John 16:1-33

For every pleasure, there is a price to pay.

There is a price to pay for being a Christian.

Today’s reading illustrates one of the prices. Jesus tells His followers, "you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time will come when those who kill you will think that by doing this they are serving God." (16:2)

With such a high price, you wonder why the disciples did not abandon the ‘Christ cause’ then and there. They did not, and we know that over 2000 years later, people are still following Jesus and paying a price for it.

As we were reading the Gospel this morning, I could see 8 young kids walking to school together. They were wearing identical coloured coats, except one. I wondered how she felt not being like the rest.

When we stand up for anyone who is different from the rest of us, we are paying the price of being in the ‘Christ cause’.

Jesus tells His followers that they will soon be going through troubling situations, which will end with His death. He told them they would be sad, and they would cry and weep because of His suffering. He then assured them that they would endure because God was with them, and eventually their hearts would be "filled with gladness, the kind of gladness that no one can take away from you." (16:22) This would occur when "you see me again". Jesus was telling them about the resurrection.

We need to keep that message in front of us as we face the pressures, sufferings and dangers of modern living.

I received a letter this week. A friend reminded me that God is "our leader and anchor". She was echoing what Jesus is saying here. In life and in death, and in every situation in between, we need to keep the image of the cross or the likeness of Jesus/God in our minds, as a reminder that God/Jesus is our ‘leader’ to move us forward into the future with confidence, and our ‘anchor’ rooting us in the foundation of our God of love.

(Today's post submitted by guest writer, Rev. Hollis Hiscock.)