1.
Please pray with me.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing
in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The
message from God’s Word this 5th Sunday of Easter is taken from John
16:16-22, it’s entitled, “A Little While,”
dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
When Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s friend and
fellow professor at the University of Wittenberg, Germany lay on his deathbed,
he asked that a Bible be brought and that the Gospel of John, chapters 14–17,
be read. In the assurance of those chapters, he was ready to close his eyes in
death. No one will ever be able to count the joys of those who have found
strength for life and comfort in death in just these chapters. And if these
four chapters are so rich in comfort, what can we say about the verses from
John 16 we read today? Let’s read these words with reverence for the One who
spoke them, with thanksgiving for the fact that He did speak them, and with joy
because of the comfort they bring.
3.
John 16:16-22 says, “A little while, and you will see Me no longer; and again a little
while, and you will see Me.” So some of His disciples said to one another,
“What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and
again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I am going to the
Father’?” So they were saying, “What does He mean by ‘a little while’? We do
not know what He is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask Him, so
He said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by
saying, ‘A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and
you will see Me’? 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.
When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but
when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy
that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now,
but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take
your joy from you.”
4.
A little while! When Jesus spoke these words, He was
referring, of course, to the sorrow of Good Friday and to the holy joy of
Easter. The little while of sadness is followed by an eternity of bliss. In a
sense, the life of the Christian is a swift succession of many little whiles. We
experience sorrow, but our sorrows are separated from our joys by little whiles. “For a brief moment I deserted you,” He
says, “but with great compassion I will gather you” (Isaiah 54:7). “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy
comes with the morning,” He says through David the psalmist (Psalm 30:5).
5.
And life itself is but “a little while” in the
calendar of God’s eternity. Life’s little while of sorrow will soon be
swallowed up in the endless ages of pure delight in heaven. Lazarus spent a
little while in the company of dogs, but he is spending an eternity of bliss in
Abraham’s bosom. The thief spent a little while suspended on the cross, but his
sorrow has been turned into the endless joy of paradise. Of these sorrows and
joys Paul writes, “The sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
us” (Romans 8:18). Let us, then, accept these little whiles of pain
and sorrow as preludes to a perfect day.
6.
Jesus had much to say to His
disciples in the Upper Room. He taught them about His death and then His
resurrection. He predicted Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial. He described
the gift of the Spirit and how He would help the disciples. He said that His
relationship with those who believe is like a vine to its branches. He spoke of
the world’s hatred and that He is the only way to the Father. That’s a lot to
ponder. Yet when Jesus finishes His catechism class with his disciples, near
the end of John 14 the disciples claim they understand everything. They admit
that they no longer need to ask Jesus any questions.
What
a boastful claim. Nearly 2000 years after Christ’s death and resurrection,
there are points of Jesus’ Upper Room sermon that are still difficult to
understand. But the disciples contend they have it all figured out. They know everything, no need for Jesus to
keep talking, no need to ask Jesus any more questions.
7.
We can fall prey to the same pride.
The newly confirmed high schooler thinks he knows everything about the
Scriptures and the teachings of the Church and stops attending Bible class and
worship. The young mother stops having daily devotions because she assumes
there are more important tasks to do. The pastor announces the sermon on a
familiar text and the church member zones out, assuming that he knows
everything there is to know about this Scripture. Even as the disciples boast
about their great understanding, Jesus predicts that they will be scattered and
desert Him.
8.
Jesus knows that they don’t
understand. He will die and they will be filled with sorrow. They won’t
remember His promise that He is only going to be gone a little while and then
He will return to them. Instead of His peace, they will be troubled and afraid.
They will doubt, and they will be slow to believe.
Like
the disciples, it’s unwise for us to boast about our spiritual knowledge or our
faith. Boasting in ourselves is nothing more than sinful pride and results in
our turning a deaf ear to Christ and His words. We think we know it all. We
have it all figured out. Jesus, you don’t need to teach us anymore. Despite our
sinful pride, Jesus goes to the cross. He overcomes the devil, and He overcomes
the world. He blots out our sin, turns our sorrows into joy, and gives us His
Holy Spirit who motivates us to hear the words of Christ and diligently search
the Scriptures.
9.
He
was born in a Lutheran parsonage in Germany.
The son of a Lutheran pastor. He grew up to be an atheist, and
very famous atheist philosopher. Friederich Nietzsche. He made such
a telling comment: “You Christians,” he
said, “you lost the world when you lost your joy.” Youch! Maybe Nietzsche said that because his own
pride of his great learning had robbed him of the joy of the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. If there’s one thing that’s clear from the pages of the New
Testament it’s this, that when the Gospel came, it came with joy. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and
confirmands, I speak to you today, don’t let the devil, the world, or your
sinful nature rob you of your joy.
10.
Understand
this, people loved by God, the joy of which the Lord is full is a joy that you
cannot manufacture, you can’t make it up on your own. You can’t will
yourself into being the sort of person like St. Paul who would wake up after
being unjustly jailed and beaten and start rejoicing and singing hymn of praise
to the One who allowed to suffer for the holy name. How on earth does one
become such a person of overflowing joy?
11.
It
comes only and always as Gospel gift. It comes always and only from the
Good News of the Great Joy which is now yours. But, you say that so
simply Pastor. There are sorrows out here. Heartaches galore.
Broken promises. Broken hearts. Sick bodies. Aching
joints. Fractured relationships. Empty bank accounts. Maxed
out credit cards. Worn out parents and grumpy kids. It’s all fine
and good for you to rattle on about joy, but my life right now is stressed and
sad.
12.
Ah,
dear one! Did you hear what Jesus said: “You will have sorrow now.” He doesn’t deny the sorrow of
your life in this age. Nasty, awful, wicked things happen. Tragic
sadness befalls. It does indeed. But the key is when He said:
“but your sorrow will turn into
joy.”
13.
Did
you hear that? Jesus takes hold of your sorrows, your tears, your pains,
and He turns them into joy. How can He do that? Well, think of it.
Hold onto these three important points. First, He really has wiped
out all your sin by His death on the cross. He answered for it.
It’s over and done with. So the shame and the guilt – that’s wiped
out. Second, He really has wiped out your death. Our Lord
Jesus has punched a hole right through death’s stinking gullet and you waltz
right through it into His Kingdom. But third, He’s handed you a promise
that He’s actually working all things together for your good – to bring you
blessing, to see you to your place at His Heavenly throne. Sometimes you
even get to see how it all works out here, and then you want to laugh for joy
at how God pulled off what you would never even have dreamed of.
14.
We have our Savior’s promise: Our
sorrows will be turned into joy; our cloudy days into days of sunshine; our
little whiles of doubt, trial, loneliness, and sadness shall be turned into
eternal ages of joy and glory in the company of heaven. His promise to all
Christians of all times is this: “I will
see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from
you.” Amen.
