Jubilate, the 3rd Sunday after Easter + John 16:16-23a + April 22, 2018

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

Jesus tells the disciples that they will have sorrow because He goes away for what He calls “a little while.” By “a little while” Jesus means His suffering, death, and time in the tomb. His disciples will weep and lament at this. Their Lord is taken away from them. The One of whom they confessed, “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68), will be separated from them in death. Of course they would sorrow, weep, and lament. The world, on the other hand, will rejoice at this “little while” that Christ is gone. By “the world” we mean everything in this life that is set against Christ and the righteousness that comes by faith in Him. When Christ is crucified, all His enemies make a joyful shout and rejoice in their victory over God’s Son in human flesh. The world’s rejoicing will make the disciples’ sorrow that much worse. It’s terrible to lose your teacher and Lord. That loss stings worse when everyone else gloats over the loss.

But their “little while” will come to an end. Their time of sorrow isn’t meant to endure forever. It has a prescribed end. There is a limit to “a little while.” From their point of view, “a little while” is an indefinite period of time that could last days, months, years, or a lifetime. But the Lord knows precisely how long “a little while” is. This is why Jesus likens His painful absence from them to a woman in labor. There is a prescribed end to a woman’s pregnancy. It’s can’t go on longer than the Lord created it to last. A woman bears the pains of pregnancy. She endures the agony and anxiety of labor. But then the baby is born and as the woman holds her newborn child there is a joy that obliterates the former anxiety. Her labor lasts “a little while” and then ends in joy. So it will be for the disciples. The “little while” they must endure and it will be filled will sorrow, anxiety, and doubt. But when it ends, and it must come to an end, then joy will come. “A little while and you will not see me; and again a little while and you will see me, because I go to the Father.” They will have their Jesus back. And when He returns them their hearts will be filled with a joy which no one in all the world will be able to take from them.

They get their teacher and Lord back on the third day. He rises from the dead. The Good Shepherd takes up His life and leaves the grave. When He returns to the disciples they experience that joy which He foretold on the night in which He was betrayed, the night in which He spoke today’s Gospel lesson. The world can’t take this joy away because the world didn’t give them that joy. The changes and chances of life cannot extinguish their joy because it wasn’t the changes and chances of life that brought them that joy. This is the joy of Christ’s resurrection. By raising Him from the dead, God the Father shows them that He accepts His sacrifice for the sins of the world. By raising Christ to new life, God shows them that their confession was true. Christ alone has the words of eternal life. All Christ’s words are true words in fact, all His promises are sure and certain for those who put their trust in Him. The joy of the resurrection is a confidence that because Christ died and rose from the dead, all who are connected to Him by faith, though they die, will also rise to new life on the Last Day. The joy of the resurrection fills the disciples with confidence to believe that as the Father lifted Christ’s cross and removed His affliction, so He will lift their crosses and remove their afflictions in His wisdom and graciousness toward them. This is joy that doesn’t come from the world, because the world hates Christ and wants men to trust themselves. This joy can’t be taken away by the world because the world doesn’t give it.

This word of promise was for the original disciples but it is also for you and all who believe in Christ as their savior from sin. You have the same promise but the timetable is different. Christ has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. But He promised that He would return. The Church now must wait “a little while” for His return on the Last Day. Again, the “little while” is indefinite. It has been days, months, years, and lifetimes. And it in this “little while” we too sorrow and lament because we must live in a world which is set against Christ. The world, while Christ is not physically present in it, rejoices and does everything in its power to make it seem like faith in Christ is foolish, backwards, and even destructive to society. Our own flesh works against Christ’s Word every day as it entices us to sin and put aside Christ’s promises. Our own bodies cause us great suffering as we each bear in our body the wages of sin, which is deterioration that eventually leads to death. While Christ is away for this “little while” we have much sorrow in this vale of tears on account of the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature. 

Peter writes, “When you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20). Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” The prophets and apostles commend patience in the midst of our sorrow and sufferings because we know that they will last but “a little while.” Like a woman in labor, our afflictions and sorrows won’t last forever. Our Lord has fixed an end for each of them. Not only as He set an limit to them, but He uses them for our good. He uses our sorrows to draw us nearer to Him through faith and prayer. He uses our sufferings to conform us to the image of Christ, so that we might come to bear His likeness more and more. As it is written in Hebrew 12:7, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” This should enable us to endure our crosses patiently. They aren’t punishment for our many sins. They don’t occur by happenstance. They are laid upon us by our gracious and loving Father in heaven for our good: to strengthen our faith, build our hope, and increase our perseverance. When our Father lifts particular crosses and sufferings from you, rejoice and give thanks. If He doesn’t do this in this life, remember that they last only “a little while.”

Even in the midst of sorrow, suffering, and affliction, we have the joy which Christ promises to His disciples. We should be joyful because we know that our Jesus is alive to aid us in the moment of temptation. We can rejoice that because Christ lives, our loved ones who have died in the faith also live with Him, and we will see them again. We can take courage in this sinful world which hates Christ, knowing that Christ has overcome the world. For all its arrogance and power, the world, everything that is set against Christ, really has no power over Him or His Christians. We know that His Words are true, not the world’s words. We know that He lives to justify those who trust in Him and flee to Him for mercy, no matter how many times a day we must flee to Him for forgiveness. We know that He has the words of eternal life and so He is worthy of our confidence. Because He lives, not one of His promises will fall to the ground unfulfilled.

“You now have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” This joy is that He is alive to forgive our sins, to strengthen us in temptation, and to sustain us in this vale of tears and sorrow. This joy doesn’t come from the world so the world can’t take it away from you. Nor does this joy come to you by chance, so that chance can take it away. It is given to you by Christ Jesus your Lord, the resurrected One, so that you may hold fast to it while you wait for His return, no matter how long “a little while” . Amen.

May the peace of God which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.