1 Peter 2.11–20 and John 16.16–23a
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s gospel lesson—and the gospels for the rest of the Easter season—takes us back to the night in which Jesus was betrayed. Jesus taught His disciples many things on Maundy Thursday, especially about what His death, resurrection, ascension, and what life would look like afterward. Today hear Jesus teach 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.” The disciples don’t understand this and ask about it among themselves. What does He mean that He goes to the Father? But they seem especially hung up on the three words—which is only one word in Greek—“a little while.” John directs our focus to this words by the way he records the entire conversation. “A little while” is used seven times.
What does Jesus mean, “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?” The little while of which He speaks is His three days in tomb. This is the little while in which the disciples will not see Him. But after that little while they will see Him again because He will rise from the dead on the third day, as He had told them on several occasions during His ministry. He tells them, “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.” This is how it happened. Once Jesus is arrested later than night, the disciples fled from Him. Peter wept in repentance over the fact that, relying on his own strength, He publicly denied Christ three times. They all lamented the fact that their Lord was taken from them and crucified. While they were filled with sorrow the world rejoiced. Jesus said in John 7:7 that the world “hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.” The world—including the self-righteous Jews which plotted His execution—rejoiced because it had succeeded in silencing the One who exposed it’s evil and condemned it’s works, it’s ways, even showing that its righteousness is worthless in God’s sight.
But this is how Jesus goes to the Father. His body is laid in the tomb by Joseph and Nicodemus, but His spirit goes to God the Father in paradise, having completed the work the Father sent Him to do. He accomplished the atonement of mankind, earning the forgiveness of sin for all who believe in Him. He lived perfectly in God the Father’s sight so that He might give His perfect righteousness to everyone who puts their trust in by Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. His death is how He goes to the Father. But this is only to be for a little while. He comes back to the disciples by rising from the dead. He does this to conquer death so that He has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor 15:20), a sign and pledge that all who belong to Christ by faith will be raised on the Last Day. It’s His return to life—His resurrection—that puts an end to the disciples’ sorrow and turns it into joy. It isn’t only the joy of seeing their Lord again in the flesh. It’s the joy that although there is suffering and the cross to bear, these only last a little while, and once the little while is over, there is eternal joy that no one will take from them. It is similar to a woman in labor. She experiences the sorrow of delivery, but the moment she hears her baby crying, all the sorrow turns into an unfathomable joy.
Jesus says, “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.” If a woman’s sorrow turns to joy—a joy which no one can take from her—how much more will the disciples’ joy be theirs in a way that no one will able to steal from them? The world, which rejoiced at Jesus’ suffering and death, will not be able to take it from them. That’s saying something, considering how much hatred the world had—and still has—for Christ. The world will hate these men as it hated—and still hates—Christ, for Christ chose them out of the world to be His apostles, to be His witnesses, to preach the gospel to all nations. The world will do everything in its power to silence them as it had Christ. But it doesn’t matter; “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” for those whom He has called out of this world (Phil. 1:21). Suffering and cross, affliction and death, will not take the joy of Christ from them; the joy that Christ has gone to the Father, having earned forgiveness, new life, and salvation for believers; the joy that Christ lives—never to die again—and reigns over all things for the good of those who believe in Him.
This joy is yours, too. You have not seen Christ in the flesh as His disciples did because He ascended to the right hand of God—God’s power—”that He might fill all things” as Paul writes in Ephesians 4:10. But you will see Him when He returns in glory. In spite of not having seen Jesus in the flesh, this joy is yours because you believe the apostles’ witness about Jesus. You have the joy of knowing that, for Christ’s sake, you have a God who is for you, not against you. You have the joy of knowing that, for Jesus’ sake, you have a God who will forgive your sins as often as you confess them to Him. You have the joy of knowing that you are temples of Holy Spirit so that you can fight against temptation and live as God’s children, following the example of our older brother in the flesh, our Lord Jesus. You have the joy of knowing that your loved ones who have died in the faith live with God even now, and will rise again with all believers on the Last Day. You have the joy of knowing that although the world hates you because you believe Christ and strive to live a godly life, Christ has overcome the world by dying to it and rising to new life, so that even if the world demands that you suffer for Christ’s sake, even that you die, it doesn’t matter. “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” for those whom He has called out of this world (Phil. 1:21). No matter what things you must suffer in this life for the sake of Christ and His word, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). This is our joy that no one can take from us.
This is why St. Peter writes to you as sojourners and pilgrims, people chosen out of this world. Because of this joy which no one can take from you, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. Fight sin in your mortal body and take every thought captive to Christ. Behave yourself honorably among the gentiles—unbelievers— that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. This even means submitting ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake. As it was then, so it is now. Unbelievers look for any reason to disbelieve the gospel and accuse Christianity of trying to subvert the State. In our day it seems like some of the governing authorities want Christians to rise up against them. Peter reminds us that Christians submit to governing authorities, the only exception being in they command us to sin. Peter reminds us that we are sojourners and pilgrims here. We are not interested in setting up the kingdom of God on earth, though many Christians in our day imagine that that is the answer to the societal rot they see all around them. The joy of the gospel fills our hearts so that we submit ourselves to every ordinance of man, because the Lord is the one who has put the governing authorities over us. The joy of the gospel doesn’t look for God to establish His kingdom here on earth. It looks for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). And if, in this little while in which we live, must suffer, let us suffer wrongfully, rather deservedly, on account of conscience toward God, not on account of sin.
But whatever crosses and suffering the Lord lays upon us, we can endure them with the joy of the gospel, the joy that no one can take from us. We know, first, that our trials last but a little while. God will turn our sorrow into joy. He does this sometimes in this life and when He does, we give Him thanks. But as Christians, we know that no matter what He allows to happen to us, no matter what we must endure as sojourners and pilgrims on earth, no matter how He calls upon us to suffer for His sake, it will be followed by the everlasting joy of going to Father in everlasting blessedness. This is the joy of the gospel which we possess now, by faith, and will enjoy in eternity by sight. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
