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Summary
John 16:14-15, Jesus says to the 11 on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, “He [The Parakletos, the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,” said Jesus in Matthew 12. To blaspheme is to “speak against.” So, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit would be to say, “The Holy Spirit can’t or won’t do what He is called to do.” If it’s not forgiven, then it’s not allowed, right? If you’re not forgiven a debt, you have to pay it back. And so, apparently, one day every soul will have to agree with the Holy Spirit, glorify Christ, and inherit our Father’s kingdom. Until then, the Truth may burn.
John 16:16-24, “’A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me’…. So, they were saying, ‘What does he mean by “a little while”?… Jesus said, ‘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. 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. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name [Yeshua: “God is Salvation”], he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full [literally “That the Joy of you may be having been filled”].
What is Joy? I find it to be rather hard to define. If I seek joy, I find it almost impossible to obtain. And once I think I have experienced joy, it’s already gone.
In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis writes, “Joy is never in our power, but pleasure often is.” Joy is hard to define and impossible to grasp, so maybe we’re always surprised by joy because Joy is forever new.
But what is the fullness of Joy? Wouldn’t that be the joy of every creature ever made and the joy of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? How could we ever contain that much Joy? “Ask that your joy may be full,” says Jesus. He talks as if Joy is a vessel waiting to be filled, or perhaps we are that vessel — like an earthen vessel. But… “In this world you will have sorrow,” says Jesus. We all have sorrow. And you have a particular sorrow — a shape to all of your sorrows. Can you name it?
What is sorrow? Perhaps it’s like an empty cup. Perhaps Joy is the wine in our cup? Or maybe that’s despair; it’s possessing everything and being unable to enjoy anything. So, what’s joy? Maybe it’s drinking the cup? And yet that lasts for only a moment.
Everyone drinks water. But who in all the world has most enjoyed water? Wouldn’t that be the one who has been most thirsty? Perhaps joy is that moment at the edge of being thirsty and then full and, therefore, being unable to experience the joy of drinking. Maybe joy is the knowledge of absence and the experience of presence which can only happen in the “now.” Perhaps Joy is the knowledge of evil and the presence of the Good, who is eternal — the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Joy is the moment you see the Light in the darkness; the moment Life is born in the midst of chaos, suffering, and despair; it’s the moment you hear a newborn baby take a breath, and cry.
Few times have I witnessed such sorrow as when my bride thought that she couldn’t have a baby; and perhaps, never have I seen a person in as much anguish as when she did.
It took us a year to get pregnant (no complaints on my end), but Susan began to worry, and that turned to sorrow…and then wrath (that’s what happens to sorrow that’s been bottled up.)
A friend of ours got pregnant out of wedlock. Driving home from work, my bride began yelling at God: “It’s not fair! it’s not fair! I did everything right, and she did everything wrong.” And then she heard the Lord. He said, “Pull this car over right now… Who are you to tell me that I cannot bless her with a child? It doesn’t matter who the father is; I am the Father and this is my child. You must forgive.” Then in a fountain of tears, on the side of the 405, she did. A vessel of wrath became a vessel of Mercy.
Not all women are called to have biological children, and many of those women are the most fruitful of all (See Isaiah 54.) It doesn’t always work this way, but soon after that day on the freeway, my wife conceived and gave birth . . . in anguish.
I had never seen a person in such anguish! In the 35th week, she ruptured her placenta, and her water broke. It was a nightmare. If the baby stayed in the womb, mother and baby would die. But the tribulation (“anguish,” same word in Greek) would prepare the baby to expel one world and inhale the next. So, the doctors prolonged labor for a full day. It felt like a thousand years. We kept asking “how long,” and they kept saying “a little while.”
I so clearly remember thinking to myself, “Peter, if this baby lives, you had better love this baby, for this is the only baby you’ll ever get. There is no way that Susan will ever agree to go through this again!” I watched him come out — the head, first and then the body. The doctor held him up. He took a breath and let out a huge cry. I looked at Susan’s face. She was radiant. And then, at the top of her lungs she just cried out, “Oh, I want another one!”
All Susan’s sorrow had literally turned into Joy. Her tribulation had literally turned into rapture. And a day that seemed like a thousand years was now only a little while. She hadn’t made the baby, but she had labored for the baby. It was obvious that God had made the baby, and — with the baby and the labor — God had made her. . . and she was grateful. I had never, ever seen such fullness of joy! I remember thinking, “I don’t understand this, but this is ‘Holy.’”
Now think about your sorrow. “Your sorrow will turn into joy.” So, are you pleased? “If I knew for certain that all my stones should be changed into gold,” said Meister Eckhardt, “the more and larger the stones I had, the better I should be pleased.”
“So, also you have sorrow now,” says Jesus to these 11 men, early Friday morning as they make their way to Gethsemane and then travel on to a tree in the middle of a garden on the Holy Mountain. Who’s being born, and who’s giving birth?
Jesus seems to think that these 11 (or 12) men are giving birth… and He’s about to be born. He’s “the Firstborn of all creation, Firstborn from the dead, Firstborn of many brothers (and sisters).” He didn’t call himself, “Son of Mary” but “Son of Man.” We give birth to God incarnate every time we love, or should I say, Love gives birth to us. “How I am in travail… until Christ is formed in you,” writes Paul. “There is one body.” The head comes first, then the body. And “This is the plan for the fulness of time to unite (bring together under one head) all things in Christ.” John calls him “The “Only Begotten,” then records Him, saying that we must also be “begotten.” Paul writes, “The whole creation is groaning in birth pains until now (that point that eternity touches time and time becomes eternal).” “The earth will give birth to the dead,” prophesies Isaiah. According to Matthew, at least some of the dead came out of their tombs and went into Jerusalem (old or new?) as Jesus cried, “It is finished,” and the curtain ripped. The Church Fathers described Jesus as “eternally begotten,” (The uncreated created?) Perhaps all things are “eternally begotten” in Him? He just told us “The Father is in me… I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
It sounds as if God and all creation is giving birth to God and all creation. That must be an unspeakable amount of sorrow. Could it all turn into Joy?
And Jesus said, “No one will take your joy away from you (not even you).” How is that possible?
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name,” said Jesus. His name is literally “God is Salvation.” How could you believe that God cannot save some or does not want to save all and also ask anything in the name of “God is Salvation”?
But if we sincerely prayed, “Father save us all,” what would we be asking the Father to save us from? We’d be asking Him to save us from our sins — which we have come to think of as ourselves, which is actually self-righteousness — that is actually no righteousness but just illusion, lies, and the work of the Devil. If God saved everyone from themselves, it would be the death of every false self, and the liberation of every true self which is Christ’s self. It would be the union of all selves in one man and that one man in all selves; it would be the resurrected body of Christ; The 7th sign that is the substance; “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” It would be billions of “Me-suses” giving birth to Jesus, billions of members in one body with one heart, having been transformed from vessels of wrath into vessels of Mercy. That is, blood vessels constantly losing “their life” and finding it — “The Life (The Spirit is Life) is in the blood.” . . . Do not blaspheme!
“Ask and receive that your joy may be full,” said Jesus.
Perhaps your sorrow is the shape of your old man. It’s how you want to be God but can’t make yourself God. At the foot of the cross, surrendered sorrow turns into joy. For in that place in which we attempted to make ourselves God, we discover that God is always making us Himself. In that place, the shape of your sorrow becomes the shape of His Joy in you. But not a little joy — an endless river of Joy — the river of life flowing in and through you as you constantly drink. You will have knowledge of evil, but with the constant ever flowing presence of the Good. God is the Good whom you constantly choose in perfect freedom. In that day, your temporal self is revealed to be an eternal vessel for the fullness of Joy, which is all the fullness of God.
In a healthy body, every member is distinct, and yet there is no division. So, although there may be memory of pain, there is no sorrow; AND the joy of one is the joy of all; and the joy of all is the Joy of one. In my body, my foot is not jealous of my tongue, and when my foot gets a foot rub, my tongue says, “thank you.” Just think: Their will be no more sorrow or pain, and you will experience the joy of billions of hungry children eating pizza, the lost being found, the light shining in the darkness, Jesus finally getting His drink, the Father hugging all of His lost children, and the Spirit of God delighting in them all.
Some say “Blasphemy! Impossible!” . . . Is it?
Or would it be blasphemy to suggest that this is impossible for our God?