JOHN 16:21 — KING JAMES VERSION 0 0
“A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”
When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a new being into the world — the analogy of childbirth captures the paradox of the cross: it is painful labor that brings forth new life. The woman's labor pains are real and intense, yet they are not mere suffering but creative pain, pain with purpose. Once the child is born, the pain is not erased from memory but is recontextualized; it becomes the price of joy rather than an isolated trauma. So too the disciples' suffering during the crucifixion becomes the gateway to resurrection joy.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!