Necessary Suffering and Certain Joy

Jubilate (Easter 4)| John 16:16-23| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| April 26, 2026

“To the woman [God] said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.’” (Genesis 3:16a) Thus spoke the Lord to Eve after the fall into sin. And so, it has been for womankind ever since. The bringing forth of children is accompanied by immense pain. Yet, if you are familiar with the book of Genesis, you’ll notice that the Lord God added a curse, but He did not remove the blessing. In Genesis 1, Moses writes, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” God blessed Adam and Eve with the ability to have children. When they fell into sin, they each received a curse, but God continued to bless them, including with children. Children are a blessing from the Lord. Psalm 127 states, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!”

Children are a unique blessing unlike nearly every other earthly blessing we receive from God, because our children can be with us in heaven for eternity if they are kept faithful to Christ. When Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”, He is teaching us, in part, to teach the Gospel to our children and to value them and their faithfulness to Christ more than all of our stuff which we will lose when we die.

And so, since childbirth is so painful, yet children remain a great blessing from God, which surpasses the pain of childbirth, Jesus uses a woman in labor to teach us to endure the little while of sorrow in this life, so that we do not lose sight of the joy that will not end.

When we endure suffering, we often respond with confusion. Like a child who does not understand why he’s in pain, so we weep and lament and complain when we must endure sorrow. Yet, sorrow isn’t meaningless. Suffering is necessary. Jesus says to His two disciples on the road to Emaus after His resurrection in Luke 24, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” (vs. 26) And St. Luke records in Acts 14 that Paul and Barnabas taught that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” (vs. 22) So, what we learn from Jesus is not only that our suffering is but for a little while, while the joy that will follow is endless, but that the suffering we experience in this life is necessary, even as the suffering of childbirth must come first, before the joy that a human being has been born.

Yet, what makes suffering necessary? In short, sin. Sin is disobedience to God. It is unrighteousness and lawlessness. God is just, and so, sin must be punished; it must be atoned for; it must be irradicated. Sin cannot be ignored, or else it will grow worse and claim more victims and cause worse damage. And so, God in His justice added pain to childbirth, even as he added toil to man’s work, not to remove the blessing of children and daily bread, but so that He may still give these blessings to us. Yet, neither the pain of childbirth nor the toil of manual labor makes up for our sin. Even as sin is the root cause of all suffering, not all suffering is necessary for the same reason.

First, we must ask, why was Christ’s little while of suffering necessary? Jesus said to His disciples, “A little while, and you will see Me no longer; and again, a little while, and you will see Me.” When Jesus speaks of a little while, He is referring first to the little while that He would be taken away from them, when He was arrested, crucified, and then buried dead in a tomb. Yet, that little while gave way to joy when Christ appeared to them alive (John 20:20).  But why is Jesus’ little while of suffering necessary?

Jesus’ suffering is necessary to make atonement for our sins. Atonement means to pay for sins and thus reconcile sinners to God by paying for the damage their sin causes. As we know and should confess daily, Christ Jesus is true God and true man. And He is true God and true man, so that He may be our Redeemer from sin, death, and hell. The wages of sin is death. Divine justice demands damnation of sinners. No one man could possibly make atonement for the sins of the whole world (Psalm 49:7-8). And so, God became man. In Christ’s suffering and death, in body and soul, He bears the guilt of all sin (Isaiah 53:6). And He makes perfect atonement for it all (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2). For our sins to be greater than Christ’s payment for them would mean that God is not God. Yet, God is God, and so our sins are washed away in His blood.

Jesus’ suffering was necessary. It was necessary for Him to be betrayed, slandered, and condemned. It was necessary for the scourges to rip His skin and for the crown of thorns to cut His scalp. It was necessary for the nails to pierce His hands and feet and for His soul to feel the bitterness of hell. It was necessary for Christ to suffer, bleed, die, and be buried in a rich man’s tomb to fulfill Scripture and God’s will, because God desired to save us from our sins and rescue us from hell. Only Christ Jesus, the God-man could possibly rescue us, because only He could bear the punishment of damnation for all sins, yet rise again from the dead.

If Jesus didn’t endure that little while of suffering for our sake, then we could not be saved. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). And without the forgiveness of sins, we can only expect the wrath of God and eternal punishment. But in Christ “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” (Ephesians 1:7) Not only did Christ’s little while of suffering give way to the glory of His resurrection, but Christ’s little while of suffering gives way to our glory, our redemption and eternal life with Him.

But if Christ Jesus has endured the punishment for all sins and has made full atonement for them all, why do we still suffer? The second “little while,” Jesus refers to is our little while of suffering here on earth. Why is our little while of suffering necessary? Our little while of suffering does not make atonement for our sins, but it is still necessary to conform us to Christ and keep us in the faith. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) Again, Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14) Here, Jesus describes keeping the faith in this fallen world. No, we do not pay for our sins by our suffering. No, we do not earn salvation by our suffering. Neither can we keep the faith by our own strength. Yet, whoever would keep the faith and enter eternal life must endure suffering. You must become an enemy of Satan and the fallen world, yes, even of your own sinful flesh. You must lose the world and your life, so that you may gain Christ’s kingdom and eternal life.

St. Paul writes in Romans 8, “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (vs. 29) And so, although you are saved by grace apart from your works, those whom God saves by grace He forms into the image of His Son. This happens through bearing the cross, even as Jesus bore the cross for us. This is why Jesus says we must bear our cross to follow Him, not that we may make atonement of our sins, but that we may become more like Him in suffering, so that we may become like Him in glory.

We find a helpful illustration in 1 Peter 2, where the Apostle tells us, “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house,” Now, in 1 Kings, when the temple was built, all the stones were prepared at the quarry, “so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.” And so, this life is the quarry. In this life we endure the picks and hammer and tools that chip away at us. We do not always understand the purpose for this chipping and cutting, yet Scripture promises that all things work out together for good for those who love God who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Yet, when our time on earth is complete according to God’s plan, we will fit perfectly into His holy house, so that all suffering will be forgotten.

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” Jesus later says, “and no one will take your joy from you.” And so, we learn not to rejoice in what the world rejoices. The world’s rejoicing over money, power, pleasure, pride, and other silly things will come to an end. The world rejoices in the suffering of Christ’s Church, but its rejoicing will come to an end even as the Church’s suffering will come to an end, but its sorrow that follows will not end, even as the joy of Christ’s saints will never be taken away from them.

And so, although we do not always understand the purpose for every cross, we trust in God that it is for our good. Yet, even in this life we can find purpose for some of our crosses, as the Psalmist says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.” (Psalm 119:71) God uses crosses to lead us to repentance, as St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (10) God may also use crosses to lead you out of temptation, as temptation leads to sin, death, and hell. Yet, God can even use temptation to draw you closer to Him, because when you are tempted with sin, there is no greater place for you to go than to Christ’s cross where all sin meets its end.

Most especially, God uses suffering and trials to strengthen our faith, so that we hold tighter to Christ and rely on Him more deeply. St. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (vss. 6-7) God does not use suffering needlessly, but only for what is for our eternal good. Even Satan’s most wicked attacks, God can reverse for good, as He did in Christ’s cross.

Yet, how do you know that your sorrow will turn into joy? You know that your sorrow will turn into joy, because Christ’s little while of sorrow turned into eternal joy in His resurrection. When we suffer for the faith, we suffer for Christ’s sake, who died and rose. We never suffer alone, but we suffer with Christ. There is no cross that God lays on you, that He did not lay on Christ first. There is no cross that God lays on you that you must bear by yourself. As surely as Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, lives, and reigns to all eternity, so surely will your little while of suffering give way to eternal gladness.

Now in Christ, death cannot slay me,

Though it might,

Day and night,

Trouble and dismay me.

Christ has made my death a portal

From the strife

Of this life

To His joy immortal! Amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.