Easter 4 Service
St. John 16:16-23
[Jesus said], “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. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”
You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice—Jesus says to His disciples in our text. He has just washed their feet on Maundy Thursday. He hasn’t yet been arrested. Soon, He will be gone from them (at least so as they have known).
And that’s just the latest of the troubling news He has given them. Before this, He’s been saying that the world will hate them on His account (John 15:18). They’ll put them out of the synagogues. They’ll even think killing them is offering a service to God (16:1-2).
Maybe this portrayal of the world as hostile to Jesus’ followers is surprising to you. You might think, Oh, that’s a little dramatic, isn’t it? Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve experienced that sort of hostility as a result of being Jesus’ follower. St. Peter might have seen Jesus as being a little dramatic in this way. In an account from Matthew’s Gospel Jesus starts telling Peter and the others of all that’ll be happening to Him shortly in Jerusalem—the suffering, and the killing, and the rising from death. And Peter takes Him aside and says, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you” (16:22). Could Jesus really cause that level of offense? Could He really get people riled up that badly?
It does seem strange. The message that we believe doesn’t seem like it should be so offensive.
God created people.
They sinned and separated themselves from Him to their harm.
He loved them so much that He laid down His life in order that they might be with Him eternally.
He isn’t going to require that they pay the cost for sinning; He has paid it with His own blood instead.
Why should anyone be so offended at that?
And you might be thinking, all this talk about weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful; are things really all that bad? Jesus had responded to Peter’s rebuke of Him with a rebuke of His own: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23).
In a way, Jesus was saying to him, you’re trying to make this less serious than it is. Things really are all that bad. In fact, they’re so bad, that solving them will take God dying for you.
That idea of trying to make things less serious than they really are; that’s a temptation that’s common to all of us. On this Mother’s Day, we recall our tendency to spin our disobedience into something that, by the time we’re done with it, sounds like it might be something resembling a certain form of obedience. I might not have done exactly as you asked, Mom; but what I did actually brought about the result I think you were looking for anyway (which is my happiness). So, no harm actually done…right? You’re welcome!
Our sinful nature is forever engaged in this sort of negotiation with God. He says in the conscience and in His Word that our absolute corruption required payment in the form of His innocent Son’s death—things can’t be any worse; our sinful nature says, well, it seems that way on the surface, maybe; but actually, when you really think about it, I’m able to be a pretty good person. It really isn’t as bad as all that. And as long as the sinful nature is winning that battle, we are able to look at the big picture of this world without all of the weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful. And that can be really appealing to us. We can just kind of ignore the price of our sins and the battle that continues between us and the devil for the duration of this fallen world.
But just as empty and worthless is our spin to our mothers about our disobedience actually being the cause of goodness, so is our imagination of a goodness in us that makes Christ’s sacrifice unnecessary (so is our imagination of us in a world free of the corruption that caused His death, free of the corruption that brings the world’s hatred upon faithful followers of that Savior). If the world isn’t hating us, then Jesus didn’t know what He was talking about in our text with all of the weeping, and lamenting, and being sorrowful. As those who know Christ, who know our sins that brought about His sacrifice on the cross (our school kids talk about this every day as they recite blessed are the poor in spirit in their chapel liturgy); as those who know the ongoing power of our sin that threatens to separate us from Him forever, we live in this world as ones who most ardently anticipate the next world. In our best moments (the Spirit-led ones) we aren’t thinking up ways to spin our unrighteousness into actually being some sort of righteousness; rather, in our despair, we're clinging to Christ’s righteousness that brings God’s forgiveness, and that promises to us a resurrection to glory with Him eternally.
And Jesus describes this anticipation in a way that couldn’t be more apropos for Mother’s Day. He compares the believer’s anticipation of His kingdom to a mother giving birth to her beloved child. The corruption that sin has brought on this world is present in the proceedings. It’s there in the pain of labor. She has sorrow because her hour has come—Jesus says. God had foretold this pain that comes as the result of sin. To Eve he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16).
But the pain isn’t to be forever. When she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world—Jesus says in our text. And He compares that to what His disciples will experience, and really what all believers will experience in this world. You haven’t really helped yourself in those moments in which you imagined that things are less serious than they really are, in those moments in which you imagined that sin hasn’t really brought weeping, and lamenting, and sorrowing, that somehow you can spin your unrighteousness into righteousness. All of that sort of thinking is empty and worthless. It comes from the nature that is utterly corrupted.
The believer’s sorrow is turned into true joy in the One Who says in the text, I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. This is the one Who never needs unrighteousness to be massaged into righteousness, to be spun into righteousness. He already has it. So when He is considered by God to be your righteousness, nothing more is needed. It could never be said of you, that you were wholly obedient to your mother; but the Bible does say it of Him (Luke 2:51). His blood has bought your forgiveness. You are forgiven in Him.
A little while we wait in this world. We have joys here; there’s no question about it. Many of us are blessed to recall joy that God has brought to us through the loving service of our mothers. He has been kind to us through their kindness. He has provided for our needs through their provision that was too often unthanked. Our mothers represent to us the love and caring that Jesus is expressing to His disciples in our text. They remind us of His great love for us. They remind us of what is expressed in our Old Testament lesson: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
We wait quietly a little while for the salvation of the Lord. As those forgiven in Christ’s blood, we anticipate the end of our weeping, and lamenting, and sorrowing that give way to eternal rejoicing at His side. Amen.
Lamentations 3:18-26
My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.” Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the Salvation of the LORD.
1 Peter 2:11-20
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.