Fourth Sunday of Easter + Jubilate

John 16:16-23

This morning, the disciples said to Jesus, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech.”

Yet, the words of Jesus remained obscure and veiled to His disciples, even as they remain shrouded to our ears today.

From this, we should, like the disciples, learn that what Jesus is speaking of in today’s Gospel cannot be understood apart from Him; He must be the one to reveal His teaching to us.

So, what lies at the core of the disciples’ and our failure to understand Jesus today? It’s the words, “A little while.”

What is “A little while?”

For a child, this time measurement is how long it takes their parents to say goodbye at a family reunion.

As the child grows into a teenager, this becomes the time from being asked to clean their room to a vacuum actually being plugged into the wall.

Still, for the young couple getting married, it’s the time from their engagement to the day of wedded bliss. Or a pregnant mother waiting impatiently to meet their child, or the elderly widower waiting for Christ and His eternity.

What a statement by Jesus today, “A little while.”

How can we think of this measurement of time theologically? How do we ponder it through the lens of Jesus?

Well, think of the creed and the words we confessed, “Crucified, dead, buried, and risen again from the dead on the third day.” In his sermon for this day, Martin Luther draws our attention to these words as he says these are the “little whiles” Jesus speaks of in our Gospel. (AE 77, p. 206)

These words need to take us back to the cross, to the time when the disciples of Jesus looked on from a distance in fear and trembling as their Savior was being crucified, or as His mother appeared near to him with sorrow filling her heart. Jesus entrusts her to the care of his disciple, John. This had to be the darkest and longest period, a time of grievous sorrow, right?

You have felt this sorrow too, haven’t you? There is the sorrow of betrayal from a loved one, a friend, or a spouse. There is the sorrow that fills the heart of one being bullied, having insults and slanderous words shot at you as arrows from the devil’s quiver. Or the weighted thoughts of depression and anxiety that torment your minds as you worry and fret over a medical diagnosis.

Yet, there is still a worse sorrow, and it’s that of a heart of faith that no longer clings to Jesus and His cross. The life that no longer seeks to receive the comfort and benefits of His cross – His forgiveness and life.

As Luther puts it regarding the disciples in the aftermath of Christ’s death, “These disciples truly had to feel and put to the test what it meant to lose Christ out of their sight, when He was taken from them not only bodily but also spiritually, and so also to have at the same time twofold distress and sorrow.”

What had these disciples so twisted up is that they not only saw Jesus as their heavenly King, but they also saw Him as a new earthly king of Israel.

Now, both were gone. All that’s left is a joyless dirge to the tomb and grave.

But remember, “a little while... 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.”

Like the disciples, it’s hard to see this joy as insults are hurled into your ears, or you endure the pains of medical treatments, or you stand over the grave of a loved one, all while havoc is being caused within your heart.

But take your confession of faith in the creed to heart: “Crucified, dead, buried, and risen again from the dead on the third day.”

What has died in this life does not remain in the grave, nor define you, or your life in Christ.

No, instead, go to where you are crucified with Christ, where you are joined to His death and enter His grave. Go to where you rise with Him – go to your Baptism. Drown the “little whiles of life” in Christ – His cross, His death, His grave, because as He rose from the dead, you are raised with Him and, “Your sorrow [is] turned into joy.”

And what is this joy? It’s new life, made possible by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

This is the image of a mother experiencing the pains of childbirth, only to rejoice as her child is born.

Like the disciples, your sadness and pain throughout this life are not permanent, even as they appear to be as you live in the moments of anguish.

Remember the Gospel reading from a couple of weeks ago: The disciples were locked up behind closed doors out of fear for the Jews, fear for their lives. But then in an instant, their pain and sorrow were no more, because their Jesus was risen from the dead and standing before them, just as He had promised.

Today, Jesus stands before you, speaking the same words He spoke to His disciples that first Easter: “Peace be to you.”

And this is what He gives to you in His Word, at this rail, and the font – His peace—the benefits of His cross.

As you depart today, do not leave your faith or the cross of Jesus behind, but take it with you. Take it to school, take it to work, bring it to your doctor’s appointments, and by all means, plant it in your homes so that when you approach difficult and sad situations, your confession of faith will not be far: that Jesus was “Crucified, died, buried, and rose again from the dead on the third day.”

Then remember that you, too, were crucified, died, and were buried with Him through the waters of Holy Baptism. But most of all, remember that just He arose from the dead, so He has raised you to new life too and made you children of the Most High.

In fact, He has marked you as His own, with the very sign of His cross.

As the “Little whiles” of life come to you, my dear friends, keep this cross of Jesus close, because through the crosses of this life, the cross of Jesus turns your sorrow into joy. +INJ+