I. "Ye now therefore have sorrow." Sorrow (1) because He was going away; sorrow (2) because of the declared manner of His death. If He had been about to die the common death of all men; if, young though He were, He was to be deprived of the residue of His years by pining sickness; if they could have stood by His bed and watched Him as the fastenings of the earthly tabernacle gave way, this might have lightened that great sorrow. But how different Christ's death was to be. (3) Selfishness entered very largely into the sorrow of the disciples. It is to be confessed that they had been disappointed. The service of Christ had not proved to be what they looked for, and the longer they continued in it the more discouraging their prospects became. "Ye now therefore have sorrow."
II. How beautiful is the law of our mental constitution which makes joy such an overruling, absorbing, past-obliterating thing. So soon as it comes, the preceding suffering becomes expunged, erased from thought, blotted out as a thing which had never been. That dark crucifixion scene, they remembered it no more; that dreadful, distressing sacrifice, they remembered it no more; that burying of their last hope in the garden, they remembered it no more, for joy that Christ had come to them again; and this is the Easter aspect of our subject: "I will see you again." Rejoice (1) to see how kindly He had remembered them, how promptly He had come to them, and how affectionately He had met them again, for the first time, without a word, or look, or gesture that had not love in it. (2) Rejoice, because that in His return from the winepress gloriously apparelled, travelling in the greatness of His strength, they saw proof that their Master had triumphed after all; that all the powers of darkness had been baffled and defeated, and that the shield of omnipotence had been thrown over innocence and truth and right. (3) Rejoice, because in their Master's coming to them again there was an end put to all their dejection, distress, and fear. (4) Rejoice, because they saw in the resurrection the seal of their and our immortality; they understood the force and reality of those many expressions of the Saviour in which He had affirmed His dominion over the issues of life and death; and they would perhaps begin to comprehend for the first time the meaning of that He had said to them, "Because I live ye shall live also."
D. Moore, Penny Pulpit,No. 3320.
References: John 16:22. H. le Pla, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxx., p. 139; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,pp. 345, 355.John 16:23. E. Bickersteth, Church of England Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 5; Homilist,2nd series, vol. iii., p. 247; J. Keble, Ibid.,p. 445; Contemporary Pulpit,vol. ii., p. 105; vol. v., p. 289; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. i., p. 244; S. Martin, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament,p. 96. John 16:23; John 16:26. A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer,p. 190. John 16:23-29. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 93; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xviii., p. 227. John 16:23-30. W. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 68. John 16:23-33. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 264; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 197. John 16:24. J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,p. 436; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xvi., p. 92; Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 287. John 16:25. Ibid.,p. 282; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 85.John 16:26. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. i., p. 268.