John 16

Verse 7 “It is for your good that I am going away.”

Jesus is still telling the disciples that he is soon going to be dead. The disciples, for a number of reasons, are freaking out… They don’t want him to go.

A couple months ago, I visited one of our members just before her death. She was at peace with what was about to happen, but her children weren’t. She tried to comfort them, but they were devastated… If you’ve ever been there at the end for one of your loved ones, you can relate to how they were feeling.

Jesus was about to die a terrible death, and here he is trying to comfort his disciples. So often, it is the dying who try and give comfort to the healthy, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 It must be all about perspective.

The perspective of someone that is dying is very different than that of someone who is healthy. The dying realize they aren’t going to live forever, which makes all the other stress of life seem irrelevant.

In the days before his death Jesus wasn’t worried about interest rates, an election or a football game... He wasn’t worried about the non-essential realities of life. He was worried about his friends and family.  

I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t care about interest rates, elections or football games, but I think we would be well served to change our perspective a little. If interest rates go up or my candidate loses it’s not the end of the world. My life may become harder, but it’s not over.

Until it is…

And when it is, Jesus’ death will be all that we have; it will be our only comfort as we take our last breath.

It is for our good that he went away.