Jubilate Sermon 2021

 

Jubilate – John 16:16-23

St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY

25 April A+D 2021, Pr. Mark Preus

 

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

 

Right after God brought the children of Israel through the Red Sea and drowned hard-hearted Pharaoh and his host in the depths, Moses brought them into the wilderness.  They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Finally they came to water at Marah.  But they couldn’t drink the waters there because they were bitter, which is what Marah means in Hebrew – bitter.  And the people complained against Moses and said, “What are we going to drink!”  So Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree.  When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

 

So after we are brought to faith in Christ through baptism, and freed from the bondage of sin, our Lord Jesus leads us through the wilderness of this world so that we suffer a little while. He lays a cross on us, which tastes bitter to our soul, and we are tempted to complain against Jesus, because the cross is too heavy and the taste of life is too bitter.  But God does not want us to complain, as if He does not know our suffering.  Instead, he wants us to cry to our Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him for mercy.  Because as Moses put the tree into the bitter waters and the waters became sweet, so our Lord Christ will dip the tree of His cross into the waters, and make what is bitter to our soul the sweetest balm for our wounds and comfort for our sufferings.

 

This is what Jesus teaches His disciples in today’s Gospel, 

 

“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.”

Our suffering is when we don’t see Jesus.  Our joy is when we see Him.  The time that we don’t see Jesus is only a little while.  Now why would a good and loving Savior make it so that we can’t see Him?  Why does a loving God lay crosses and burdens on us?  Haven’t we all met people who have supposedly lost their faith in God because they see how much suffering He allows on the earth?  This is question that all of us must face not only as we observe suffering in the world, but when we ask ourselves where the joy is in all our suffering.  We travelled three days in the wilderness without water, and when we finally think we found some, what does God give us to drink?  The bitter waters of Marah.  

The first think we should understand about our suffering and the cross is that we don’t understand it.  The children of Israel didn’t understand it, and so they complained against Moses.  Jesus’ own disciples didn’t understand it, which is why they asked, “What is this that He says?”  Their hearts were still fixed on earthly things.  And so we learn from this that we cannot rely on our own reason and understanding to figure out why God is laying a cross on us, why we are suffering, why we don’t feel joy in our hearts.  This is why the Scripture constantly admonishes us in many words, but perhaps most succinctly, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”  

 

If you follow the way of your own understanding and your own feelings, then you will conclude that God hates you, that He doesn’t care for you, that He must be some cruel taskmaster who lays such a burden on you for no reason that you can see.  But this is the thinking of the flesh. It is the doctrine of many false teachers, including a certain Joel Osteen, who wrote a book entitled, “Your Best Life Now.”  Against this the blessed Apostle says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.”  If our hope is only for good times and glory and happiness in time on earth, then we are the most miserable wretches there are on earth.  

But God does not want us to rely on our own understanding.  He doesn’t want us to think that we can endure our suffering and cross without denying ourselves.  This is what Jesus taught the disciples before He died, and His words teach us every day.  

 

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

 

Therefore if you will be a Christian; if you will have Him who suffered and died for you, you cannot come after Him with who you naturally are. You must deny yourself.  This means that you recognize that you aren’t able to understand God and why He afflicts you.  This means that you aren’t able to endure the suffering with your own willpower and endurance while at the same time maintaining faith in God.  Denying yourself means that you even disregard how you feel about something, because your feelings and thoughts and desire are by nature fundamentally wrong.  What is this “little while?”  Why is Jesus talking about leaving us?  Why are we thirsty and have only bitter water to drink?  We cannot know the answer to this question if we rely on ourselves.  

 

And so we need to take up the cross. Why?  Because it was necessary for Jesus to take up His cross to save us.  His cross was enduring suffering that He didn’t deserve for the sake of sinners.  But our cross is enduring suffering we deserve and don’t deserve for the sake of ourselves and other sinners.  Jesus came down from heaven with the express purpose of enduring the punishment of sin and the pain of our guilt and the agony of our shame.  He did not please Himself, but clung to the words of His Father, and humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus had His little while of suffering, and His suffering was entirely our suffering.  He endured not seeing His disciples and those whom He loved, but more than that; He endured that wrath of His own Father against all sin.  He gave His life up and so He saved our lives.  That is the cross that He bore.  His cross removes the real burden that we need removed from our pressing down on our souls.  And the cross He lays on us teaches us to find our comfort not in removing a little while of sufferings on earth, but in tasting the bitter waters becoming sweet by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

 

And so it happens every day that we must learn what this “little while” means.  For a little while the disciples did not see Jesus.  They regarded Him as dead and gone.  They had no hope.  They were miserable.  The wept and lamented, while the world rejoiced.  But Jesus did not leave them in their sorrow. He rose again from the sorrows and shackles of death and their sorrow was turned into joy.

 

We need to have our sorrow explained to us.  Our sorrow is our not understanding, not believing, not trusting, not feeling that Jesus is risen from the dead to give us life beyond the grave.  But we cling to temporal things.  Why would you deny yourself?  So many people need you.  They do.  Your parents and siblings.  The people here at church.  Your boss, your employees, your friends, your spouse, your children – they all need you.  Why would you deny the person whom they need?  But this is just it.  Whom do we need?  Do we first need ourselves, or do we need the one who saves us?  Jesus says, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”  

 

It is not that the waters are bitter, it is that our flesh, our natural understanding, longs only for joy and happiness on this earth.  And this is folly, and God knows it.  This is why God lays crosses on us, so that we don’t walk so foolishly on this earth, seeking joys that disappear, laying up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

And so God unfolds earth’s galling bitterness.  As Jesus tasted gall and vinegar on the tree for us to give us that sweet comfort of God’s love and mercy towards us and the promise of eternal life, so we will only taste this sweetness when Jesus puts the cross into the waters that we drink.  Otherwise, we will think that we can do things on our own.  When we have no suffering, we think that we are doing fine, that we can love God and love our neighbor, and enjoy this world as we see fit. We forget how much of a wilderness this world is.

 

Look at this world, you who seek your life in it!  What does she have to offer you?  Money?  Even the heathen know that you can’t take it with you. What has money ever done for your soul?  What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his soul?  What does this world have to offer you?  Glory, accomplishment, success?  Who remembers and even knows the accomplishments of the great men a generation or two ago?  Who even cares?  What does this world have to offer you?  Pleasure and ease?  Yes, the world rejoices while you mourn.  She looks at you as if you are crazy for avoiding the pleasure that she craves and delights in.  She rejoices that she has no cross to bear, because she chooses how she lives for this life and this life alone.  But what is the end of those who are lovers of pleasure and not lovers of God?  What is the end of those who love themselves and do not love God?  Vanity and emptiness.  What does the intellectual’s mind when his plans perish in death?  What does the moralist’s righteousness gain him when he is dust?  Where is the beauty of youth and where are the pleasures of the flesh when that long while of death descends on every worshiper of pleasure?  

 

Our suffering seems like a long while, but we are wrong.  Every affliction seems to be so long, but the Psalmist calls it but a night when he sings, “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.”  And so Jesus says, “A little while.”  And the Scripture repeats these words “little while” seven times!”  It is as if the Holy Spirit is hammering into our hard hearts what we can’t believe on our own, that 

 

Though He causes grief,

Yet He will show compassion

According to the multitude of His mercies.

For He does not afflict willingly,

Nor grieve the children of men. (Lamentations 3:32-33)

 

His thoughts are not our thoughts, Isaiah says.  He knows what we are suffering.  Jesus knows.  We do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but in all points He was tempted as we are, but without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

 

And so God afflicts us, not because He delights in our pain, but because He wants us to hear from Him what is our true pain and what is our true joy.  Our true and real pain is our sin.  It is our love of ourselves and this earth.  It shows itself in our unwillingness to endure suffering.  It shows itself in our thinking of ourselves before we think of God’s love for us.  It shows us itself in our going through a day or a week or a month even without a heartfelt prayer to God, because our heart isn’t in it, because we are looking at ourselves and trying to save our lives, instead of losing our life, instead of denying ourselves, because we don’t see that we are the problem.  It’s not the people out there.  It’s not our bad health.  It’s not the burden of our work or a boss who isn’t kind enough or our headaches or parents who were mean to us or a pastor who wasn’t nice enough or a government that is corrupt or systemic racism or the evil way we were treated.  It’s us.  It’s our looking for life in a world that is dying.  It’s our grumbling and complaining about the waters being bitter.  It’s our anger at God and others for not giving us what we want in this world, while ignoring the eternal life and joy that Christ has won for us.  

 

And so God lets us suffer without any real cause that doctors or shrinks or academics can find.  He afflicts us with people betraying us, with pain in our bodies and minds, with the loss of loved ones and the loss of joys that we used to have on earth.  He brings us to the waters of Marah.  But He just saved Israel from Pharaoh!  He doesn’t bring you into the wilderness to die of thirst!  No, instead he makes you drink what is bitter to your soul so that you cry out to your Lord who knows your suffering, who knows how long the “little while” feels.  And He knows what to do.  He knows how to strengthen our souls and keep us in the faith, as the apostles strengthened the souls of the disciples, saying

 

We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)

 

He knows what your sufferings are.  They are not futile because you see no purpose to them.  They are life-giving.  He compares your sufferings in the world not to a man who rolls a stone up a hill only to have the stone roll down again every day in a futile act of trying to find meaning on earth; no!  He compares your sufferings to birth pangs, to labor pains.  He compares your suffering to something life-giving.  

 

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 a human being has been born into the world.

 

I have seen my wife give birth to ten children.  I have seen her sorrow.  At some point she tells me during her labor, “I can’t do this!”  I tell her, “You can do this! You have to do this!”  And she does.  And when the baby is born, she laughs at herself for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

 

So you are in labor right now, and it seems like so long, like it will never end, like you can’t do it. But God is only cutting the stone and polishing it to build you up into the Temple He is making out of you.  He is pruning the branches so that they bear fruit.  He is teaching you to deny yourself, not trust in yourself, and learn that the way of sorrow is the way to joy, that the way of the cross is the way to resurrection, and that the bitter waters will be sweet soon, when you see the tree of the cross thrust into your sorrow and tears, and then you see your real burden lifted off. 

 

A little while, but an eternity.  God showed Moses the tree.  God shows you the tree.  Do not look for God’s plan apart from this tree.  There you see the God who made you, made like you, and suffering all that you suffer and more.  There you see the glory of heaven hidden by the darkness of a day when the sun hid its light and Christ cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” There eternity was measured in a span of time, because all that incomprehensible suffering of the world that men see and curse God for, was laid on Christ, who became a curse for us, as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” 

 

But if Christ has borne the curse, then what you are suffering is not God’s curse.  If Christ has borne your sins with His bitter sufferings and washed them away with His blood and left them paid for and powerless in His death, then it is not in anger that God is letting you suffer, but in love, in fatherly concern for you that you drink of these bitter waters, because there you will find the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ making them sweet for you.

 

It is the taste of His blood that cleanses your conscience from serving yourself so that you know that your suffering and labor are not in vain, but for Him whose suffering and work were not in vain.  It is the knowledge that your greatest burden, the burden of sin and death and judgment, has been lifted off, so that you see that what seems so long lasts but a little while, and you see the purpose of your cross, as Paul says (2 Cor. 4:17-18), 

 

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 

And you see these eternal things when you pray to God and ask Him for what you need.  He answers with His word.  His Word tells you what Jesus told His disciples,

 

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.

 

Notice that He says, “I will see you again.”  How does He see us again?  He sees us as He is risen from the dead with our sin that He had just carried.  How does He see you?  He sees you clean and pure and holy and righteous and spotless in His sight.  He sees you before you see Him, as He saw Mary Magdalene in the Garden before Mary saw Him, and her heart rejoiced.  So you see Jesus when you know that He sees you, that His eye is on you throughout your suffering and pain in this life, that He is teaching you and guiding you not with a heavy hand, but with the heart of the one who says to you even now,

 

Come unto you Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.  Matt. 11

 

It is the burden that is light because it takes away the burden of sin. He makes your burdens light by teaching you through suffering to know that it is only a little while, and you will see the end of your sorrow.  His Word proves it in the water that cleanses you every day from your sins.  His promise is proved to you when He sees you in the Supper, sinful, unclean, weak, unable to make it on your own, and He knows that, and so He gives you all of who He is.  “Take eat, this is my body, which is given for you.  Don’t forget Me.  This is the body that bore your real burden; eat it and taste the bitter waters made sweet by My cross.  Take, drink; this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Remember Me and who I am.  This is the blood that makes the water sweet, because it removes the bitterness of sin and death and gives you eternal life.  

 

Right after the Israelites tasted the bitter waters made sweet, they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.  So soon our Lord will lead us from the bitter waters made sweet by the cross to the living waters of the new Jerusalem.  When Solomon built the temple no hammer or chisel was heard because all the stones had been cut and polished beforehand.  So now you are being chiseled and polished, but soon there will be no noise of that, no sound of affliction and weeping, but sorrow and sighing will flee away, and God will wipe away all tears from your eyes.  

 

And there will be palm trees whose branches you will seize in victory, as you stand before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in spotless white robes, because then you have come out the great affliction, and you have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  And  you will serve God without weeping. And the little while will be over.  And the cross will be lifted. And you will neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike you, nor any heat; there will be no memory of sin and pain, for the old things have passed away, and the new that you tasted on earth you will see in heaven, for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, who directed all things for your good, who gave turned bitter water to sweet, will shepherd you, and lead you to living fountains of water. Jesus will see you and you will see Him.  Your heart will rejoice.  And God will wipe away every tear from your eyes.  

 

Therefore, my beloved, endure suffering for Christ’s sake; humble yourselves before Him who knows what you need and will always sustain you with His word.  Count every affliction – sickness, suffering, pain, bad treatment, yes, even death – count it all a blessing, because the cross laid on you leads you to the cross of Christ, and Christ indeed from death is risen, and our life is hidden with Him in God.  Therefore pray to Him when affliction comes, and He will answer.  Assuredly Jesus says to you, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”  No little while can change that truth.  No little while can take His promise away from you.  Every little while must lead you by faith to Him who gives you eternal joy, and your joy no man will take from you.  Amen.  

 

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