that makes some happy will cause others to weep. And that is just the reality of this world.

Jesus taught his disciples that a moment was coming when they would suffer deep grief even as the larger world rejoiced. It wasn’t something as trivial as an election result that would cause the coming sorrow; it would be his death. While the larger world might have believed that they had stopped a rebel from destroying the very fabric of society, Jesus’s followers were going to suffer the loss of the relationship that they had with their rabbi, the embarrassment of being connected with the crucifixion of someone the world had declared to be a criminal, their defeat at the hands of their opposition, and the loss of all hope.

But the loss was only a momentary setback. In a matter of days, Jesus would overturn the sorrow as he rose from the dead. What the world had tried to accomplish would be translated by God into a brand-new key. And the disciples would go from mourning the loss of someone who had made a difference in their lives to rejoicing that he is still on the throne.

It has been a tough year. There is much that we have lost in the past few months. But maybe there is no better time to be reminded that Jesus is still on the throne. He continues to be the God who sees us and everything through which we have suffered. And what the future holds is firmly in his hands.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 17

Personal Note: Happy Birthday to my son-in-law, Greg. I hope you have a great day!