Jubilate 2020

 

Jubilate - John 16:16-23

St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY

3 May A+D 2020, Pr. Mark Preus

 

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

 

Let us pray. 

 

Now henceforth must

I put my trust

In Thee, O dearest Savior.

Thy comfort choice,

Thy Word and voice,

My heart rejoice

Despite my ill behavior.

 

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.

 

When Israel was travelling towards Sinai, after God has rescued them from Pharaoh, they travelled three days without water, and when they came to Marah, they couldn’t drink the waters of Marah, because they were bitter, and so its name was called Marah, which means bitter.  And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, and when he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

 

This is a picture of the Christian life that Jesus explains to His disciples before He dies and rises in today’s Gospel, 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. We see Jesus through the cross.  It is Jesus’ cross that sweetens the bitterness of our own crosses.  It is when Jesus shows Himself to us alive from the dead as the Crucified that His comfort renders sweet every bitter cup we meet. 

 

It is impossible to maintain earthly joys.  They don’t satisfy, and they always leave us craving for more.  Some of the most miserable people on earth are those who have access to all the pleasures and fame and glory this world has to offer.  Only look at how many singers and actors, rich and influential, surround by people singing their praises, who die alone from overdoses or suicide.  The children of God know that the joys of this world are temporary, fleeting, and a chasing after the wind.  And the better to teach them this, our Lord lays crosses and sorrow on us in this life, so that we might learn where to find the sweet water that quenches our soul’s thirst for something greater than what the springs of this world can offer.

 

The disciples were worried about Jesus leaving.  Jesus leaving for a little while was His going to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, and to suffer and die and lie in a grave for three days.  This is the little while of all our sorrows.  It is the little while of the cross.  It is a bitter thing.  You know the sorrow the disciples felt, how they were still hiding in fear on the third day until Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said, “Peace be with you!”  And He showed them His wounds, and then the disciples were glad when the saw the Lord.  They saw the cross in the living Christ.  The tree made their bitter water sweet.  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.

 

What happened to Israel and what happened to Jesus disciples also happens to us.  Our life on earth is one little while, but it often feels like a long while.  When the cross presses, and the water is bitter, it is then that we need to cry out the Lord for mercy, and we will find it in the wounds of Jesus.  We will find the comfort we need when earthly comforts offer us no help.

 

The Christian life is not a pessimistic life, though it often looks that way to the world, and feels that way to our unbelieving flesh.  Our life is not pessimistic, but it is realistic.  Jesus tells us outright,  “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.” 

 

If you are a Christian, then you will be sorrowful.  As Paul and Barnabas preached to the churches, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”  But the Christian life is more optimistic than any other, because as surely as we must experience sorrow and tribulation, affliction and pain, so certainly will we have joy that will not fade, that no one can take from us.  As surely as it was necessary for Christ to suffer and die, so was it necessary for Him to rise again.  We must have our little whiles of sadness, but an eternity of gladness awaits us. 

 

And this eternity of joy is not our only after we die, or when Jesus comes again.  This eternity of joy is ours now, even in the midst of our sufferings.  This is what the Psalm says, “He keeps our soul among the living.” 

 

It is very hard to maintain joy in our hearts that doesn’t fade away.  And when happiness or joy leaves our hearts, the devil, the world, and our flesh all conspire together to incite us to lurch after joys and pleasures that will leave us.  Even if they are good joys, like family and friends, like working an honest joy for pay, like developing our talents that we enjoy, even these become bitter if they become our main happiness. 

 

The world rejoiced when Jesus was dead.  That is because she thinks that she can then focus on her own happiness without being distracted by sin and death and judgment.  Jesus is all good.  He is the true God, begotten of the Father before all ages, and so He is the source of all that is good.  And so the good dies with evil all around Him.  All that is good is in Christ, and on the cross Christ dies.  So does all good die?   The world will look away and find her good in the things of this world, in distractions of work and play, money and honor.   But her joys are bitter.  Only the tree can sweeten the water.  Only the cross can show us good.

 

And as it was with Christ, so it is with His Christians.  When God lays crosses on us, He shows us that our own good is dying.  He shows us that our own strength isn’t enough.  He makes us taste the bitterness of this world, so that we might cry out to Him.  But Jesus does not want us to think that this sorrow, the pain of the crosses He lays on us, will continue forever.  No.  It is only a little while.  A little while we will not see Him, but again in a little while He will see us.  He will show us His wounds, and then we will be glad.

 

  We have sorrow, because we see that what is good in our lives isn’t enough.  We have sorrow because we see sin, just as Jesus saw all sin on the cross.  But remember that when Jesus lets you see your sin and your weakness, He does not do this so that you will despair.  He doesn’t do this so that you try to work away your sins, as if you have any ability to sweeten the bitter water.   Jesus lays crosses on you so that you might look away from this earth’s joys and honor, and find in the Crucified, where all evil and pain and sorrow were, the joy of your sins being blotted out by His blood, the peace of your death being conquered, and the assurance that God is on your side, that after a little while, He will refresh your soul with the joy that no man can take from you. 

 

We live our lives as Christians.  This means that we eschew those things that are contrary to our profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same.  We avoid both what denies the sorrow and denies the joy.  We follow with the cross and we find in Jesus our joy.  But we are so weak, and the little whiles seem so long.  Three days in the wilderness without water.  Three days in the belly of the fish.  Three days in the heart of the earth.  Three days feeling death.  A little while, but it feels much longer.

 

And so we sing,

 

My heart sinks at the journey’s length,

My wasted flesh has little strength,

My soul alone still cries in me:

“Lord, take me home! Take me to Thee!” 

 

We have sorrow because God shows us our sins.  We have sorrow because we see that the world, which promises peace and happiness and security, is vain, and every day we are painfully separated from the life of the world that everyone who wants to be happy in this world tries to follow.  It is painful to be separated from the world, to know that what our eyes see is not enough, to know that what our hands do is not enough, to mourn that what our flesh longs for is not enough.  This is what St. Paul says, “I die daily.”  

 

But remember, dear Christian heart, that it is only a little while.  Three days, and He rose.  A little while and He will see you.  A little wandering and the cross will sweeten the water.  A little while and we will not see Him, but again a little while and He will see you, He will show Himself to you, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

 

You will have sorrow.  When you know this, it isn’t a reason to give up or despair or look at your life in a pessimistic way.  The lies of Joel Osteen and all the peddlers of the “power of positive thinking” destroy souls because they simply ignore the sorrow and the cross.  They take away the means by which God sweetens the water.  They take away the cross and act as if they can still have the resurrection. 

 

No, the resurrection gives joy precisely because of the cross, both the cross that Jesus bore and the cross He lays on us.  When God lets you, His dear child whom He baptized and claimed as His own, suffer, He is making you like His own dear Son, whom He loves.  Therefore when you feel the sorrow that God lays on you, then know that God loves you.  The Lord chastens those whom He loves.  He is teaching you to taste what is sweet.  He is teaching you how to rejoice in the Lord always, even when you are carrying the cross in the darkness; even when you feel and remember the loss of joys, of loved ones, of abilities, of goodness; even when you see yourself sinking into hell because your sins are too many, and they surround you like a flood of water, and you feel in yourself nothing good, yet He has not abandoned you.  It is only a little while, and you will see Him keeping you among the living.  You will taste and see that the Lord is good at all times, that He is with you in the valley of the shadow of death, that it is good that He afflicts you, so that you might thirst for Him, who is the true and only joy, in whom all your good is laid, and it is secure there, because it was only a little while, and He rose, and He came and stood in the midst of His disciples and said, “Peace be with you.”

 

And so you come here today.  The little while seems so long, but Jesus sees you here, and He takes His cross and dips it into the water of your baptism, and the same water that led you to repent and mourn and have sorrow while the world rejoiced, this water becomes the sweetest nectar of life to you, because it reveals to you a joy that no one can take from you.

 

It is the joy of facing your sins, the ones that have burdened you and chained you, that have hurt you and others and offended God – the joy Jesus gives in the cross is you looking at those sins head-on and laughing at them, and saying, “What have you done to me that you didn’t do to Jesus, and He overcame you.  He paid your wages in death, and now you want to claim me?  Ha!  You can’t do that!  I taste the water that flowed from the bitter death of Christ and I taste only forgiveness and righteousness.  I see all good in the cross where you were nailed, where you accusations were erased by the blood of the Lamb of God, who is my Lord.”  It is the joy of facing the loss of all things, and laughing, and saying, “I gladly suffer the loss of all things, because all things are in Christ.  If I have not done what I should, He has done everything for me.  If I lost what is good because of my evil, I have found all that I lost and more in Him who rose from the grave after losing His life for me, but now He lives with all things, all treasure and joy and life and purity and holiness in Himself, and He has found me with His voice, with the peaching of the cross, and I have found my life, my good, precious, eternal life in Him who gently guides and schools me, whose rod and staff comfort me, who leads me in the paths of righteousness because of who He is.  He is my Savior.  He forgives me every day.  He washes me clean and cleanses me from sins every single day, and I rejoice when the voice of my Lord calls me.” 

 

It is the joy of looking at death and seeing past its scary face, past the fears the world tries to hide with her fleeting joys, past the end that you see with your eyes, and into the glory whose portal death has become for you.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sin that caused you is gone.  The Law that condemned me to be held by you – this good and holy Law was fulfilled on the tree where Christ died, and this same wood is in the waters I now taste in the Gospel preached to me, that Jesus is Lord over sin and death and hell and devil and He is my judge who says, “Whoever believes in Me will not see judgment, but has passed from death to life.” 

 

It is the joy of a woman who has sorrow because she is in labor and her hour has come.  And she faces death for the sake of the life that is in her, but soon, in a little while that seems so long, she forgets her sorrow for joy that a man has been born into the world.  So Christ labored and had sorrow because his hour had come, but when He rose again from the dead, He forgot His sorrow for joy that a man had been born into the world, a new man, incorruptible, immortal, and full of joy.  This is your joy.  You have sorrow now, but He will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.  You have been born again by water and the spirit, and you wait for the birth of your cleansed flesh and blood.  A little while, and you know you will see it.  Jesus rose from the dead.  You believe this.  You have this joy. 

 

This is joy that no one can take from you.  It is here today in the Gospel and sacraments.  Lay down your burdens by the waters of Marah, made sweet by the blood of the cross.  Whatever you ask in Jesus’ name, the Father will give you.  Jesus has already done everything necessary. Pour out your hearts to Him who poured out His blood for you.  There is nothing in you that He does not know and know how to heal you from.  There is nothing sinful in you that turns Him away, because He has carried all your sins and buried them in the grave forever.  There is no doubt that He loves you, that your sorrow is only a little while, but your joy is forever, because He is forever and He forever lives and pleads for you.  He lives with a body like yours, but without pain, and soon yours will be without pain too.  He lives with a soul that felt all sin, but now there is no sin to feel because it is gone, and soon you will not feel it anymore.  But now, while the flesh still hangs on you, while the world still flaunts her ridiculous and fake joy, while the devil prowls around and growls at you, while you still have sorrow, when the cross presses and you have no strength, drink deeply from the wells of salvation.  Taste the bitter water made sweet in the forgiveness of your sins, in the peace of God that surpasses your understanding.  See sin and world and devil and death and fear all swallowed up in Him who is the resurrection and the life, who lives for you as He died for you.  He loves you, and His love is boundless, and His love is yours.  He will keep your soul among the living. 

 

If the sorrow is deep, drink more deeply from the wounds of Christ.  If the sin is great, taste the how great God is when you see all sin removed as you eat the body that died and rose for you and drink the blood that cleanses us and cleanses our hearts so that we see by faith that all sorrow and pain here is only a little while.  We see Jesus, and we have all things. We have all joy.  And our joy no one will take from us.  Amen.  Alleluia! Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!