September 30, 2025 - John 20-21

Isn’t it always so wonderful to get to these chapters!  Knowing the last chapter in the story (Though, of course, the story continues.) sort of sustains us through all the treachery, mocking, pain, and suffering Jesus endured.  Though the words, I suspect, were not written specifically with the cross and the resurrection in mind, they certainly are comforting:  “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5).  And even though the psalm reports David’s personal experiences with God, there are hints of these events:  “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help” (Psalm 30:2); “You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit” (Psalm 30:3).  “You hid your face; I was dismayed” (Psalm 30:7).  “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:11).  The pain and utter dismay before the cross but, then, the resurrection!  Mourning into joy!  The prophet Jeremiah got it right:  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:7).

O Jesus, Lord, thy dying love

Hath pierced my contrite heart;

Now take my life, and let me prove

How dear to me thou art.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart roll’d away,

It was there by faith I receiv’d my sight,

And now I am happy night and day.   --Russell Kelso Carter & E. E. Nickerson (1885)