None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
Jesus is telling the disciples important information. The disciples are on overload. They have reached a point where they are not able to comprehend what is happening and what Jesus is saying. Jesus, knowing what they are thinking, verbalizes what is actually going on.
“None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’”
Translation: If you were processing this information I am giving you normally, you would be asking questions. Specifically, you should be asking where I am going.
“Rather you are filled with grief…”
A simple statement of fact. It says so much and at the same time leaves so much unsaid.
What can we compare Jesus to that would make sense in today’s world? Who embodies the hope that the eleven remaining disciples put in Jesus. He was so much more than a movie star, or a rock star, or a super athlete. Jesus was the embodiment of God on earth; the fulfillment of everything God had promised through their ancestors. Jesus was their hope and the fulfillment of that hope.
And now he says he is going away.
Imagine losing your hope. Imagine everything you have ever wanted walking out the door on you. Imagine losing your job, being served divorce papers and having to put your favorite pet down all on the same day. “Filled with grief” is what is known as an “understatement.”
Question: Grief is hard to think about when times are good. Has there been something in your life recently that has caused you to grieve? How does that grief help you understand what the disciples are going through?
A friend who has denied their faith and hurt those who love them most. We can all relate to loss and tragedy at some level.
Nathan,
Thank you for sharing. Being denied hurts. It hurts the one being denied, and it hurts those who trusted in the one who denies another. For me the grief I have felt in my life drives me to rely more on God. He is the one who understands and is able to comfort in ways beyond understanding.
“For me the grief I have felt in my life drives me to rely more on God. He is the one who understands and is able to comfort in ways beyond understanding.” Amen brother! I feel as if there is a large majority of my grief that is brought on by my own folly, however, even this bring me closer to God in relationship and reliance when I morn this and turn to him. But I am also familiar with the grief that comes in living for Christ. At times that grief can be brought on by a ‘feeling’ of Christ’s absence. Of course he is never really absent, but there are times he withdraws a bit so that we strive to draw closure into him; that we knock all the louder at his gates. I am going through one of these testing moments right now, and there is a lot of pain/grief from my past that I’ve yet to deal with, namely my divorce and having had my daughter leveraged as pawn against me who because of this is no longer even in my life. This has cut me deeper than anything I’ve ever known and for years I have just closed off to the pain and it’s festered as a bitterness in in me. I actually fear what this has done to my heart. It has made me a cynic, among other things, but I am daily trying to give this to the Lord, and as you say only he can provide a comfort beyond our understanding.
NMOP3PISdn,
Thank you for sharing. Your story touches my heart deeply and I grieve with you. In my own life I have found that as painful as it is grief has deepened me as a person. God has been gracious, too, and poured an abundance of healing into my grief. I pray that he does the same for you, too.