- Psalmody: Psalm 66:1–2; 3a; Liturgical Text; 1 Corinthians 5:7b, 5:8a, c; Psalm 146:1–2; John 16:16
- Lection: Isaiah 40:25–31; 1 Peter 2:11–20; John 16:16–22
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Just as we pondered Jesus’ teaching last week on Him being the Good Shepherd, words that came well before His crucifixion and resurrection, we join with His disciples again to recall more of what He said during His earthly ministry that we might be prepared well for the present and for the future. We are in real-time sense living out the remembrance of the 40 days between Christ’s resurrection and His ascension, numbering them likewise ourselves between the feasts celebrating those respective events, before following them with 10 more days to get us to the 50th, marking Pentecost. Oh, what a blessed cycle we live out in Christ! All that we have been experiencing thus far in our Easter Gospel readings, in our other propers, in our prayers, and in our hymnody, has rooted us deeply in the observance of Eastertide, calling us to continue in our celebration that Christ was raised from the dead for our justification, having substantiated all His claims and doctrines given throughout all the Gospels. Yea, God in the flesh proved Himself mighty quite mightily. Death is dead!
In John 16, Jesus is speaking to His disciples on the night He was betrayed, so we go back a little that the Lord might prepare us to continue ever forward in Him. We recall that night right before Good Friday and listen in as He tells His disciples, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’… Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” His passion and death were just hours away at this point, so indeed He was referring to it, yet for us it has other understandings and applications.
It’s a simple, yet life-changing truth that without Christ, there is no eternal joy, and with Christ, there is no everlasting sorrow regardless how it may tarry for the night. The night shall end and joy come with the morning. In this night, be done away with Jesus and those who look to Him for life and salvation weep and lament at His absence, yet the evil world seeks this out, to be rid of Christ’s demands of morality, to cast off righteous conviction, and it rejoices when it thinks itself effective in shutting Him and His people up. Yet, as Jesus returns, the sorrow of those who love Him turns into joy. Without Jesus, there is sorrow; with Jesus, there is joy, as simple as that, even though the world believes it not; even though Christians fully live in it or not. The Truth remains: Jesus has returned from the dead and He faithfully returns to where two or three are gathered in His Name.
The events of the death and resurrection of Christ have come and gone millennia ago, but we are good to remember and celebrate them every year as we do over and over again, for our own flesh would have us forget much, forget often, and be tempted by despair in our deceived sense that He has gone away and is not near. The event of His Ascension also happened long ago, but it, too, we are good to remember on the 40th day after every Easter celebration. But your reality today is that Christ has long, long since ascended into heaven in the Body and in glorious cloud. You are indeed without Him in the way about which we read in the Gospels, but He hasn’t been done away with. Even though His time and purpose on the earth walking among us has long since been completed, He is far from finished with us, thanks be to God!
Back up again and see why His words are encouragement for all His disciples, coming as food for your hungry soul though you weep and lament for but a little while. Our Lord was preparing his beloved followers for what was about to hit them mightily hard that very night and in the following days. Everything that had become their world, everything that they had gotten to know for years was about to end, and end in a rather gruesome way. Their faith would be put to the test and in many ways, they would fail miserably. O, give thanks to the Lord Whose mercy endureth forever, for we fail Him much. Yet, He never changes! We daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. Yet, He forgives much! We’ve been taken there with the disciples, joining them in the locked room full of disappointment, malaise, discontentment, frustration, anger, and uncertainty. Even this very day, influences in our lives, now all the way to the end of April 20- and -26, daily and actively seek to frighten us back behind the door of the fallen mind and heart, full of fear, worry, and doubt. But you know Christ’s peace, repeatedly hear it proclaimed to you, and are told by God Himself that He is with you and that His peace will always remain with you.
So, in this sense, as you attend church, as you count these days away in the Church’s Eastertide, as you continue to live your Christian life, remember the joy that your brothers and sisters had in the very first Easter season, when the risen Lord walked among them, witnessed by hundreds and hundreds that He had indeed defeated sin, death, and the devil. Do not allow the evil rejoicing of the world to distract you from or derail the treasures that you have that will not rust, fade, or be eaten away. You are in the season of great joy and truth that this world isn’t all there is and that the sad lies that it peddles are but mere temptations to lure you away from what is truly good and everlasting. This is the joy that you have: that Jesus gave a promise in the very moments before stepping forward to die for you, promising that what was necessary to happen would bring sorrow to His followers, but that He would remedy it, and on the third day, He bound up their wounds, He bound up your wounds for good, showing His promise to be true. There was a little while when He was not seen as He went to the Father, offering up Himself once and for all as the sacrificial Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. It is finished. He finished it. In this sense, you need not wait for His words “your sorrow will turn into joy” to be fulfilled because the deed is done. He once was dead, but is alive evermore. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
The Lord has departed, He has gone to the Father, yet is marvelously still with you always, even until the end of the Age, and you know this, His promise, to be true. He is with you in the very Word you hear. He is with you in the sweet words of Absolution, in the Scriptures, and in His Holy Supper. He promises to sustain you, to give you peace, joy, certainty, hope, to give you life beyond this mere breath of years so that the breath is one of joy. Empty faith, which is simply just temporary optimism, will do you no good through all that there is and through all that there will be. Only faith rooted in the One Who is able to deliver on every good promise to which that faith clings, only that faith can, only that faith does, and only that faith will reach beyond what is seen to grasp promise yet unseen. Only that faith will stand the test of time, the test of oppression, the test of depression, the test of death itself. True faith in God gets tested by wars, disease, tragedy, politicians, mockery, and even our own sinful flesh; especially by our own sinful flesh. It may be the greatest enemy against which your Lord gives you the greatest aid in His House by His divine gifts. Cherish them deeply. The testing will not end until you are delivered out of it by death or by our Lord’s glorious return. But there lies your hope. All sorrow in your life is but temporary. It is but for a little while. Yes, days, weeks, months, and years are a long time…from our temporal perspective as we get caught up in the now. But all sorrow, trial, and tear shall depart. They will be no more. Dearly beloved, your future Hope yields present joy. This is the Triumphant Lord’s doing. Rob not yourself of His gift. May Christ our risen Lord make Himself marvelous in our eyes in the little while of all our earthly days!
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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