Sermons

05/11/2025

4th  Sunday of Easter

Text: John 16:22-30

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

On the night of His betrayal, after He has instituted the Supper and before He goes to the Mount of Olives, Jesus speaks with His disciples. He gives what we call His “Farewell Discourse.” John records Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” for us. It covers chapters thirteen through seventeen of His Gospel. In the “Farewell Discourse” Jesus teaches His disciples about the life of the Church after His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus will ascend to heaven. He will not be physically visible to His disciples, but that doesn’t mean He’s abandoning them. Instead, He ascends to reign in glory. He will send the Holy Spirit to His Church, and the Church will grow and increase through the work of the Spirit in the word until Jesus returns to raise the dead and bring believers into the kingdom of His Father.

When He speaks His “Farewell Discourse,” the Apostles don’t understand what He’s talking about until after the Resurrection. We see that here in our text. Jesus says to them, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “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 go to the Father’?” They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while? We do not know what He is saying.”  They’re not sure what this “little while” refers to.

Jesus knows they don’t understand. He says, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’”? But Jesus doesn’t answer head on. He responds by telling them more about what they’ll experience in this little while when they won’t see Him and then what they’ll experience when they see Him again.

Jesus says, “Most assuredly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” Jesus then gives an analogy to their upcoming experience of sorrow that will turn to joy. “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that human being has been born into the world.” Just as a woman’s sorrow and pain in labor is intense but has an end, so will the disciples’ sorrow be very great but will have a purpose. As the sorrow of childbirth turns to joy when the baby is born, so the disciples’ sorrow will be changed into joy. Jesus ends by saying “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

Now, these words of Jesus are immediately fulfilled when He is betrayed. When Jesus is taken,  crucified, and buried, His disciples do not see Him for a little while. They are sorrowful and fearful. John and the Virgin Mary weep and lament at the foot of the cross to see Jesus dying while the world rejoices. The crowds jeer and the rulers of the people say, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save yourself! He saved others, Himself He cannot save!” But again a little while and they see Jesus again. On the third day He rises from the dead and appears to them. Mary Magdalene was weeping outside the tomb. She was sorrowful because, as she says, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid Him.” But Jesus speaks to her and her sorrow is turned to joy. Jesus appears to the disciples in the evening, and when He speaks to them and shows them His wounds, “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

But Jesus’ words find greater fulfillment in the days after His ascension. When Jesus goes to His Father, He is taken from His disciples for a little while. When He comes again to judge the living and the dead, all His disciples from every land and every time will rejoice to see Him face to face. We will experience a deep, lasting joy that no one can take from us.

But until then, Jesus teaches us that we endure sorrow in this life. Our lives as Christians won’t always be easy. There may be seasons of joy, but there will also be times of sorrow. There’s both Lent and Easter in this life. Jesus teaches us to expect suffering, and sorrow, and loss. We call this the life of the cross.  Just as Jesus suffered on the cross for us, we also suffer in this life. An important teaching to remember is that God puts crosses in your life for you to endure. Just as the Father appointed the cross for Christ, God allows suffering and sorrow at times in your life. But as the sorrow and pain of childbirth has a purpose and is replaced by joy, so the crosses, the sufferings, that He places in you life have a purpose and end.

In our Epistle lesson, St Peter teaches us about the sorrows we are called to endure. He says we go through this life like pilgrims. Our joy and happiness isn’t found in this life. We’re travelers passing through it. St Peter tells us to “Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul.” Our sinful hearts love money, stuff, and all the pleasures of this world. But as Jesus’ disciples, we conform our lives to Christ’s life. We are called to deny our fleshly lusts. We don’t build our lives around the passing joys we can create for ourselves in this world, but we set our sights on the next life and the eternal joy of Christ’s kingdom.

To keep our sinful hearts from falling in love with this world, God takes things away from us. Our health fails, cars break, we lose jobs, loved ones die, investments fail—and through these losses God shows us that we can’t build the perfect life here. He doesn’t allow us to. He reveals that money, land, vacations, and whatever else we dream about won’t give us lasting joy. The loss of these things brings sorrow into our hearts. God teaches us to cast away our idols and repent. We crucify our fleshly lusts and learn to love and long and find joy in Jesus.

That’s the purpose for suffering. Our sinful longings are exposed, and God drives us through our suffering and sorrow and dissatisfaction to long for the one who can give us joy. God afflicts us in this life so that a desire to be with Jesus is enkindled in our hearts. We learn to turn away from all the world has to offer and turn to Jesus to find joy, and happiness.

Mary Magdalene was sorrowful for those three days. In her sorrow she wept in front of Jesus’ tomb—but then He spoke to her, and joy filled her heart. The disciples were gathered together in fear, but Jesus came to them and said “peace” and they were glad. Jesus comes to you in the Gospel and in the Supper. There He changes your sorrow to joy. When you are sorrowful, He turns your sorrow to joy when He says, “Peace be with you.” He gives you strength to endure and lifts up your heart when you take His body given for you. Here in His word and Supper He gives you joy, because He gives you Himself.

But we know Him by faith now. Mary Magdalene was glad, but Jesus told her that she couldn’t cling to Him. He was going to ascend to His Father. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord, but He would send them out to preach His Gospel to the ends of the earth. They would have much suffering and hardship. Jesus does come to you and strengthens you in His word and sacraments, but you still live in the little while until He comes again visibly to be with you always.

We are still in the little while before our joy is full. In this life we are in the pain of labor until eternal life is brought forth at the end of the ages. As St Paul says, “The whole creations groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the redemption, the adoption of our bodies.” 

But our labor is only a little while. The time is coming soon when we will see Christ again as He is. The dead will be raised, the saints who are alive will be caught up to meet Him in the air, and we will be with Him always. Then, we will see Him as He is. On that day, you will meet His gaze and your heart will rejoice. You will see in His eyes the burning love that led Him to die for you and sustain you with Himself throughout the years of your earthly pilgrimage. The sorrows and crosses you endured in your past life will fade. Indeed, you will thank Him for the crosses He put in your life that destroyed your love of the world and led you closer to Him. Then your joy will unending. And the joy to behold that face no one will take from you, for you will be with God forever and will never be parted from Him again.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!