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✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
An early church father, John Chrysostom once remarked, “A mother to become a mother passes through pain.” That is how God has ordained the Christian life–joy is on the other side of pain, and the joy cannot come except through pain. In explaining His coming crucifixion, our Lord uses the example of a mother’s pain in childbearing to show the necessity of His suffering on the cross, but also to give them the hope that the resurrection will shortly follow. And notice how He joins His suffering to theirs, and His joy to theirs. The same is true for you: He invites you to bring your own pain, your own suffering, your own battle with sin and sorrow, to Him. He endures your pain, and will give to you the joy of His resurrection.
But first, for now, we must experience these words, “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice.” I think very often we forget that’s the way the Christian life works. We are tempted to think that being a Christian means always being blessed by God in visible ways and being free from worry and hassle and pain and conflict. And if we are experiencing those things, if we’re not living a “victorious Christian life,” then we must not be true Christians, or God must have left us. I’ve known a number of people who have given themselves over to bitterness because of some hard circumstance in their life. They’re angry at God for allowing suffering into their life. They operate with the idea that if they do their part for God–come to church and so forth–then God will give them a smooth and happy existence. But that’s not what God has promised His people. The truth is that the Christian life is marked both by the cross and the resurrection, the curse of death and the gift of life in Christ at the same time. And so it is a mixture of fear and love, weeping and laughing, heartache and gladness, sorrow and joy, insecurity and confidence–with the cross and suffering experienced as often as not in this life, while the fullness of contentment and happiness is reserved for the life of the world to come.
Those are not exactly the words we want to hear. We want to hear that life in Christ is a life where everything always falls into place. We want to hear that being a Christian means that we will be treated fairly, that others will always respect us, that life’s bumps won’t be all that hard.
Joy is on the other side of pain; but we want desperately to avoid the cross in our lives and to run from the harder parts of our callings and our vocations. We find it hard to accept the truth of Psalm verses such as these, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes, [O Lord].” (Ps. 119.71). And again, “Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord” (Ps. 94.12). For the Lord chastens and disciplines those He loves. Throughout Scripture, tribulation is described as needful, so that we grow as children of God and learn to depend completely on the grace and mercy of God.
Repent. For as the OT reading said, “it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust–there may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”
That is the way of the Christian because that is the way of Christ. Jesus is the one who gave His cheek to the ones who struck Him, who was full of reproach, who was laid in the dust of death. And yet He was not by any means cast off forever. For He was raised again the third day. That is the source of our forgiveness and our salvation; His pains bring us life and joy. And this, then, is also the pattern of our lives in Christ. Jesus is saying to His disciples, “Don’t be surprised at the trials that will come upon you as if this were something strange. For I am about to go the cross to suffer your sins to death in My body and win your full and free forgiveness. And you are my followers. You are baptized into Me. And so you are given to carry My suffering and death in your bodies, in order that you might also carry My life in your bodies and have the relief and comfort that only I can give. So blessed are you who mourn, for you will be comforted. Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for yours in the kingdom of heaven.”
“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me.” There will be those little whiles in your life when you can’t seem to see Jesus, times when you want to just check out and give up. But He reminds you here that it really is only a little while that you must endure. That pain, that disease, that heartache, that challenging situation is almost over. Just hang on to Him. Trust in Him to pull you through it. It may seem like an eternity, but only three days. The day of resurrection is coming. Weeping may remain for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Again, it’s like a pregnant woman awaiting the time of her delivery. The wait may seem like forever, or the labor like it’s never going to end. But inevitably, the time of the birth does come, the little while is finally over, the little one arrives, and Jesus says, “she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
So it is also for believers as we await the final delivery on the Last Day. You were conceived and given new life in the womb of the church by water and the seed of the Word. You are continually nourished through your holy mother by preaching and the supper. You are given to grow and mature in the faith like a developing unborn child. But there are times when things get a little uncomfortable in this womb, especially as the end nears. And the “labor” of this life can be very traumatic. But then comes the delivery of the new life. Then comes your deliverance in the resurrection of the body on the Last Day, and there is nothing but joy and fulfillment–the former sorrows will not even be remembered, but will fade as fog evaporates in the light of day.
So fix your hearts on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Don’t bow to the temptations of the devil and the world and your flesh to give up on Christ, to surrender to the moment. Rather, trust in the Lord to carry you through. For He has in fact already carried you through by dying and rising again. He’s already conquered all that weighs you down. It’s just a matter of time for that victory to be revealed. It’s only a little while more, and then comes the forever, the unending while of dwelling in the majesty of our Lord and the perfect happiness and completeness that His presence brings. Then comes the peace that far surpasses our human understanding. Then comes the time when the sufferings of this present life will not even be able to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. For we know that when (Jesus) is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
And even before that last day arrives, our Lord comes to us every little while. After the little while of waiting, Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening. Then He was hidden from them for a little while until He returned a week later, showing Himself to doubting Thomas. Then another little while, and on the next Sunday He appeared to the disciples on the sea shore after they had been fishing. And on it goes. Our Lord continues to come to His people every little while in divine service, revealing Himself to us in His words and His supper to comfort and strengthen us. Here in this little while of the liturgy, we get a taste of eternity, the timelessness of being in Christ’s presence.
Jesus said, “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” The Lord sees you again at His table, that He may give Himself to you and fill you with immortal joy. The Lord sees you, in mercy. You are not invisible to Him. He knows all that’s going on with you. He loves you. He watching out for you, watching over you. So do not lose heart. In those times when you are in the shadows, repeat those words to yourself that Jesus has given to His disciples, “A little while.” Just a little while and your heart will rejoice in beholding Christ, and your joy no one will take from you.
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠