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26 April 2015
Text: John 16:16-22
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
“You
will have sorrow now.”
This
is not something that any of us wants to hear.
The word translated as “sorrow” can be understood as pain, grief,
affliction, distress, trouble, regret, mourning, and heaviness of heart.
And
Jesus is using the “you” in the plural: “y’all will have sorrow.” It’s not just something that some other
person will suffer. The Holy Spirit
caused this to be written in the Scriptures for us. We can take no comfort in the fact that Jesus
is speaking to the disciples of the first century, for we too are His disciples;
we too are among those who have taken up the cross to follow Him. Nor does our Lord say that we “might” have
sorrow. It is clear that Jesus is saying
that we will have sorrow now, meaning in time, in this age, in the world, in
our earthly lives.
“You
will have sorrow now.”
For
us average 21st century Americans, sorrow has generally been
something other people have: the starving children in India or Ethiopia, the
people oppressed by their own governments in the Soviet Union or China, the
poor in the inner city, or people suffering with ebola or the bubonic plague
safely tucked away on the other side of the world or long dead in centuries
past.
Sorrow
is for other people, of course until it visits us: cancer, addiction, family
strife, money problems, depression, sick children, grandparents with dementia,
our own aches and pains, heart ailments, anxiety, being victimized by crime,
losing our possessions to natural disasters or to economic necessity, and death
itself which surrounds us and nips at our own heels.
“You
will have sorrow now.”
For
us Christians in this culture, our sorrows are increasing. Just a few days ago, a Christian couple was assessed
a punitive judgment of $135,000 dollars for refusing to bake a cake for a
ceremony that violated their consciences as Christian people. The couple has five children, and are looking
at total financial ruin. This sends a
chilling message to any of us who would dare believe in the Scriptures, confess
the holy faith, and endeavor to live according to the Word of God.
“You
will have sorrow now.”
These
American Christians, and others like them, are not being persecuted by ISIS
terrorists, by an extreme Islamic government, or by a Communist regime – but by
American state and federal governments. The flag that was once waved by victims
of the holocaust in World War II, who saw in it a symbol of liberation, is also
the symbol of the government that has authorized the modern holocaust that has
seen to it that nearly 58 million boys and girls have been legally slaughtered
in the name of convenience and choice over the course of 42 years. Liberty and
justice for all, indeed. Lord, have
mercy.
“You
will have sorrow now.”
Dear
friends, we often choose to put our heads in the sand. We deal with the sorrow of this fallen world
by all the wrong methods. We medicate or
drink our way through it. We distract
ourselves from it by hobbies and vacations and entertainment. We figure we can buy our way out of it or
rise above it through education or technology or political action. We think we can fix it by medical
breakthroughs or programs or economic systems.
We are convinced, like the builders of the Tower of Babel, that man can
reach into the heavens by evolving or growing or self-actualizing or rejecting
religion and tradition or by buying into the worldview that says absolute truth
is unknowable.
“You
will have sorrow now.”
But,
dear friends, Jesus did not come into our sorrowful, broken, sin-soaked and
death-laden world to leave us in our sorrows, to abandon us in our own deserved
misery. Instead, He has come to save us,
to heal us, to forgive us, to restore us, to give us a new birth and a second
chance, to make us whole!
“You
will have sorrow now, but…”
We
have sorrow because of our sins, but Christ is sinless, and He has come to our
world to save us. We deserve the devastation
that we have inherited and that we have added to, but Christ has come in mercy
to save us by His grace, out of His love, by means of His cross, and through
His atoning death. Jesus replaces the
bad blood through a transfusion upon the cross and at the altar: exchanging our
poisoned and malignant blood with His perfect and healing blood, giving His
holy body into death for His imperfect bride, who has been made holy as His
very body. And He offers His true body
and His true blood to us, dear friends, so that our sorrow will be overcome.
“You
will have sorrow now, but…”
Yes,
we still inhabit this broken world, breathing in its poisoned air, picking
through the rubble and filth of its ruins to stay alive yet another day. But, Jesus has come to give us life, that we
may have it abundantly, eternally, and joyfully – through making peace with
God, atoning for our sins, and offering a new life – a life without sorrow – to
all who believe, to all who are baptized, to all who confess Him as Lord.
“You
will have sorrow now, but I will see you again…”
Dear
friends, even as the apostles watched Him ascend into heaven, even as they were
filled with the Holy Spirit, even as they preached the good news to those who
received it joyfully all around the world while awaiting the Lord’s return, so
do we take up our cross, follow Him, and believe and confess the Gospel, taking
part in the Church’s task to make disciples according to our own callings in
the Christian faith and life.
We
do not see the Lord in His full glory now, but rather veiled under the forms of
bread and wine. He comes to us to
strengthen us to bear the sorrow of this world by being present for us, and by
fortifying us with His Word. For He
promises as the Word made flesh and in His written Word: “You will be
sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
Dear
brothers and sisters, our joy is in Him, in Christ alone. For He has come into our sorrowful, fallen,
and falling world in order to rescue us.
He has come to recreate it into something new, joyful, and eternal. He regenerates us through the new birth of
water and the Word, and promises that in Him, our sorrow is turned into joy.
For
in a little while, we will see Him again.
In a little while, our persecutions will cease: those far away and those
close to home; those carried out with the noose and the sword, as well as those
done with judicial action and social ostracization. In a little while, the slaughter of the
innocents and our own sinful thoughts, words, and deeds will end, to be repealed
and replaced by joy that will have no end.
In a little while, dear friends, we will see Him again, coming in clouds
of glory, to bring us at last to our heavenly home, brought joyfully before the
Father’s throne in eternity.
Yes,
indeed, dear friends, hear the Word and promise of the Lord:
“You
will have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy from you!”
Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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