“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.”
My Notes
What Does John 16:21 Mean?
"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." Jesus uses childbirth as a metaphor for the disciples' coming grief and joy. The sorrow is real — labor pain is among the most intense human experiences. But the sorrow has a product: the child. And the joy of the birth erases the memory of the anguish.
The phrase "her hour is come" echoes Jesus' own language about His "hour" — the hour of His death and glorification. The hour of travail is necessary. The pain produces something. And the something is so magnificent that the pain is forgotten.
The metaphor is specifically feminine — Jesus reaches for the experience of women to explain the deepest spiritual truth to His male disciples. The best available illustration of grief-that-produces-joy is an experience only women have. The incarnate God honors female experience by making it the interpretive key for the gospel.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What sorrow in your life might be 'labor' — producing something you can't see yet?
- 2.Why does Jesus choose a feminine experience to explain the gospel's grief-to-joy pattern?
- 3.How does knowing the anguish is temporary and productive change how you endure it?
- 4.What 'birth' might be coming that would make your current pain feel like a forgotten memory?
Devotional
A woman in labor knows sorrow. Real, physical, all-consuming sorrow. Her hour has come, and the hour is agony. But when the child arrives — the memory of the pain dissolves in the joy of what the pain produced.
Jesus uses a woman's experience to explain the gospel. Not a military metaphor. Not an agricultural metaphor. A birth metaphor. The best illustration of what's about to happen — the cross followed by the resurrection, the grief followed by the joy — comes from the experience of mothers. The incarnate God looks at His male disciples and says: let Me explain this through something women understand.
The anguish is real. Jesus doesn't minimize it. Labor pain isn't a metaphor for mild discomfort. It's among the most intense physical experiences a human body can undergo. And Jesus says: that's what the next three days will feel like. Real anguish. Real sorrow. Real darkness.
But the birth is coming. And when the birth arrives, the anguish is forgotten — not denied, not minimized, but eclipsed. The joy of what was produced is so immense that the memory of the pain can't compete. The child in your arms makes the hours of travail feel like a distant memory.
Your current sorrow may be labor. Not pointless suffering — productive suffering. Suffering that's producing something you can't see yet, something that will make you forget the anguish when it arrives. The hour has come. But the child is coming.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
In that day ye shall ask me nothing,.... Meaning, not the whole Gospel dispensation, so often called, in prophetic…
For joy that a man is born - Ανθρωπος is put here for a human creature, whether male or female; as homo among the Romans…
Our Lord Jesus, for the comfort of his sorrowful disciples, here promises that he would visit them again.
I. Observe the…
A woman Or, The woman, like -the servant" (Joh 15:15): in each case the article is generic, expressing the general law.…
Cross References
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