April 28, 2013 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world
will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…. You
have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no
one will take your joy from you.”
Jesus is going to leave His
disciples. That is the big news that He drops in the Upper Room. You heard a portion
of the long address that Jesus gives to His disciples on the night when He is
betrayed. Biblical scholars call this Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. Jesus says: “A little while, and you will see Me no
longer, and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Then He goes on to
discuss the pain and sorrow that this will cause His disciples: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep
and lament, but the world will rejoice.”
Goodbyes are hard. And when the
taking leave is connected to dying, it is even more difficult. There is finality
to it. That is what Jesus is speaking of to His disciples. He tells them that
they will no longer see Him. And that time will be soon. In fact, it is just a
matter of hours when He will leave them. That is the “little while” which Jesus mentions. The evening walk to Gethsemane
is short. The appearance of the Temple Guards will take place quickly. And by
the next sundown, Jesus will be lying in a grave as an executed condemned
criminal.
This will cause grief for Jesus’
followers. The weeping and wailing of the women in Jerusalem was heard in the
streets. Peter’s remorseful tears for denying Jesus freely flowed. The dazed
and confused disciples would linger in that same room where they had heard
Jesus speak of His departure, but they would lock the doors for fear that the
same would happen to them. Other followers of Jesus would trudge home,
wondering if their hope that Jesus was the Promised Messiah had been misplaced.
And while they were full of
sorrow, the world rejoices. The opponents of Jesus walk away from the site of
crucifixion convinced of the rightness of their cause. The great impostor, the
blasphemer, the critic was dead, done away with. It happens just as Jesus says:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will
weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.” In fact, we even put those
words into song. CFW Walther’s hymn for Easter includes the lines: “The foe
was triumphant when on Calvary / The Lord of creation was nailed to the tree. /
In Satan’s domain did the hosts shout and jeer, / For Jesus was slain, whom the
evil ones fear.”
But Jesus’ statements include
something that does not cause sorrow. He speaks words that bring just the
opposite reaction. When Jesus discusses His sudden departure, He also mentions
that it is not permanent: “A little
while, and you will see Me no longer, and again a little while, and you will
see Me.” That second part of His statement speaks not of departure, but of
arrival. The same disciples who experience a time of not seeing Jesus after His
death would see Him again. And that seeing Him again would be soon.
Jesus’ promise of a return
arrival is the greater part of His Farewell Discourse. Taking leave of someone
when they die is expected. Pain and sorrow are anticipated. But to have that
person reappear is completely unexpected. When it occurs, it brings joy that is
boundless. Such joy was found for Jairus, the Widow of Nain, and for Mary and
Martha when Jesus brought their loved ones back to life. The same joy would be
given to the Eleven who hear Jesus’ words: “You
have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no
one will take your joy from you.”
What happens when this takes
place? You heard the record of it on the Sunday after Easter Day. Jesus appears
in the midst of His disciples. He shows them His hands and side, the same ones that
were pierced during His crucifixion. But His death and burial was not the end.
The “little while” of their not
seeing Jesus had come to an end. We put that into our Easter hymns: “The
three sad days have quickly sped, / He rises glorious from the dead. / All
glory to our risen Head! Alleluia!” Now they experienced the “little while” of seeing Him again. And
they were glad. Their grief and sadness had been removed, just as Jesus said: “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will
turn into joy.”
Jesus’ promise of having His
disciples brought from sadness to joy is rooted in His resurrection. He knows
the purpose for His being in the world. He knows what He is meant to do. Death
and resurrection are essential to it. This is why Jesus disclosed His betrayal,
arrest, condemnation, and crucifixion to His disciples at various times in His
ministry. Even at His transfiguration, the matter of Jesus’ exodus—His
departure—was the main topic. Everything led up to those eight days in
Jerusalem, the eight days of glory that were marked by Jesus’ suffering, death,
burial, and then His resurrection. The creation of new life was being
accomplished through those acts, a new life that is meant for Jesus’ people.
The sorrow and anguish of Holy Week are the pains of bringing eternal life to
birth. With the resurrection of Jesus, there is only gladness: “You have sorrow now, but I will see you
again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
So how do these promises speak
to us who have not seen Jesus before or after His death? We have not had Jesus
depart from us. There hasn’t been the “little
while” then His going away from us, so that we cannot see Him. And there
hasn’t been the “little while” when
we see Him again. We have not seen Jesus. We only have the testimony of those
who saw, heard, and touched Him. So how do His words apply to us?
Though we have not seen Jesus,
we do experience what He has come to remedy. We have plenty of experience with
sorrow, with the hard goodbyes that death causes. We know well the grief and
anguish that come from the world, including the joy that is found at tearing
down the Lord’s ways and the
people who attempt to follow them. Weeping and lamenting over our own sinful
acts is not a foreign concept to us. But this is what Jesus’ work is meant to
remedy. Jesus is our Redeemer, the One who has dealt with our sin. His death
and resurrection were accomplished for our benefit. He has brought eternal life
to birth for us. The promise is extended to you and me: “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
But what turns that sorrow into
joy? Only the resurrection of Jesus can do that. Not just that Jesus has risen
from death, but that His people are given a share in that same resurrection. Jesus’
resurrection is the beginning of a new age, the ushering in of an era that is
governed only by the new life that He has brought to birth. You have been given
entry into that new age. This is what your baptisms have given to you. You have
died with Jesus and have been raised to life with Him. You have been born of
water and the Spirit, so that you can enter into the kingdom of heaven. You
have been made heirs of God the Father, granted a place in His household.
Through that act, a great
promise has been extended to you. God the Father has made a covenant with you.
He has given you a pledge of what He will do because of what His Son has
accomplished by His death and resurrection. That pledge includes being brought
to the full experience of the joy that Jesus’ disciples had when they saw the
Risen Lord. Today, you heard a portion of that pledge: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with
them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their
God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,
neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former
things have passed away.” This is your future. This is what awaits you
because of what Jesus has accomplished.
The joy that will be made yours
is rooted in Jesus’ resurrection. It has brought eternal life to birth for you.
The making of all things new that God the Father speaks of is taking place in
you. And so you put that in your Easter song, as you sang this morning: “Easter
triumph, Easter joy! / This alone can sin destroy; / From sin’s pow’r, Lord,
set us free, / Newborn souls in You to be. Alleluia!” Being born to eternal
life, you have an inheritance from God the Father, a place in the new heaven
and new earth that He establishes: “The
one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My
son.” That is the promise made to you.
This promise of new birth is
what brings joy in the midst of sorrow. It makes the hard goodbyes a little
easier to bear. It forms endurance in the midst of the world’s rejoicing at
unrighteousness. It gives comfort in the times of illness and the closing of
earthly life. It establishes hope even in the midst of the frustration with
your own fault-laden actions. For the world’s rejoicing, illness, pain,
mourning, sin, and death are not eternal: these are all counted among the
former things that are passing away.
But God the Father says: “Behold, I am making all things new.” He
is making all things new for you. This is your heritage. What awaits you is the
ending of these former things. What awaits you is the time when you will see
Jesus. What awaits you is the joy that will be given for eternity that no one
can take away. That is what Jesus’ resurrection has made possible for you. And
so you can go through the pains that lead to the birth of eternal life for you,
just as the Eleven and those who followed after them did. For what the Risen Jesus
says to them is also true for you: “A
little while, and you will see Me.”
+ In the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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