Reflect: In this passage, Jesus is preparing His disciples for a world that is going to come crashing down around them. Within a short time, they would experience overwhelming fear, difficulties and sorrow with as they watched Jesus get arrested, mocked, scourged and crucified. He is telling His disciples how they are going to grieve, but that grief is going to be turned into a type of joy that no one can take away. In verses 23-24, of today’s reading, Jesus repeats the promise to answer the disciples’ prayers offered in His name (see John 14:13-14; 15:7,16). This is how they will have their joy made complete or full. To ask in Jesus’ name is to make a request in alignment with His will, that will further His kingdom and His glory and be best for you. It is the equivalent of asking for what Jesus would want to happen in the given situation. After we ask, in Jesus’ name, we are to receive the answer. The word “receive” in the Greek is, lambanō. It means to take hold of, receive, to catch. When our prayers are answered choose to take hold of them, catch them like a ball in a catcher’s mitt and go forward in the fullness of joy. Sometimes people catch or receive the answer and don’t take hold of it (they drop the ball) because it wasn’t the answer they wanted. They think it means getting the answered prayer in the way they think it should be. We don’t always see the big picture, so it can be difficult at times for us to receive an answer that we don’t want and be joyful about it. Let’s clarify what the Bible means by the word, “joy.” The late author, Henry Nouwen, describes joy being made full this way:

“Joy is essential to the spiritual life. Whatever we may think of or say about God, when we are not joyful, our thoughts and words cannot bear fruit. Jesus reveals to us God’s love so that his joy may become ours and that our joy may become complete. Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing - sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death - can take that love away. Joy is not the same as happiness. We can be unhappy about many things, but joy can still be there because it comes from the knowledge of God’s love for us... Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. It is a choice based on the knowledge that we belong to God and have found in God our refuge and our safety and that nothing, not even death, can take God away from us.”