John 16:16-22

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠

Sometimes in TV dramas and movies, part of the storytelling will involve flashbacks to an earlier time.  What happened in the past gives context and deeper meaning to what’s happening in the present.  And in a way that’s what is happening with the Gospel readings in this part of the Easter season.  Throughout the church year we recount the true story of Jesus, and now that we’re in the post-resurrection part of the year, we flash back to Jesus with his disciples in the upper room on Thursday of Holy Week–before His arrest, before His trial, before all the darkness of Good Friday.  During this Eastertide, we recall Jesus’ words from the night He was betrayed, and it deepens and enriches our present understanding of the Gospel and gives us hope for the future.

Jesus says, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”  For a little while Jesus was humiliated–betrayed, beaten, killed, and buried in the tomb–and the disciples didn’t see him. And again a little while, on the third day, they saw him raised from the dead and alive again as he promised.  That’s why Jesus told his disciples, “you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.” If Jesus had only died, and the disciples didn’t see him alive again, then there would be no joy, no hope, no gift of the Holy Spirit to guide them into proclaiming the faith that we hold to today.  If Jesus had only died, then sin and Satan would win, because death would have defeated Jesus just as it has been defeating people ever since Genesis 3.

But Jesus did not only die. He laid down his life in order that he might take it up again, new and triumphant over Satan and the grave.  And so the disciples and the women did weep at Jesus’ death, while the unbelieving world rejoiced that the Son of God was crucified.  However, the disciples then saw the risen Jesus’ hands and side and heard his voice speaking “Peace be with you”, and they rejoiced.  Joy wasn’t to be found within the disciples, in their own wisdom and strength; it was found outside of themselves in the crucified and risen Jesus.  Easter alone turned their sorrow into joy.

So you might be thinking, “Well, OK, that’s great for them, but what does this have to do with us? What do Jesus’ words to his disciples back then mean for us today?”  Well, to begin with, just apply those words to yourself.  First, Jesus said, “You will be sorrowful.”  Christianity isn’t always about feeling happy and walking around with a cheery smile.  For we deal with this fallen world as it actually is.  So there are plenty of days where we don’t feel joyful. There are plenty of things to lament and weep over, plenty of times when we’re sick or depressed or stressed out.  We live in a world that hates God’s Word and opposes the Gospel of Christ. We live in a world that rejoices more in celebrity, wealth, and power than compassion, mercy, and love; that rejoices when Christians are falsely made to look stupid or prudish or hateful–a world that rejoices in its own achievements and power and rejects the power of the risen Jesus and the salvation He has achieved for us.

So there will be those little whiles when you can’t seem to see Jesus, when things seem to be falling apart.  We deal with worry and uncertainty for the future. We sorrow for family or friends who have fallen or drifted away from the faith, or who suffer inexplicably and seemingly without end.  And if all that’s not bad enough, we have to contend with our own sinful nature which so often messes things up and saps the joy from our lives.

But then comes the reality of Easter.  The resurrection of Jesus turns our sorrow into joy, too.  Our individual and congregational situation may be different than that of the disciples 2000 years ago.  But the solution to our sorrow and weeping is the same–the real presence of the risen Jesus. The bodily resurrection of Jesus means that everything that brings us grief and sadness has been overcome and will be undone.  God the Father has accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins by raising Him from the dead.  So you are surely and truly forgiven.  All that has gone wrong with you in body and in mind, your sicknesses, your depression and anxiety, the death you face–you have been redeemed from it all in the risen body of Christ.  The loneliness you experience and the sense you have that things just aren’t right–all things are made right again in Him who says to you, “Behold, I make all things new.”  The Word of Jesus gives you confidence that the stuff you’re going through now really is just temporary, just a little while, and it will be followed by an unending while of life with Christ and eternal joy.  And knowing that is true brings you joy and peace even now, even in the midst of the bad stuff.  

A helpful way to think of it is that right now, we’re living in the age of Holy Saturday, the day between Christ’s death and resurrection.  Salvation has been won.  Jesus has paid for our sins and said, “It is finished.”  The resurrection of the dead is surely coming.  But we can’t see it yet; we don’t yet see Jesus.  And so it’s like we’re living in two worlds at once, the world of sin and death, and the new world of mercy and life unending, all at the same time.  The troubles of this world seem to be the same as always, and yet we know change is coming when Jesus returns.  The old cursed age and the new blessed age overlap now, so that we experience both.  But the good news is that the old is passing away, and the new is being revealed as the permanent reality in Christ.  As 1 John 2 says, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.”

It’s like what the Epistle reading said, that we’re living both in the now and the not yet.  “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. . .”  We’re living in the in-between time, in the little while of salvation won–and it’s ours completely by faith– but not yet salvation fulfilled and consummated by sight.  However, we live in the sure confidence that the fulfillment is most certainly coming on the Last Day when Christ returns.  The Epistle reading goes on, “But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 

Just a little while, and that’s how it’s going to be for you–sharing in Christ’s glory, freed from your old sinful nature, released from pain and heartache and sickness and death, living in perfect communion with God, beholding the beauty of Lord and sharing in the joyous fellowship of His people forever.  For you who believe and are baptized, that is all yours as surely as Jesus is risen from the dead.  And so He encourages you today, “It really is only a little while that you must endure.  Just keep hanging on to Me.  Trust in Me to pull you through it.  It may seem like an eternity, but only three days.  Your Easter is coming.  Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”  Just like Job, you will see your Redeemer with your own eyes, in your resurrected flesh.

So be sure in these days that you don’t engage in the wrong kind of flashback, living in the past, dwelling on traumas and mistakes and regrets.  You can obsess about sin and evil, but the truth is that Jesus has taken all that from you.  He literally suffered it do death–whatever you’ve done, whatever has been done to you–and it’s all buried in the tomb from which He arose forever; it’s dead and gone and overcome.  Flash back to that; fix your eyes on Jesus, crucified and risen for you to give you life.

And finally, there’s also a certain flashing forward that you’re given to do, too.  Already now, you’re given a foretaste of the Last Day.  Jesus takes the future and brings it here to the present.  Here in the Lord’s Supper, it’s as if a time portal is opened up at the altar to the joyous feasting to come.  We look forward to Jesus’ return, and yet in fact He’s already here, giving us His risen body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith.  Already now you are given to see Him as He is and begin to share in His life and His glory.  In the midst of this little while of sorrow, you partake of the blessedness of eternity.  

So take to heart the words of today’s OT reading, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”  And remember what the Lord Himself has said to you, “I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠