Easter
4 – John 16:16-22 – May 11th and 12th, 2019
Christ is Arisen (He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia)
With
this week in the Easter season, we reach a transition. For the next
few weeks, our Gospel lessons will be from John 15 and 16, they will
be parts of the discussion that Jesus had with His disciples on the
night when He was betrayed, on Maundy Thursday evening. So, why
these Gospel lessons now? Why things that address sorrow and pain -
it’s the Easter Season – that’s what it says on the cover of
the bulletin! Shouldn’t everything be happy? Why do we have such
blunt and dour Gospel lessons here in the middle of the Easter
season? Because Christ Jesus is going to be teaching us what life
will be like for us, for us who know Christ’s resurrection and yet
for a while remain in a sinful, hard world.
A
little while, and you will see me no longer, and again a little
while, and you will see me. Christ
speaks these words on Maundy Thursday evening, after the foot
washing, after the Last Supper, just before He goes to the garden of
Gethsemane. And right here He is laying out the Crucifixion. Guys,
you aren’t going to see me – I’m going to buried in the ground,
I will be dead. And this will be rough and harsh on you, you will
flee in terror and dread. But don’t worry, in a little while, on
the Third Day, you will see me again. But Jesus doesn’t even
pretend to think that this won’t be painful, that this won’t be
difficult. Truly, truly, I say to you, you
will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
Isn’t that something that is great about
Jesus? How well He knows us, how well He understands? Jesus doesn’t
feed the disciples a line – he doesn’t simply say, “Life will
be a bowlful of cherries.” I think sometimes we get this idea that
if we are a Christian that everything in life will be wonderful. I’m
a Christian, I’ll be happy all the time, always a smile on my face.
You will weep, and you will lament. Jesus understands. We are
sinners in a sinful world. Bad things happen. There is no constant
bliss here on Earth. And no, this isn’t a sign of a weak faith.
You guys should all know the shortest verse of the bible – Jesus
wept. At the death of Lazarus, His friend, Christ Jesus Himself
weeps. It’s a simple fact, there are things that will come that
will bring us sorrow, it’s part and parcel of this fallen world.
But
Jesus understands that, and even as He is getting ready to go to the
Cross, even as He is preparing to engage in His epic struggle against
Sin and Death and the Devil, He looks at His Disciples, and He sees
what will happen to them. You guys are going to be so scared, so
upset, so frightened. And note, Jesus doesn’t give any of the
empty words we do. Jesus doesn’t say “buck up.” Jesus doesn’t
say “be strong.” Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh, it’s not that
bad.” Note what He does say. You will
see me again. Jesus points to the
Resurrection. Jesus takes the Disciples, and in preparing them to
handle their grief, points their eyes towards the Resurrection,
points them towards something they have no way of comprehending. And
why? Because the resurrection is where it all happens. The
Resurrection is where the World is set right again. Behold, Christ
Jesus lives, having risen triumphantly from the grave. This is where
we flee from our sorrow. This world isn’t right, it’s filled
with sin and anger and hatred and death – we cannot deny this, we
can't pretend it isn’t this way, we can't expect it to be
otherwise. Yet you know another more wondrous truth. Christ lives
to die no more. Your sin, done away with, gone, forgiven. You have
been made right with God. No matter what comes here in this life, no
matter what people say or do, no matter what victories they win over
you, Christ has won the final victory. You know the end of the
story, whatever pain comes in the mean time. Christ is teaching you
to look to Him whenever there is sorrow in your life. That’s what
He does here, that’s what He’s telling the disciples that
evening, that’s what He telling us this day/morning. You will face
sorrow, but look to my Resurrection for strength and joy.
But
Jesus isn’t simply preparing the Disciples for His death and
Resurrection. He is also pointing the Disciples towards His
Ascension. Hear again the Gospel. So some
of His Disciples said to one another, “What is this that He says to
us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little
while, and you will see Me’; and ‘because I am going to the
Father’?” Because I am going to the
Father. You see what that is saying, right? Think on the Creed.
And He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the
Father, from thence He Shall Come to Judge the living and the dead.
Jesus is also preparing the Disciples for the life after the
Ascension. Yes, indeed, Christ is with us always, but think of the
situation which the Disciples will be placed in. After the
Ascension, if they have a question, they don’t get to just ask
Jesus for the answer anymore – rather they have His teachings, they
have prayer. The time is coming when the Disciples will have to take
up responsibility, take up their own crosses, and serve in the
Church. And it will be hard work for the Disciples. Jesus compares
what they will go through to a woman giving birth (happy Mother's
Day). It will be painful and full of toil (happy Mother's Day) –
but through these people Jesus will serve His Church. That is the
joy they are to focus on and see – to ignore the pain of
persecution, to ignore the pain of the mockers and their own torture
and death – and rather to focus on the joy of sharing the Gospel,
of bringing the joy of the resurrection to people who need it.
But
really, this is the same situation we are in. We toil in this world
awaiting the joy of Christ’s return, the final giving of joy ever
lasting. Again, our faith, our love of God doesn’t mean that there
won’t be pain in our lives. Coming to Church doesn’t mean the
kids suddenly will stop arguing, reading your Bible in the morning
doesn’t mean everything will go smoothly at work. Even really
praying hard doesn’t mean that your relationships will be peaceful
and joyful all the time. Why? Because we are all still sinners in a
sinful world – and sinners we will remain as long as we draw
breath. Jesus knows that when He speaks these words. He says this
to Peter knowing that in a few moments Peter will draw his sword in
anger and cut off the servant’s ear, that in just a few hours Peter
in fear will deny Him 3 times. Jesus speaks these words knowing us,
knowing that we will sin. But He calls us to the struggle, He calls
us to the fight – to battle temptation, to confess our sin – and
to look towards the joy that only His forgiveness can give. While we
wait for Christ’s return – this is what our lives will consist of
– our struggle to follow His Word, to actually love God and our
Neighbor in thought, word, and deed. And make no mistake, it is a
struggle. If you think that you’ve got this being a Christian
thing down, you are fooling yourself. Our lives are ones where we
constantly seek to grow and improve – and that is painful, because
if we strive to do better we will always see how we fail, how we
could have done better; we will always see our sin in front of us.
And in response to this we are to confess our sin to God, and to
receive His forgiveness given out to us by His Absolution and by His
Supper. This is where we receive again His joy, which gives us the
strength to endure in this life.
One
more point: Jesus does here also describe how we are to deal with
mourning the loss of our loved ones who have died in the faith.
There is indeed a time for mourning, for weeping, for sorrow. We
must never delude ourselves by thinking that death is just a part of
life – just a phase of life. Death is a tragedy, our great foe,
it’s wrong, it shouldn’t be this way. But this is why we give
thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord – because He takes on death.
That’s what His crucifixion is – Christ entering into the
struggle against death, Christ taking its pain – and Christ
defeating death resoundingly on Easter. That is how we view death,
dear friends, by looking at the Resurrection. We see in Christ’s
resurrection the defeat of death, we see our own future resurrection
which Christ has promised to us. We look at the death of our loved
ones through the Ascension – we see and remember that Christ our
Lord now rules from Heaven, that He is there with all the saints who
have gone on before us. In spite of our sorrow, we see the joy that
they have right now this moment, and know that they await the
resurrection on the last day, their’s and ours.
Again,
this is what we celebrate whenever we have the Lord’s Supper here.
With angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven. When we
have the Supper here, we confess that our Lord is here, His Body and
Blood in Bread and Wine. We confess that He is here for our
forgiveness. But we also confess that we with all of God’s Saints
participate in Christ’s Body, that we share in His life that He has
given us. The Lord’s Supper is not simply a matter of
individuality – it’s not a time for just me to hang out with God.
At His Supper God brings to us a taste of heaven, we join in the
Heavenly Feast with all of His Saints – the Communion of Saints.
In this Supper we celebrate the Truth that Christ Jesus lives –
today we partake of His Body. Death cannot hold Him, Christ has not
decayed away, but now, in His Body He reigns in heaven in the
Presence of all the Saints – and through His Supper we rejoice in
His presence here on Earth. We know that our Lord lives, we know
that we too have Eternal life, right now, it is ours. Right now, God
has blessed His saints, and we all simply wait for the last day when
we shall see our Lord in our own flesh. We are joined to our Lord
and all of His Saints. This is the joy and peace that we see here on
Earth.
Dear
friends – your life will have struggles – there will be trials
and pains and sorrow. But let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, for the
grave could not hold Him, for He reigns from Heaven this moment, for
He gives us His gifts of life and forgiveness here in His Church.
Because of this, we endure the sorrows of the moment, we endure them
by looking to the eternal joy which He has won for us with His death
and resurrection, which He has promised us. This is the peace we ha
ve as Christians, this is the joy we have as Christians, one that no
one can take away. Amen. Christ is Risen – He is Risen Indeed,
Alleluia.
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