John 16:20

THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING

‘Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.’

John 16:20

What a tremendous problem suffering places before us! There are many who never have any doubts about the truth of their religion, whose faith is yet sorely tried when trouble comes upon them, and though there may be some who can say with Job, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,’ there are many more who in time of trouble are tempted to say, ‘There is no God,’ and to think themselves merely the victims of a blind chance.

I. Sorrow misunderstood.—The words of our text were spoken by our Blessed Lord to His disciples on the night of the betrayal. They realised that He was going to leave them, but their thoughts were so bent on their own loss that no one asked how the departure would affect Jesus Himself. They could not look forward and see what was to be the result of their loss. But our Lord lovingly condescended to help them. ‘It is expedient for you that I go away; because if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.’ The withdrawal of His bodily presence was to prepare the way for the coming of His universal Presence. Our Lord thus showed to His disciples that the time of bitter sorrow awaiting them was to be followed by joy naturally springing out of the sorrow. But even our Lord’s blessed words of encouragement could not affect them: as far as we can see, they lost all hope. What an example of the pronenesss of human nature to abandon itself to the influence of the hour! That such a sorrow should be turned into joy seemed to the disciples past all understanding. But with the Resurrection came their promised joy. A light was thrown on their sorrow; they saw that they were to be made perfect through suffering.

II. Perfect through suffering.—Indeed, it is only those who have tasted suffering who can know what joy is. It is only Christianity which can give a real answer to the problems raised by suffering. Our night cannot be blacker than was the night of Christ’s disciples, yet see the wonderful way in which their sorrow was turned into joy. I know that it is sometimes difficult even to be civil to a person who suggests when we are in trouble that the trouble is for our good. Yet so it is. We are not even permitted to grieve over our sorrows. There is nothing much harder than this in the Christian life. The fact that it is difficult is all the more reason why we should set an ideal before us; otherwise that which should be for our profit will most assuredly become the occasion for falling. ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway,’ said St. Paul. That means, of course, in sorrow and sickness as well as in health and prosperity. Surely we Christians, simply because we are Christians, have every reason to rejoice whatever our earthly lot my be.

Rev. G. Smith.