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Sermon for Jubilate
Lamentations 3:18-26 + 1 Peter 2:11-20 + John 16:16-23
This morning you heard the words of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, in his lament: And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. In our Gospel, too, Christ addresses the reality of grief and sorrow in the life of His disciples—grief and sorrow that would necessarily come, to them and to us, but only for “a little while.” Then the sorrow would give way to unending joy, as when a child is born after labor pains.
“A little while, and you will not see Me,” Jesus says, “and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”
The immediate fulfillment of this saying of Jesus took place over the next few days, and over the next month and a half. He spoke these words to His eleven apostles on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane on Maundy Thursday. In a little while, Jesus would be arrested and removed from their sight. Within a day, He would be crucified, dead and buried in the tomb, where they surely would not see Him. But then, again, in a little while, just two days later, they would see Him, because His suffering for sin would be finished, and so would His time in the grave. And even during that time in the grave, when they would not see Him? He wouldn’t be idle. He would descend into hell and pin the devil down and release the devil’s hold on believers. And then, after His resurrection, He had to go the Father. He had to return to the Father’s side from whence He came, because His mission on earth as a humble servant had come to an end. All of those things were hidden under Jesus’ general, cryptic statement, “A little while, and you will not see Me,” Jesus says, “and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.”
Why so general? Why so cryptic? Because the events of the future had to unfold naturally. It is not for men to know all the details of God’s plans, because we are not God. He has given us a very general outline of the future, with a few bullet points here and there and with a spectacular description of the grand conclusion at the end of this world’s history. But the details in between He has mostly left out, leaving His disciples to cling to Jesus’ Word and promises, no matter how cryptic, leaving us to cling to the bullet points that He has revealed, and to the glorious ending, without worrying about the details along the way.
Now, one of the bullet points, one of the future realities we can count on, according to Jesus, as disciples of Jesus, is sorrow. Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful. The disciples would know that sorrow when Jesus was removed from their sight, when He was buried in the tomb. Remember the sorrow of the women on Easter morning before they got to the tomb? Remember how sorrowful the two disciples were on the road to Emmaus, before Jesus showed Himself to them in the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread? And all the while, the world was rejoicing that Jesus was finally dead.
But there’s another bullet point that comes after this one. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. Jesus’ disciples learned on Easter Sunday the meaning of these words. All their sorrow over losing the One they had trusted in as their Savior was replaced by joy when they realized, they hadn’t lost Him at all. He had conquered sin and death for them and now lives forever.
I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. No one would take their joy from them, because no one—not your enemies, not your persecutors, not the devil himself—could change the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and now lives to intercede before God for those who believe in Him. No one can kill Jesus again. No one can prevent Him from fulfilling His promises. No one can wrest the Lord Christ from His throne, no matter how hard they try—and they do try!
Jesus’ words in the Gospel extend beyond the crucifixion and resurrection. 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 really describe the whole New Testament era, from Christ’s ascension to His coming again. Jesus’ disciples didn’t see Him ever again on earth after He ascended into heaven. And they did have sorrow in this life as the world began to persecute Christians like the world had first persecuted Christ. But the grief and sorrow would last only a little while, and then they would see Jesus again.
They would see Him like Stephen did as he was being stoned to death, alive and sitting on His throne at the right hand of God. Or they would see Him when they finally closed their eyes in death and their souls were whisked away by the angels to His side. Or they would see Him on the Last Day when He comes in glory to judge the wicked and to turn the page on this world’s crying and sorrow and pain. At times, it seemed like it would never end, but in reality, it lasted only “a little while,” as God views things. And then the joy of eternal life in Paradise would begin. And through it all, the apostles and early Christians were sustained on both ends. They were sustained because of the hope of future joy, but also because of the fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
What Jesus said to His disciples remains true for Christians in our time. 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… You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
You don’t see Jesus. When you do see Him, the time of sorrow will be over. But now you don’t see Him. Now is the time of wrestling with the sinful flesh and with despair and with temptation. Now is the time of watching our children grow up in a world that is becoming more and more depraved by the day, and more and more hostile to Christ and to Christians. Now is the time of small Christian gatherings, of struggling churches, of loneliness and isolation, because so few people are willing to put up with sound doctrine. Now is the time of suffering and death. Now is the time of the cross. Now, for a little while.
But Jesus told us about all this ahead of time, didn’t He? It’s one of those bullet points of history, the grief and sorrow of Christians in this world. We mustn’t forget about those other bullet points of history: the suffering and death of Christ for your sins and the resurrection of the Lord Christ in the past, and the coming again of the Lord Christ in the future, the end of sorrow and grief after a little while. We mustn’t forget that no matter how successful Satan appears to be in this world, he is already defeated. Jesus already descended into hell to bind him, so that all who are baptized in Christ and believing in Him are free from the devil’s power, because our Redeemer lives.
We also mustn’t forget about that other bullet point right in the middle, how the living Christ promises to be with His Church always, to the very end of the age—this age of grief and sorrow, how He has given His Word and Sacraments to us and has promised to use them to forgive us and to build us up in faith and love until He comes.
As the weeping prophet Jeremiah concluded in his Lamentations, 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. Now is the time of the woman’s labor pains. But soon the child will be born. Soon the Christ will be revealed, and all His saints with Him. And the sorrow will be forgotten. And joy will come, in a little while. Amen.
