Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John
16:16-22)
So also
you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and
no one will take your joy away from you.
Prayer: Let
the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Jesus is always pointing us forward to look ahead to the next life –
to our life together with him in heaven.
And in our reading today, on the one hand, Jesus says: A little while,
this will happen, and a little while, that will happen. But then on the other
hand, he says: No one will take your joy from you.
On the one hand, Jesus shows us what happens in our life here on
earth: it changes, it’s moody, it’s up and down. But on the other hand, Jesus
shows us what happens in our life to come in heaven: it is fixed, it is stable,
it doesn’t move around. It’s reliable. “No one will take your joy away from
you.”
And so at the beginning of our reading today Jesus says: “A little
while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will
see me.”
And this little expression confuses the disciples. They say to each
other: What is Jesus talking about? What’s he mean when he says “a little
while”?
First of all, here, he’s talking about his death and his burial. Jesus
is speaking these words with his disciples on Maundy Thursday, the day before
he dies on the cross, the Thursday night before Good Friday. So the very next
day, he is going to go and die for them, and he will be buried. And he will
stay there through Friday night, and all day Saturday, and no one will see him
again until Sunday morning when he will be risen from the dead.
So he says: “A little while, and you will see me no longer.” – In a
short time, in fact, tomorrow, I will die, and then you will see me no longer.
Then he says, “And again a little while, and you will see me.” Wait a couple of
days, and then you will see me again on Easter Sunday morning.
But at this stage, the disciples don’t know what Jesus is talking
about. We read: “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?”
It’s strange that the gospel is so repetitive here! But we see here
just how significant these words are. The disciples had no idea what was going
on the night before Jesus was killed. We know the full story, so we can look
back at what happened and put it into context. But let’s listen to what Jesus
says when he explains himself:
He says: “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.”
Here he talks to the disciples in a secretive kind of way. He’s
talking about his cross and his resurrection, but at the same time, he doesn’t
mention it explicitly. Instead he says: You
will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
When I go the cross and die, it will be sad for you. You will weep and
lament. But when I am killed, those who wanted to get rid of me will rejoice.
Some people will celebrate. The people who wanted Jesus killed will be happy.
But Jesus says: You will be
sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
He says: You might be sad for a little time, but you won’t be sad
forever. Because I’m going to rise from the dead. And when that happens, then
there will be a time to be happy again.
Now this is what Jesus was telling disciples so many years ago. But he
also says the same thing to us today.
Many people think that to be a Christian, you have to be happy all the
time, and that you’re never allowed to be sad.
But this isn’t true. We are not saved because we are either happy or
sad. We are saved simply because we are baptised, and because God has come and
given us salvation. God has come and covered us with the blood of Jesus Christ.
But in the meantime, we are people who fluctuate with all kinds of
different emotions. We are happy sometimes, sad sometimes, angry sometimes,
gentle sometimes, impatient, patient – you name it! The fact that we might be
in a certain mood doesn’t alter the fundamental fact that God loves us.
Sadness, sorrow, pain, suffering—all these things come about because
of sin. If there were no sin, there would be no suffering in the world. And
each of us is corrupted by sin. Each person who has ever been born into the
world, including you and me, is stuck in sin. Even when we do something good,
there is still some sin in it. If we help someone, or do something good for
someone, we want to take the credit for it, and we want people to notice us.
The catechism says that each of us is a “lost and condemned person.”
So it’s “natural” then for us (in a sense) that we should feel many
times in our life what it’s like to be lost, and feel like we’re a million
miles away from home, and a million miles away from God. It’s kind of “logical”
that sometimes we will feel what it’s like to be condemned, and feel like we’re
stuck in hell and we can’t get out of it.
But not only is it logical or natural that we should feel like this
sometimes, but Jesus actually promises it. He says: “Truly, truly, I say to
you, you will weep and lament. You will be sorrowful.”
And many places in the bible we read about those times in our life
where God hides his face from us, and leaves us in the dark for a while. But he
doesn’t do this because he hates us, he does this because he loves us and he
wants us to look to him again.
And so, just as Jesus promises that we will be sad and sorrowful, he
also says: “But your sorrow will turn into joy.”
Think about when Jesus rose from the dead. All the sadness of the
crucifixion, all the pain of Jesus death was finished. All there is now is joy,
happiness, gladness. Jesus is risen from the dead. He’s never going to die
again. And for the rest of eternity, he will always be risen. Jesus will always
be alive. This joy, this happiness, this gladness that comes with the
resurrection simply never ends.
And so, Jesus says: “Your sorrow will turn into joy.”
In this life, many times we will be sad about something. Sometimes
we’re weighed down by pressure on us, or because someone has died, or because
someone has treated us badly, or something like that. But Jesus always promises
that the sadness will end.
There will always come a time when we turn the corner, and we will
find Jesus waiting for us, with the nails in his hands, and blessing us.
Remember Mary Magdalene when she went to the empty tomb: She was weeping, she
was sorrowful, but Jesus turned her sorrow into joy.
Jesus in fact gives a little example from life about what he’s talking
about.
He says: “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.”
Sometimes, I’ve walked in on a conversation where some women are
discussing the stories of the births of their children. And one woman will say,
“Oh! You think that’s bad!! I had a 75 hour labour…” And sometimes I say, “Hey!
Jesus says: When she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the
anguish.” Then I get slapped and told to go away!
But honestly speaking, even though some women do remember their labour
stories, and tell them, as the months go on, the years, mothers don’t talk
about that. There’s so much more to talk about! There’s a child, and the child
grows up into the teenager, and then an adult! All this is so much more
interesting that their birth!
In the same way, Jesus has risen from the dead. The time of sadness is
over. The sins of the world have been paid for. Many times in our life we had
sadness, and Jesus wants us to see our sin and acknowledge it. But at the same
time, he wants to forgive it, and he wants to raise us up from the dead, he
wants to lift our heads up high again, and encourage us with his Holy Spirit. And
the joy that comes with the forgiveness of sins far outshines the pain that
came with the sin.
In Psalm 23 we read: “Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
Yes, many times we will experiences the pain and the effects of sin.
Many times we will suffer and be sorrowful. Many times we will walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. But the psalm says: “I will fear no evil, for
you are with me.”
And so Jesus says: “So also you
have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no
one will take your joy away from you.”
Many times in our life we will experience some happiness—we are never
sad all the time. We are also never happy all the time either. When the good
times come, we should thank God for them, and realise that they are a little
foretaste of what is to come in the next life. They are a little entrée course
before we enter the great wedding banquet of heaven.
We do have sorrow now. We have sorrow because we live with sin. But
when we die, this will be the first time ever in our whole entire lives when we
will be free from sin. We are baptised. Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit. He
has given us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.
But when we are taken from this life to God in heaven when we die, it
will be the first time when we finally stop sinning. This doesn’t happen simply
because we die—death doesn’t give us joy. Death doesn’t give us any happiness.
Jesus gives the joy, he gives the happiness. He has risen from the
dead. He has passed through death and come out the other side. We will see the
face of Jesus! We will see him again! We will know him, just as he has known us
all of our lives! That’s why we have hope. That’s why he can stare at death in
the face and say to us, “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and
no one will take your joy away from you!”
So as we come into the presence of Jesus today, to pray, to receive
the Lord’s Supper, to present ourselves to him in our sinfulness, suffering and
sorrow, let’s continually remind ourselves: He is risen from the dead! Your
sorrow will turn into joy! No one will take your joy from you!
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for dying for us on the cross and
taking on yourself all our suffering, sin and sadness. And we thank you for the
joy that comes with your resurrection. Comfort us with the joy of the Holy
Spirit, and keep us strong in the faith. Amen.
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