You have pain now
He received great afflictions for the Son of the living God.
Therefore our Saviour lifted him to his kingdom. Saint Mina’s Doxology
Read John 16:16—23
I suppose that that first pain of those first disciples, the pain of witnessing the suffering, the ridicule, the torrid injustice, and the perishing of Jesus, was in one sense a one-off pain. And that the resurrection fixed the pain, as the glory of birth replaces the pain of it. So as I sit here this evening with the scripture open before me, what value can it be to my spirit to remember the pain of those first disciples which I think was so quickly fixed? It may stand as a promise to me, when I encounter my own levels of pain, to search for the consolation that lies in what I do not have yet, my coming participation in Christ’s victory. It may stand as a promise to the church that all through human history from that time on Christians would be called, in one place or another, to suffer for the name of Jesus, and to identify with Jesus in his suffering, and with Jesus in his joyful resurrection.
Prayer
God of all comfort, Father of all consolation, when I encounter my own suffering, it is not always quickly fixed at all. Let me not run and hide. Let me meet Christ at a deeper level. Let me recognise him, the suffering one. When the church endures persecution and your little ones suffer, this can be life-long. It can be the form in which their faith is to be lived out. Let them meet and find Christ in his victory. Let the church witness in obedience. Help us. Let your people love our persecutors when we have pain now.