{"id":6141,"date":"2014-12-17T00:05:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T08:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6141"},"modified":"2014-12-16T09:30:45","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T17:30:45","slug":"in-a-little-while","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/12\/17\/in-a-little-while\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Little While"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn a little while you won\u2019t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see me again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tSome of the disciples asked each other, \u201cWhat does he mean when he says, \u2018In a little while you won\u2019t see me, but then you will see me,\u2019 and \u2018I am going to the Father\u2019? And what does he mean by \u2018a little while\u2019? We don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus realized they wanted to ask him about it, so he said, \u201cAre you asking yourselves what I meant? I said in a little while you won\u2019t see me, but a little while after that you will see me again. I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is going to happen to me, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. It will be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.\u201d (John 16:16\u201322)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus first told his disciples that they wouldn\u2019t seem him anymore\u2014then told them that after a little while, they would see him again.<\/p>\n

\tJesus predicted his death at the hands of the Romans\u2014and he predicted his resurrection. He knew they would mourn not only the loss of the one they considered a friend, but also the death of their dream of national redemption. He knew they thought Jesus would restore the kingdom of David and overcome the Romans. Instead, the Romans would overcome their Messiah. They would never see that Jesus of their mistaken dreams again.<\/p>\n

\tBut Jesus wanted his disciples to understand his death and the death of their mistaken hopes wasn\u2019t the end. They were still missing the vital reality that the kingdom of God was not a physical, earthly kingdom like Rome, but something far grander and more pervasive. <\/p>\n

\tTheir mourning, as sharp as it would be, would be mercifully brief. From the night he was arrested, until the morning he rose from the dead, barely three days passed. Jesus compared what was about to happen to the birth of a child. The joy the disciples had after the resurrection, and the joy that we now have from it, is a joy that will endure forever. All our sorrows from this brief lifetime of ours will be wiped away in the wonder of God\u2019s eternal kingdom. It\u2019s eternity that even now we have in our hearts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn a little while you won\u2019t see me anymore. But a little while after that, you will see me again.\u201d Some of the disciples asked each other, \u201cWhat does he mean when he says, \u2018In a little while you won\u2019t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6142,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6141\/revisions\/6142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}