Easter 4 - Jubilate - 05-03-09

The Church Season of Easter,
Easter 4, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 3, 2009)

“In a Little While”

Readings:
Psalm 147:1-11
Isaiah 40:25-31
1 Peter 2:11-20
John 16:16-22

Sermon Form: Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 16th chapter of St. John, especially the following verses:

John 16:16-22 (NIV)
(Jesus said)16 “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” 17 Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.” 19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

On the night when He was betrayed Jesus broke bread with His disciples. He gave them the very bread of life and after that He said to them, “In a little while you will see me no more, then after a little while you will see me.”(v. 16) He had used words like this before. He had said, “I am with you for only a short time.” (Jn. 7:33) A short time, and a little while can certainly mean a whole lot of things depending on the circumstances you are in. But this little while was neither meant to delay or distract the disciples but rather to comfort them. Because Jesus knew all that was to happen to Him in just a short time, and that all that would happen would be turned into His victory and so our too, for though He would die, He would return in,

“A Little While”

Throughout His ministry Jesus had taught the people of all that He would face. And the disciples confessed that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the one they had been promised, the one they had waited for from the beginning and that was much longer than a little while. Many might debate how many years it was until the fulfillment of the promise in Jesus birth and His appearance on this earth, was it 5000, 10,000, 15,000 years? Regardless of human time it would be perceived as more than just a little while.

But in this little piece of scripture Jesus adds a few defining words which could be easily overlooked. Jesus says, “you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.”(v. 20) He said those words to the disciples, the ones who would see a crowd yell for His conviction and who would watch as Jesus received His punishment. They would see their Lord and master nailed to a tree, they would see His mother and many others gather at the foot of His cross. These diciples would see the soldiers rejoice as they cast lots for Jesus’ clothes. While only a few were gathered around Him in His last hours to “weep and mourn” there would be many others in the world who would not view His death in the mournful same way.

While the disciples would ponder all this later Jesus knew what would happen to Him that night He was betrayed. He knew in “a little while” He would be tried, convicted, whipped beaten, crucified, and He would die. He knew all of that would take just a little while.

But again, a little while depends on perspective. It only takes a little while to eat an ice cream cone, but registration, taxes, titles, and plates for a vehicle never seem to come about in the time frame of a little while. So it seems when we wait for something we really want, a little while seems like forever, and when we endure something that challenges us either mentally or physically, those things never seem to be over with in a little while.

So again, it is all in your perspective and so we ask, ‘What this means for us who are believers in Christ?” We are here in this time and place, living in the “little while” of this life. Like Jesus said, we often weep and mourn while the world rejoices, He said, “So with you: Now is your time of grief”(v. 22) The disciples would grieve when Jesus would go away from them but their time of grief would not last. But they did grieve for they had to watch their master beaten, bloodied, and crucified. And just like them, we do not wish to gaze upon the beaten and distraught Jesus, we want the Good Shepherd, not the sacrificial Lamb of God.

So we are tempted to deny Him, the Christ who saves us and to see what we want to see. So many times we do just that and in so doing we deny Christ. Our lives include many times of challenge, times of facing unfair realities that tell us life is not the same, it is short, and there are times of downright darkness and despair. Times when those whom we love let us down, times when we are faced with the death of someone whom we really love, times of sickness and times of hopelessness. And times when we will grieve for that which we want but can no longer have.

But, God promises us all that in a little while all the pain and suffering will be over and we will see Him again. Just like when there are clouds which hide the sun, yet we know that the sun is still there. While we make think the cross a dark cloud, the Son of God was still there, for us.

Christ promised the disciples that, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”(v. 22) Really, all our troubles and our sinful lives cover Jesus' cheerful face. All our sins collect upon Him and then we see His face as it looks down from the cross. Yet He knows that His victory there on the cross will turn your grief, all your ills, all your pain, all your sorrows into joy. Because He has become the man of grief the man of sorrows, and He gives you the promise that your grief and sorrows will be removed forever. And He seals that promise as He put His Name on you in your baptism. He relives your grief as He comes to you in Holy Communion offering to you His true body and blood. And as we grieve for those who have gone before us, those who have died in the faith, yet they are still there with us in Holy Communion, there in and with Christ’s body and blood, for we are in Christ and He is in us. Be comforted by the words in our liturgy, “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,” truly we are communing with all the company in heaven which includes those dear departed saints whom we love and miss dearly.

Psalm. 30:5 says "Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning." and Isaiah 54:7 reads: "For a brief moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you." And St. Paul, tells us, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."(Rom. 8:18) The land of Israel mourned, but the Lord brought them back to their land. The disciples mourned, but Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus said, “I will never leave nor will I forsake you." and He never will, for all of you who have been given the free gift of grace. For He has promised you that He will, “see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” You may now be worried, or weary, or you may grieve, or wonder what life will deal to you next, but rejoice in Christ that He will bring you to an eternal place where no one will ever take away you joy. Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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