How does the Spirit turn sadness into joy?

All of us struggle with sorrow and sadness. What do we do with these feelings?

In today’s passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus promises in v. 20:

your sorrow will turn into joy.

And v. 22:

your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

But what does this promise mean? Because clearly Jesus doesn’t expect Christians never to be sad. Jesus started the sermon on the Mount saying (Matt 5:4):

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And when his disciples finally understood Jesus was the Christ, he said (Luke 9:23):

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

And in our own lives, we know from experience that we often do not have joy.

So, what does Jesus’ promise mean here? What comfort is it supposed to give us?

We are using the one year lectionary, which is an ancient church calendar. It doesn’t aim to read the whole Bible in a year, but reads passages that cover everything the Bible teaches.

And so over the next 5 weeks, leading up to Pentecost, we’ll be looking closely at John chapters 14-16, which are about the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And here, right in the middle of chapter 16, even though the Spirit is not explicitly mentioned, the context of John’s gospel in chapters 14-16 is all about the Spirit.

And in the conversation leading up to this point, Jesus has just told his disciples who the Spirit is, and the work he will come to do.

And one of the most significant fruits of the Spirit’s work is to transform sadness and joy. Which is what Jesus now explains here. As he answers this question:

How does the Spirit turn sadness into joy?

And there are three parts to his answer:

1) Without the Spirit, we don’t understand the Gospel
2) The Spirit trains our sadness to be contrition for sin
3) The Spirit turns our sadness into faith receiving joy

1) Without the Spirit, we don’t understand the Gospel

Please look at vv. 16-18

 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

Jesus is telling the disciples that he’s going to die, and then he’s going to rise again to life.

A little while, and you will not see me,

That’s his prediction of his death.

and again a little while, and you will see me

That’s his prediction of his resurrection. But the disciples do not understand what he’s talking about. They don’t understand him, because he hasn’t yet given them the Spirit.

Back in v. 13 he’d told them this is what the Spirit will do:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth

And the reason we’re now shown the disciples’ misunderstanding …is because they show us we cannot understand sorrow and joy in a Christian way without the Spirit. And there is a warning here for us.

While, of course, the disciples were experiencing a one-off event. Jesus died and then rose again. John is writing his Gospel decades afterwards.

The experience of the disciples Jesus describes here, is a model for the ongoing Christian life.

The disciples went through a cycle of sadness and joy, and we, over the course of years, months, weeks, even daily, go through cycles of sadness and joy.

This is the normal human experience, and John tells us about this time the disciples experienced this pattern; because it teaches us lessons about the same pattern we experience every day.

And it’s not just John who thinks in this way, all over the New Testament, we are encouraged to look back to Jesus’ one time event of dying and rising again, and see in that a regular pattern, or cycle, in our lives.

In Romans 6, Paul tells us to look back at our baptism… …not to get rebaptised, …but to see each day as a dying to sin with Jesus, and rising to walk in new life with Jesus.

As Luther says in the Small Catechism on Baptism:

What does such baptising with water signify? It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts. And also it shows that a new man should daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

So, stop trying to solve your sorrow without the Spirit.

We live in a world of spiritual painkillers. Distraction. Entertainment. Busyness. But, our biggest need is not for quick relief.

Our biggest need is for the Spirit.

You don’t fix a broken leg simply by taking more morphine. If you do that often enough, you’ll soon have an even bigger problem.

We will face sorrow and sadness in life. Jesus tells us to expect them.

But, we won’t understand these things rightly… …unless we understand them in the power of the Spirit… …which means through the lens of the Gospel: through God’s Word, baptism, the Supper, Christ’s death and resurrection.

The Spirit changes our understanding of sadness. He doesn’t give us answers to shallow questions like “Why is this happening?” Answers like that don’t really help anyway:

Knowing the reason I have lung cancer is because I smoked in my 20s provides no comfort and no joy.

No, the Spirit changes our understanding of sadness completely.

Which is what Jesus goes on to explain in his second point…

2) The Spirit trains our sadness to be contrition for sin

Please look again at vv. 19-20:

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

Jesus explains that Christian sadness and joy are not the same as worldly sadness and joy.

Did you see that in v. 20?

you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice

So the sadness the disciples will have will be different to the sadness experienced by the world.

And their sadness has a purpose, a function, so will become joy:

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

Again: Jesus is talking to the disciples about their one-off experience of seeing Jesus die and rise again.

But, John is writing about that one-off experience decades afterwards, because it is the model, the pattern, for our daily experience in the Christian life.

There is a Christian sadness that the world doesn’t understand. Paul talks about this sadness in 2 Corinthians 7:10:

godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Two types of sadness… two types of grief… two types of sorrow. Christian sadness… which leads to repentance. Worldly sadness… which leads to death.

We must understand the difference between these two types of sadness. One is produced by the Spirit. The other comes from our natural selves.

And so, when we experience sadness, sorrow, grief, hardship, the most important question is not “How do I make this sadness go away?” it is “Am I experiencing this sadness in a Spiritual way?”

Is my sadness on the path to repentance? Or is my sadness on the path to death?

And Jesus says that spiritual sadness, spiritual sorrow …will turn into joy, because that is the daily pattern of repentance: contrition for sin, and faith in God’s promises.

That’s the pattern of using our baptism every day: Death with Christ, as our sinful Adam dies. Life with Christ, as we rise to walk in new life with him.

Worldly sorrow is the opposite to spiritual, repentant sorrow… …so while spiritual sorrow is contrite for sin and humble, so will look away from itself for Christ’s righteousness …worldly sorrow is self-righteous, and looks inward to itself.

Compare Judas and Peter… …both felt sorrow and sadness

…but one was self-righteous:
—he felt let down by Jesus: saw himself as a victim
—he took silver coins: wanted reward for his work
—he killed himself: after he fell into despair.

…but the other looked to Christ’s righteousness:
—he was contrite for his sin… and found forgiveness.

Everyone here experiences sorrow: what kind of sadness will it be?

And that contrast leads us to Jesus’ final point:

3) The Spirit turns our sadness into faith receiving joy

Please look again at vv. 21-22:

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

While self-righteous sorrow… …leads us to trying to justify ourselves

Repentant sorrow—contrition— …leads us to look away from ourselves to Christ for righteousness.

And when the Spirit brings this contrition into our hearts… …it will turn into faith that receives joy.

That is the pattern of the Christian life.

And Jesus uses the picture of a woman giving birth… …of a joyful new life that far eclipses the sadness and pain of birth.

Sadness does not last: unless we become self-righteous and remain stuck in it. But, the joy that comes as the fruit of faith will last.

Notice what Jesus says:

I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.

Their joy doesn’t come from changed circumstances. Their joy comes from Jesus himself being present with them again. That’s what the Spirit gives you: Not the removal of your pain… but Jesus’ presence in your pain.

The Spirit’s work is not to change your life circumstances first. That is the preaching of many other churches in Manchester …that the Spirit will fix your health, secure your job, or balance your finances.

But what he really does is open your eyes to see Jesus present with you in your circumstances, to know the value of the righteousness he has given to you, and so to secure you in joy that depends not on the situation you are in, but on the person you are looking to outside of it.

Joy that is grounded in something outside of this world is joy that will last.

Joy based on things in this life will always be unstable.
Your phone rings—bad news, gone.
You wake up—mood changed, gone.

But the joy Jesus gives—no one can take it from you.

Why? Because it’s not based on you. It’s based on something finished: Jesus died. Jesus rose.

The Spirit gives you faith that clings to that finished work.

So even in your lowest moment—you are not outside God’s love. Even in tears—you have a joy that cannot be touched.

So,

How does the Spirit turn sadness into joy?

John in his Gospel is describing a one-time experience of the disciples… …but he’s doing so because this sets the pattern for the Christian life.

1) Without the Spirit, we don’t understand the Gospel

If we try to process our sadness without the Spirit, which means outside of what the Gospel teaches us, then we simply won’t understand any of this.

2) The Spirit trains our sadness to be contrition for sin

All of us face sadness in life… …the question is what kind of sadness will be have? Self-righteous sadness that looks to ourselves: as victims, as deserving, as proud, as despairing? Or humble contrite sadness that looks to Christ’s righteousness?

Because, 3) The Spirit turns our sadness into faith receiving joy

As we look at Christ’s righteousness, his work for us… …then we have joy that cannot be removed.

So, don’t wait for joy to strike you like lightning. Come and receive the Spirit’s gifts—Word and Sacrament. That’s where Jesus is. That’s where the Spirit is working. That’s how he lifts your eyes from your wounds to Christ’s wounds.

Because it is in the Gospel: in this Word, and in these Sacraments… …that Christ promises this:

I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.