The Fourth Sunday of Easter
John 16:16-22
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
This past week, my family drove 4 hours to Iowa for a Lutheran education conference. With a van full of children, you can imagine the constant refrain from the backseats…
“Are we there yet?”
“How much longer?”
A child’s understanding of time is often skewed, isn’t it?
When waiting for something good to arrive, like seeing old friends, time moves slowly, but when the opportunity for joy and fun arrives, time flies by.
This understanding of time doesn’t really change as people age; the days leading up to vacation feel long, but the time off itself goes by quickly.
No matter what happens, one thing is certain: time continues to move forward at the same rate. It’s the events and experiences in your life that shape how you perceive and experience time.
So, to quote the country artist, Kenny Chesney, “Don’t Blink.”
But in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples, “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.” (John 16:16)
Jesus said, “A little while, and you will not see me.”
Why? Because He must die upon the cross, which is highlighted by these words,
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.
There is so much packed into these words of Jesus.
First, these words of Jesus look ahead to His death and resurrection. But then they also address the idea of time, while, in another sense, Jesus seems to discuss how sorrow, weeping, lamenting, and grief influence our experience of time.
Jesus says the world will rejoice at the time of his death, even while the disciples mourn and weep.
When a death happens close to you, surely you don’t see the world celebrating your sorrow and fear, but maybe you’ve noticed how the world doesn’t stop for your tears either; it keeps moving.
Time always keeps moving, doesn’t it?
The fourth-century Greek poet, Menander, wrote the well-known adage for a play, “Time heals all wounds.”
In a way, the idea is that with enough time, your sorrows and griefs will disappear; they will fade as the days go by. You just need patience.
But, you don’t just practice this idea or hear these words when a loved one dies, do you?
You also use it when you’re upset with someone, when you’ve had a falling out with a friend or family member, when a young man and a woman break up, or when you’ve committed a serious sin that weighs heavily on your heart and faith.
“Time heals all wounds.”
These words have not only become your friend, but a means also to avoid confronting the tribulations of life.
But how does Scripture respond to this idea of time? Let’s look at the well-known passage from Ecclesiastes,
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
As Luther notes on this passage from Ecclesiastes, God has ordained a definitive beginning and end to every aspect of life. He writes,
All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control. Thus this is spoken in opposition to free will. It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable. Everything comes and goes at the time that God has appointed. He proves this on the basis of examples of human works whose times lie outside the choice of man (AE 15:49).
Okay, so what does all of this mean?
It means your time is in God’s hands. Your births, your relationships, your marriage, your children, the breakups, the wars between friends and family, the job loss, the retirement, the deaths of a loved one, the grief and sorrow that follow.
All of this life is in God’s timing.
Yet, we can still say with confidence, “Time [does not] heal all wounds.”
Why do we say this?
Because Jesus is the only one who heals all wounds. He alone can take your grief and sorrow into Himself and give you joy, and that leads us to look to the time of His death upon the cross.
As the prophet Isaiah wrote,
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4)
How often do you get caught in a continuous cycle of sorrow, grief, lament, and weeping?
How often do you neglect or refuse to reach out and engage with the people and situations that challenge you throughout life? That leads to heartache and anger. Figuring, you’ll just give it time.
While time does not heal all wounds, time remains fleeting, so you should listen intently to the words of Jesus today,
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. (John 16:16)
These words not only describe the aspect of time, but also lead you, along with Jesus’ disciples, to look toward His cross and His death. Still, they don’t leave you in darkness either, because they remind you that on that first Easter morning, your Jesus rose from the dead, bringing you the joy of His forgiveness.
If you desire this joy, the joy of a mother who has given birth to a child, then you must not only go and face the crosses in your life—the person, the event, or cause of your grief and sorrow—but also confront these crosses by confessing your griefs, sorrows, laments, struggles, and the sin you are holding onto.
In other words, go to Jesus and confess your sin and your faith in Him, because only then can you or your neighbor rise with Christ in the joy of His resurrection.
Go to the font, drown the old Adam of sin and doubt, of fear and sadness, so you may receive new birth in Christ Jesus.
And don’t wait to do this, because just as there is a time for every purpose under heaven, the time for repentance and reconciliation, that is now.
So don’t waste time; instead, entrust the minutes, hours, and days of your life into God’s hands with eagerness, for He cares for you and longs to bring you into His eternal joy, where there is no time. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Pastor, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Website: www.goodsheptomah.org
The Shepherd’s Voice Podcast: https://goodsheptomah.podbean.com/
