Sermon for Jubilate Sunday, May 8, 2022
Striving Through Tears for Eternal Joy
In the Name of the Father, & of the + Son & of the Holy Spirit
Grace to you and peace from the One Who Is & Who Was & Who Is to Come!
Listen to our Gospel reading once again this morning, as it is a little complex and puzzling to hear all at once. Jesus said, “A little while, and you will no longer behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Some of His disciples, therefore, said to one another, "What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” And so they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not behold Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. “Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.1 This is our text.
Let's begin with a riddle this morning. If you are a fan of The Hobbit, then you know this one. What is something that devours all things, birds, beasts, trees, and flowers; gnaws iron; bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays kings, ruins towns; and beats mountains down? The answer: time. How about this one: This thing cannot be seen and cannot be felt. It cannot be heard and cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills and all the empty holes it fills. It comes out first, follows after, ends all life, and murders laughter. What is it? The dark. Riddles can be fun. Good ones are frustrating but, at the same time, have simple, obvious answers once you hear them.
The disciples reacted with puzzlement to what Jesus spoke to them in today's Gospel reading because it sounds almost like a riddle: “A little while, and you will no longer behold Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” You can imagine how baffling this was to the disciples when they heard it, though to us, looking back with the perfect vision of hindsight, know what Jesus means. He says, "I'm leaving, but I'm not leaving, and in a little while, I'll be back, though I never left. I will bring you redemption, life, and salvation when I return, which you may have now, but also not yet." Oh, wait, that's not so simple at all, is it? And like children, throughout time and space, we ask the important question we are all thinking: "How long is a little while?" How about tomorrow? Or three days from now? Is that a little while?
This text is from the Gospel according to St. John, chapter sixteen, which is smack in the middle of chapters thirteen to eighteen, all of which take place in the upper room on Maundy Thursday evening, mere hours before Jesus goes with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested. Tomorrow He dies on the cross. Those of you coming to our Bible study on John's Gospel will hear all about these last teachings and prayers Jesus gives His disciples before His death and resurrection, which are not found in any of the other Gospels and are known as Jesus’ “farewell discourse.” So why do we hear this particular reading in the middle of the Easter season, and how is that relevant to us listening to Jesus’ words today?
Today is Jubilate Sunday, which means “shout for joy,” the first words of the introit. This Sunday “marked the start of the Ostermesse, the Easter trade fair, when, for three weeks, a flood of visitors – book dealers, craftsmen, hawkers, and international commercial travelers –swelled the resident population to some 30,00 citizens, On this Sunday, no trading was allowed, thus the visitors and distinguished residents“2 would all be in church for certain, and it was a grand opportunity to share the Gospel with them. As you can imagine, many of them perhaps were hearing the Gospel for the first time. This season of the church year is, of course, focused on the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, but now with this Sunday, we focus specifically on the power and strength the risen Christ gives to His church.
The disciples will see Jesus beaten, crucified, dead, and buried in a little while. In order to prepare His disciples for the time when He will not be physically present with them, and this night before His crucifixion, He tells them that His departure is for their benefit, though, like a riddle, they do not understand this in the moment at all. What awaits them tomorrow is nothing but tears and sorrow, fear, and frustration. How often have you succumbed to fear and tears in the face of seemingly insurmountable sorrow or difficulty? Life can seem like a riddle without a solution in times like those. With no support, you feel lost and alone. There is certainly no joy. What the disciples do not realize yet is that Jesus' death will bring them complete forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. When they see the stone rolled over the front of the tomb and the tomb sealed, they think it is all over for them. They believed having Jesus physically present with them was the entire point of this journey they began with Him. He is their teacher, leader, and friend. They will become desperate and despondent, not realizing their great need for a Redeemer more than those other things. Not understanding any of these things, in a little while, they will mourn deeply.
But “again a little while” is only three days from now. Jesus will descend3 into hell to declare victory over Satan and will then rise from the grave victorious over sin, death, and the devil. "Again a little while," and it will be Easter, and the disciples will see Him once more. Jesus will come bringing new life and salvation into their lives, turning their sorrow into joy. But in a little while does not only mean the time between Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus is speaking of another “little while,” namely forty days from Easter, then fifty days from Easter.
In a little while, forty short days, the disciples' joy would seem to turn to sorrow when Jesus returns to His Father in heaven as their reunion with Jesus comes to an end, just as our Easter season in the church will end a few weeks from now. But Jesus has told His disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”4 We will talk about this next week. But what Jesus meant, in short, is that He must go so the Comforter may come, which is to their benefit. What Jesus received from the Father will be declared to them.5 When the Spirit comes, all of these mysteries they do not understand will be revealed. The Spirit will point out that in a time yet to come, many will come to believe in Jesus through the words they will preach.6 And He will remind them of the Savior’s promise to return them to where Jesus has gone. Sorrow will turn once more to joy as the Gospel is shared. Tears of sorrow will become tears of hope and gladness when they hear, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”7 All Christians will strive through their tears toward eternal joy in that certain hope. When will that ultimately be? Jesus says it will be “again a little while.”
Between Jesus' ascension and second coming, He will bring new life and salvation to the world through generations of pastors proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes. Your life is but a little while. And in that short span, we need to be shown we are sinners and that Jesus is the solution – the cure – that only He can deliver. That is why Jesus came into the world… for sinners. For that is how we came into this world. Born into sin. Born into eternal death.
But in a little while, for some of you, only a few days, for others perhaps years, you were baptized into Christ's death and resurrection and received forgiveness of all your sins. Each week we receive that forgiveness again in Holy Absolution and again in the frequent reception of His dead and raised flesh and blood in His Holy Supper. We did not see Jesus with our physical eyes, but all our senses are engaged with receiving Him by faith. And in a little while, we will die. But not eternal death. Rather, we will die and rise again into eternal life, just as Jesus did. The deep sorrow of mourning has touched nearly all of us, just as those who love you will know that sorrow when your own little while has ended. But the Holy Spirit is at work in you and will keep you in God's grace. As you share that faith with others, He can begin to work within them as well, so their "little while" can become eternity.
This is the mystery of the Christian faith. We are afraid to die, yet we are not afraid. We mourn for those we have lost but rejoice that we will see them again. Because “again a little while” and we will see Jesus with our physical eyes. Our body will rest in the tomb as His did even as our soul sings praises before Him with the choir of the heavenly host. And “again a little while,” in “the twinkling of an eye,”8 we will rise from our graves in our bodies, as He did, to see Him forever. Here is another riddle: Who makes it has no need of it. Who buys it does not use it. Who uses it can neither see it nor feel it. What is it? A coffin. The one who uses it will not need it long, for in a little while, the Lord will come again, and for his redeemed, all the sorrow of death will be turned into the all-surpassing joy of resurrection to eternal life. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
May the peace which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus
1John 16:16-22 (NASB77).
2Jubilate Sunday Cantatas. Accessed May 6, 2022. https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Topics/Jubilate-Cantatas.htm.
3John 18:11.
4John 16:12-13 (ESV).
5John 14:26.
6John 17:20.
7I Thessalonians 4:13-14 (ESV).
81 Corinthians 15:32.