Easter 3—Jubilate
Dear friends in Christ. Here we are in the midst of the Easter season. It is the highlight of the Church Year. It is the time that we in particular remember and give our Lord God thanks for His grace and mercy toward us sinners. Now we especially remember and celebrate Jesus’ resurrection victory over all of our spiritual enemies of sin, devil, hell and death. It is the time of greatest joy and celebration because for us now, in Christ, we are God’s dear children; hell is shut and heaven opened; death has lost its sting; nothing but a glorious heavenly future awaits us.
This Sunday has the name, Jubilate. It comes from the first word of the Introit in Latin, from Psalm 66 meaning “shout for joy.” It is natural/ easy for us to rejoice/ shout for joy in the Easter season when fresh in our minds are these rich spiritual blessings Christ won for us and now gives us in the word and sacrament.
But this morning’s Gospel reading throws a bit of cold water in our faces as we hear Jesus tell the disciples that first Maundy Thursday evening: 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. Notice what Jesus tells His disciples? There will be times of joy and times of sorrow; a little time of joy and a little time of sorrow—back and forth. Although for the disciples Jesus was speaking about His death and resurrection and ascension, the principle is the same for us today: our lives will have always a little while of sorrow and a little while of joy. It will always be a back and forth. Even for the Christian there will never be that constant “high”, that constant joy. That’s why it’s vital that we remember that God’s word, not our feelings, is the reality.
1. In our text from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah we hear the Lord asking His people: Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? [Isaiah 40: 27] The Lord throws back at them their complaining against Him. Their complaint was that the Lord wasn’t interested in them; it was as if they didn’t exist, that they were invisible to God: My way is hidden from the LORD. And on top of that they were saying that God was totally disregarding their case, that He was just passing by them in their distress without even noticing them: my right is disregarded by my God. Certainly it was a time of greatest trial and hardship for the Lord’s people and it looked like He didn’t even care. It seemed as if He was hanging them out to dry.
The same thing applies to us. Our lives as Christians are not all times of pure joy, of the pure joy of Easter; not every day is Easter morning. We as Christians are not immune to times of trial and hardship. Just because we are Christians does not mean that God will grant us every earthly blessing; just because we are Christians does not mean that we will be “healthy, wealthy and wise.” We are sinners living in a sinful world; we will suffer because of the sins of others and because of our own sin as each serves self. When evil days come upon us—as they are bound to do—we, too, are all too prone to say with the Old Testament people: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? [Isaiah 40:27] Why? Because that’s what our feelings tell us. We feel as if the Lord has abandoned us; we feel as if He, at best, is disinterested in us; as if He does not regard us but passes us by, not giving us what is rightly ours. But are our feelings the reality?
What do our feelings tell us in time of trial? What are our feelings telling us when we do not perceive ourselves as healthy, wealthy and wise? What are our feelings telling us when we feel that God has abandoned us?
Here we must be very careful because in times of trial, in times of sorrow, when it seems that the Lord has passed us by, it is very easy for our old sinful self to work together with the devil’s temptation to unbelief. It is ultimately unbelief that in time of trial/ hardship/ sorrow we say: My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God. Here is unbelief in God’s goodness and unbelief in His ability to fulfill His promises to us. In other words, our feelings lead us to doubt and into unbelief. Doubt and unbelief—weren’t they the foundation of the devil’s first temptation [Genesis 3:1]: Has God indeed said…?
Dear Christian, may we always be suspect of our feelings because the devil so easily uses and manipulates them to serve his soul-destroying/ faith-destroying purposes. Especially like we see in our text, we must be on guard—in the little while of sorrow as bad times come upon us. Then, egged on by our feelings, God’s promises seem so meaningless because He seemingly can’t keep them; and then the natural result of trusting our feelings is that we conclude the holy Christian faith, trust in the true God is so futile/ worthless.
But our feelings must be suspect also on the flip side, during the little while of joy—our feelings are indeed ones of happiness and joy; and our feelings tell us that we must be “really good” because God is blessing us so richly with material blessings and we say within ourselves: My way is not hidden from the LORD, and He sees how good I really am; and my right is not disregarded by my God and He is giving me all the good things I really deserve; therefore I really don’t/ must not have any sin to confess—and what need do I have for a Savior?
Closely tied in with this deception of our feelings, is the also the one that says that we are to rely on ourselves—if we do enough good and avoid enough evil; if we do more good things than bad things, then God will be happy enough with me and bring me into heaven—in other words if we rely on ourselves and our own strength for our salvation. To human reason, this makes sense: try your hardest and God will be happy with that. But what does the Lord say in our text through Isaiah? Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. There is no true lasting comfort—instead, there will be fainting, weariness and exhaustion— if we try to rely on ourselves and our own efforts to gain God’s favor and heaven and have a “do-it-yourself” type religion. By using the picture of those who, physically speaking, are at their peak—even they will grow faint and weary and fall exhausted. If that is true physically of the strongest—none of us stand a chance spiritually, trying to do enough good works to earn God’s favor and heaven. Can we ever do enough good things to earn heaven? Hardly! God expects absolute perfection if we are to gain heaven by our own works—even just one sin would disqualify us, shut heaven to us and kick us into hell. Even if we thought we could do enough good things, how would we know if we have ever done enough? We would forever be working, striving, but never having any rest/ comfort. Such is the deception of our feelings when they tell us to rely on ourselves for heaven and salvation.
And then “feelings” also tell us that trial, hardship, “weariness,” that little while of sorrow is a bad thing. To be sure, no one wants sorrow or hardship; we all prefer joy, happiness, and things going well; and it’s not that “into every life a little rain must fall.” Instead, because we are sinful, with that old, sinful human nature we actually need the little while of sorrow. What happens in those times? Trial and temptation lead us to cry out to the Lord for strength so that we do not become weary and faint. Through the little whiles of sorrow, the Lord is intending and leading us to turn to Him, and to trust in Him. How we need that! If the Lord would only give us good times of pure joy, how our sinful hearts would get proud and boastful and turn away from the Lord—after all, the sinful human heart concludes, I don’t need God because I can do it all myself; or, I must be so good and worthy and that’s why the Lord is blessing me so.
Long story short, dear Christian, we dare not trust our feelings, let alone base our faith and the certainty of our salvation on our feelings. Instead, the true reality is what God tells us in His holy word.
2. God’s word alone tells us the truth. How vital this is for us especially as we are—as we often enough will be—in that little while of sorrow. When our feelings tell us, as we feel: My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God, God in His holy word “slaps us upside the head” and tells us: Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, is the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. The word of God proclaims what is contrary to our feelings/ what we are experiencing; but because it is the word of God it must be believed; it is the truth—what we feel isn’t!
Yes, our little whiles of sorrow are indeed real; they are painful; our feelings seem right but they are not the truth/ reality about God and His relation to us. In our times of sorrow/ trial temptation it is not that our life is hidden from God; it’s not that He sees us and passes us by unconcerned; it’s not that He is unable to help us. Instead He is the everlasting God, the LORD…the Creator of the ends of the earth. His is limitless power and wisdom, as He tells us at the beginning of our text: Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because He is strong in power not one is missing. Look at the stars of the sky; see how they come out at night in the always predictable fashion. And why? Because like a shepherd leading his flock and calling it into the pastures, the Lord calls forth the stars. By His might and goodness, not one star is left behind, no star fails to take its assigned spot. So what does that mean? It means that even nature is preaching to us when we doubt God’s power, wisdom and love: the stars coming out at God’s command—His creation and preservation of that creation—proclaim that God’s goodness surrounds and protects us. Yes, we may be languishing in our little whiles of sorrow, yet the same God nightly shows His power, care and wisdom.
That same mighty word of God, He who is strong in power, that is, He who has an abundance of power, is to be trusted, not our feelings that can and do change on a whim. That word of God, which is to be trusted, is a mighty and powerful word because it proclaims and gives forgiveness of sin and grace. When the word of God tells us that in Jesus our sins are forgiven, that Jesus reconciled us sinners to the holy God, that in Jesus we are God’s dear children and heirs of heaven, that is the reality; that is truth—regardless of what our feelings may tell us, regardless if our feelings tell us God is unable or unwilling to help us. Dear Christian, hold to what God tells us in His word. Not only is it the truth—contrary to our feelings—but His word is our strength against our feelings.
In His holy word God gives us Himself; He gives us His Holy Spirit who works faith in our hearts to believe His holy word and to receive the gifts of forgiveness of sin and life that He gives us in it! That’s why in our little whiles of sorrow, as we are wearied by Satan and his allies, God can and does give power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. By His holy word, He sustains us when we are about to sink. Instead of relying on ourselves and our strength, we, in faith, look to God in the midst of our weakness and wait and hope in Him, the almighty God who strengthens us in our little whiles of sorrow with His almighty power. We despair of/exchange our strength for His! They who wait for the LORD shall exchange their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
God’s word—not our feelings—is the true reality! Even in our little whiles of sorrow we can still “shout for joy to God” because He is still our almighty God and Savior, working everything for our spiritual and eternal good.
INJ Amen.