What is the meaning of John 16:21? A woman has pain in childbirth – Jesus begins with an everyday scene everyone in His audience understood: labor hurts. Genesis 3:16 first attached pain to childbirth, reminding us that sorrow entered the world through sin. – In the same way, the disciples would soon feel searing grief as they watched the Lord arrested and crucified (John 16:20). – Paul later speaks of the whole creation “groaning as in the pains of childbirth” while waiting for redemption (Romans 8:22). The image is raw, real, and unavoidable—pain comes first. Because her time has come – Labor pain isn’t random; it arrives at a set moment. Jesus often spoke of “My hour” (John 13:1; 17:1). That hour—His suffering and death—was now at hand. – Just as a mother cannot delay contractions once they begin, the events of the cross could not be postponed (Acts 2:23). – For believers, trials likewise arrive under God’s timetable (1 Peter 4:12–13). Knowing they are appointed helps us endure them. But when she brings forth her child – The pain has a purpose: birth. Jesus points to the joy of new life on the other side of agony. His own resurrection would be that “birth” moment for the disciples (John 20:20). – Isaiah 66:9 asks, “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” God does not abandon His people in mid-labor. – The empty tomb would prove that suffering was not the end but the means to glorious life (Acts 2:24). She forgets her anguish – The memory of pain fades in the light of the baby’s arrival. Likewise, the disciples’ despair would melt when they saw the risen Christ (John 16:22). – Scripture often pairs momentary sorrow with overwhelming future joy: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). – Revelation 21:4 promises a day when God “will wipe away every tear,” echoing the mother who no longer dwells on her contractions. Because of her joy that a child has been born into the world – The birth of one child floods a room with celebration; the resurrection floods the world with hope. – Peter exults, “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). – New life in Christ brings: • forgiveness of sin (Ephesians 1:7) • power for holy living (2 Corinthians 5:17) • the promise of eternal glory (Romans 8:18) – Joy replaces anguish because God turns suffering into salvation, death into life, and despair into delight. summary John 16:21 uses the vivid picture of childbirth to assure Jesus’ followers that their coming sorrow would be real but temporary, purposeful, and ultimately overwhelmed by joy. Just as a mother’s pain gives way to the happiness of new life, the cross would yield to the resurrection, transforming grief into unshakable gladness for all who believe. |
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