John 16:16-22

Sorrow Turned to Joy

Fourth Sunday of Easter/Jubilate

May 2, 2017

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

On more than one occasion, Jesus stumps His disciples.  In our Gospel reading today, we have a good example of that.  Jesus tells them, “A little while, and you will see Me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” They have no clue what He is talking about, and like many students who are too embarrassed to ask their teacher, they turn to each other and find no answers.  But Jesus knew that they didn’t get it, He could tell they were dumbfounded.  And, like so many times, Jesus gives them an answer, though maybe not the answer they wanted.

You see, Jesus could have just told them that He was referring to His death, burial, and resurrection.  But no, instead He starts to talk them of the sorrow and the joy they feel as His followers.  He speaks of a woman in labor experiencing the sorrow that the hour has come for birth, but then the joy that overwhelms in that a human being is born into the world.  This imagery of labor and childbirth is not new.  The prophet Isaiah proclaimed of Israel’s suffering and deliverance in a similar way in 26:17-19, “Like a pregnant woman who writes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of You, O Lord; we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”

God’s power does not stop at the grave. Christ is risen! At His command, corpses come to life. He can order the resurrection of a whole nation, a whole people, who are seemingly entombed forever in exile and oppression. Jesus’ work upon the cross and the resurrection guarantees that our bodies will also rise.  Those made righteous through faith will experience the resurrection of their bodies and life everlasting.  Those who refuse to believe in Christ, who would prefer He stayed in the tomb, will rise at the resurrection to everlasting punishment and condemnation.

But for a little while, we tarry here on earth in these mortal and perishable bodies. The Epistle for today teaches us to train ourselves in godly virtues while we await the final restoration of creation.  To endure through sorrowing and suffering and trials and temptations, and by doing so, give witness to the eternal joy of the resurrection. Some of the strongest witnessing that takes place is while a person is full of sorrow.  In the way that person handles it, where they look for help and comfort and peace.

Jesus’ disciples had hoped for a future like the past, and that Christ would ever be with them for guidance, teaching, and protection.  We sometimes hope for a future like the past. We romanticize bygone days, thinking of some heyday of the Church and society, with Walther League activities, churches full, shared values with the culture. 

Christ’s answer to this is to enter into suffering Himself, to bear our sorrow in Himself. To endure the sorrow of the grave.  To bring restoration to His people by the forgiveness of sins. It draws us closer to our Savior. When we’re stuck in the middle of sorrow with seemingly no end in sight, we are driven to our Savior. While the suffering and trouble can feel eternal while going through, Jesus reminds us that in view of eternity, this is but a little while. All of history, from Adam to Armageddon is but a little while in terms of eternity. We must never fall into the thinking that all this is permanent. We can never be so entangled with the cares of this world that we lose focus that these earthly things will come to an end. For as our theme for this our 100^th anniversary states, “The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” It is that eternal Word, the very Son of God, which brings a lasting and eternal joy, not just pleasure for the moment.

Jesus speaks of His death and resurrection to us today.  Because the same body and blood of Christ is in you by means of the Sacrament, like Jesus, the resurrection comes after tarrying in death for a moment. For Jesus, the grueling night of His passion gave way to the break of day on Easter morning. You too will arise at the break of the new day, the glorious Day of the Lord. For you are baptized, washed with the blood of the Lamb, clothed in the joy of the resurrection Because you have been united into His death and resurrection in Your baptism, your sufferings have become His and His works have become yours. So the Father now looks with joy upon you. He is pleased to call you His child. His is overjoyed to hold you in His arms.

Christ comforts His disciples that the coming change was not loss but gain. The approaching grief was to last for just a little while. Christ comforts us that the coming change in our world is not loss but gain. We will have grief as Christians. Christians will be out of harmony with the world, falsely accused for the sake of Christ, and the same sorrows will afflict us as people from the beginning of time.

What is the place of sorrow in the life of a Christian?  Now this is an important question. Sorrow is a result of the Fall of mankind into sin.  Sorrow is the lament over God’s creation so skewed by sin that it doesn’t function the way it should. We are bombarded why what we see and experience in a fallen world: a childhood that was not careful and fraught with sadness or loss, an adult like full of toil and trouble and worry, an aging body or mind that brings even greater anxiety about what comes after death or wondering why the suffering continues and the Lord doesn’t just call the person to their heavenly home.

Know this, then. No matter the sorrow you’re facing now, or the sorrow that you will have, you will be sorrowful, but Jesus promises your sorrow will turn to you. Joy in fellowship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, and with those who gone before us in the faith.  We have glimpses of these here on earth by the Gospel that point us to our eternal bliss. Because of Jesus death and His resurrection, only joy follows!