In a little while, we will see Him.

 

Sermon for Easter 4, April 30, 2023

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

John 16:16-22  ¹⁶“In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”  ¹⁷Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, “What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?”  ¹⁸So they kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’?  We don’t understand what he’s saying.”  ¹⁹Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’?  ²⁰Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice.  You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.  ²¹A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come.  But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.  ²²“So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again.  Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. (EHV)

In a little while, we will see Him.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            The last week of Jesus’ life on earth, there was much confusion among His disciples.  When Jesus was going up to Jerusalem that last time, the disciples were afraid the Jews would kill Him, and they feared for their own lives too.  “Thomas (called the Twin ) said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go too, so that we may die with him.’” (John 11:16)  They knew the threat of the Jewish leaders’ hatred for Jesus and the fear those rulers had that His ministry would disrupt their uneasy relationship with the Roman authorities.  Still, the welcoming crowds on Palm Sunday had the disciples confident that with so many people supporting Jesus, His victory over their enemies was certainly well in hand.

At the same time, the disciples were hearing some strange things from Jesus.  The disciples had expected Jesus to assume control of Judah and reign with power and majesty like King David, but He also told them several times that He would soon die.  Jesus even told them how He would suffer, the cruelty that would be inflicted on Him, and how His death would happen.  Yet, He also told them He would rise from the dead, but it was all incomprehensible to them because of their preconceived notions. 

Our sermon text is one of those exchanges that, in the moment, made no sense to Jesus’ disciples.  However, we thank God for it, because it gives us confidence that, just as those disciples would soon learn, every prediction Jesus made would be fulfilled.  For us, that means that just like the disciples who had to be apart from Jesus for a short time, In a little while, we will see Him.

With the benefit of hindsight, Jesus’ statement makes perfect sense: “In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”  Today, knowing how that week worked out, we know that Jesus was here teaching the disciples exactly what lay ahead of Him.  Jesus wanted His followers to be prepared for the trauma of seeing Him arrested, tried, tortured, executed, and buried in such unlikely and hasty fashion.  He also intended that even as they mourned His suffering and death they be eagerly awaiting the glory of Easter morning.

While Jesus knew the suffering and death He had been prepared and sent to undergo for us, He also knew that the Father would not leave Him to decay in the grave.  So yes, the disciples would lose sight of Jesus for a few days, but that isn’t the end of the story.  As we celebrated just a few weeks ago, Jesus lives.  He has won an everlasting victory for you and me and all who will believe.

But, that wasn’t yet understood by the twelve.  “Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, ‘What does he mean when he tells us, “In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,” and “Because I am going away to the Father”?’  So they kept asking, ‘What does he mean by “a little while”?  We don’t understand what he’s saying.’”  This was not the first time Jesus had taught what lay ahead for Him, but confusion reigns when people don’t accept what the Lord says.

One might well ask how that fits our times.  Much of our world has little patience for what God’s Word actually says.  Therefore, confusion reigns over much of our world.  You can see that daily in the news and the craziness we see and hear reported from all over the world.  We might also ask, does that confusion touch us?  The answer is that, like with any other sin, you and I are not immune.  We too have our failings and weaknesses.  We too may wonder and weep when things seem hard to understand. 

When we have to stand, unexpectedly, at a grave to say good-bye, we often find ourselves asking, “Why?  Why, Lord, do you take this one away from me?”  Or perhaps we don’t like the laws, either old or new.  Many times, we won’t like how the world treats Christian believers.  We may well ask why God allows so much wickedness in this world.  “Why, Lord, don’t you put a stop to those who oppose You and Your people?” 

Many would say that Jesus didn’t have power over anyone when the soldiers came to arrest Him, but they would be wrong.  You see, our Lord was in control of every moment and everything that happened to Him.  Jesus showed that to His disciples in this text.  Jesus … said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’?  Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice.  You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.” 

Again, hindsight is our friend in this.  The Jewish leaders, of course, celebrated to see Jesus dead and buried, and the devil likely hoped he had defeated God’s Son.  The disciples certainly were shocked, and you can be sure they spent those next days weeping their eyes out for all the dreams they thought they had lost.  Jesus’ followers hid from the world while worrying that Jewish or Roman officials would soon come to arrest them because they had followed Jesus.  But again, that is not the end of the story.

What had Jesus previously told His closest disciples?  “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him.  But three days after he is killed, he will rise.” (Mark 9:31)  Already a thousand years before that week, King David had prophesied, “You will not let your favored one see decay.” (Psalm 16:10)  And Jesus, Himself, had repeated those promises about His end several times.  Still, none of that would matter if we didn’t know what came after.  But, we do!  Jesus rose from the dead triumphant over everything that could separate us from God, and we are free from condemnation because Jesus lives.

We don’t have to imagine the relief the disciples felt when they learned of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.  They lived it.  Where once they huddled away in sorrow and fear, after the joy of Jesus being alive again was finally realized through numerous interactions with Him, they spent the rest of their lives telling the world that Jesus lives—that He died for sinners like you and me, but that He rose from the dead victorious over sin, death, the devil, and the power of unbelieving men.  Then, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, those disciples preached and baptized.  They went out on the highways and byways of the world.  They wrote down the history of all that Jesus has done to give us eternal life through the forgiveness of all our sins by His blood shed on the cross.  They faced angry mobs and cruel rulers, defiantly refusing to be silenced, so that people everywhere could hear about Jesus and live—so that In a little while, we too will see Him.

Giving us a vivid description, Jesus said, “A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come.  But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.  So you also have sorrow now.  But I will see you again.  Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”  That promise wasn’t just for the twelve.  Like those original disciples, you and I may well have pain and sorrow in this world.  Sin, death, and temptation still trouble us on every side.  The world may well hate and abuse us, too.  Yet, that is not the end of the story for those who believe in Jesus.  A day is coming soon when we will with joy see Jesus face to face. 

Now, I am not pretending to tell you when Judgment Day will come.  That is not for us to know.  Nor am I telling anyone that his, or her, end is immediately near.  Still, none of us knows how much longer the Lord will leave us on this earth.  Yet, we do know that whether it happens in a few hours or a hundred years, our end is coming soon.  However, for Jesus’ disciples, including all those alive today, our end is joy at seeing our Savior again, for we will never again be without our Redeemer and Lord.

As blood bought souls brought to faith in Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel and the washing flood of Baptism, we have been given forgiveness full and free.  The gates of heaven have been opened to us.  Right now, we have Jesus’ assurance “Surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)  Though we can’t see Jesus physically, yet we have full confidence in our future because “We know that He works all things together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those he predestined, he also called.  Those he called, he also justified.  And those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)

Jesus told His friends, “I will see you again.  Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”  After a little while, the very little while of just a few days, Jesus rose from the grave, and numerous eyewitnesses saw Him, spoke with Him, touched His pierced hands and side, and learned more from His personal teaching. 

Since His ascension to His Father’s side in heaven, Jesus isn’t visible as a Man in our presence, yet He is here, hidden in the words of Scripture, in the absolution announced by a fellow believer, and in bits of bread and the cup of wine in the Lord’s Supper.  He walks with us by His holy Word.  He cleanses us from sin by the work of the Holy Spirit applied with water on the heads of little children whatever their age. 

Regardless of what the unbelieving world might imagine, there is nothing that can confuse us any longer concerning our end.  Jesus watches over us right now, and we will be with Him forever when He returns to take us home.  Thereafter, we will rejoice like we have never rejoiced here on earth. 

No matter how great a day you may have sometime experienced here, it doesn’t compare to the joy of being reunited with God in the glory of heaven.  St. Paul wrote, “This perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  But once this perishable body has put on imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then what is written will be fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:53-54)  “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:57)  In a little while, we will see Him.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.