Easter 3—Jubilate
Dear friends in Christ. Here we are in the great season of joy—Easter, in which we bask in our Lord Jesus’ resurrection victory for us over our enemies of sin, death, devil and hell. Even this Sunday has the name “Jubilate” which means Shout for joy and comes from the first word in Latin of today’s Introit from Psalm 66. All around us we have cause for and the call to rejoice in and to Shout for joy to God, our Savior. But then we just heard today’s Gospel.
It is part of our Lord’s talk with His disciples on Maundy Thursday, the night in which He was betrayed. In this rather lengthy conversation, snippets of which we will hear the rest of the Easter season, Jesus is preparing His disciples for what will soon happen—His betrayal, arrest, suffering and death; but also His resurrection, ascension and His sending the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The part of this talk that serves as our text seems to throw a bit of cold water in the face of our Easter joy—Jesus talks about sorrow: Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, clearly talking about His suffering and death. But then Jesus says: but your sorrow will be turned into joy…. 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; here Jesus is clearly talking about His resurrection and joyous reunion with the disciples and His coming to them those 40 days until His ascension and also of His coming by His Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
These couple verses from our Gospel remind us of and proclaim the simple truth that our lives as Christians are not ones of constant, unending joy. It’s a reminder to us that our lives as Christians are a constant changing from joy to sorrow and sorrow to joy. We have times of sorrow when we think Jesus has abandoned us; but we have times of joy when we are certain that Jesus is near us with His grace. Again, we must always remember that Christ our dear Lord is always with us. When we think He has abandoned us, He hasn’t; it’s a lie and deception of the devil and our old sinful nature. Yes, we will go through trial and hardship, but it is never alone, never without our Lord working in and through it His good and gracious purposes and designs, never without our Lord at our side guiding and strengthening us. Even in the midst of our sorrow, we can have joy.
1. There’s an interesting phrase that Jesus uses in today’s Gospel: Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. Notice the distinction between you, the Christian, weeping and lamenting but the world rejoicing. What makes that distinction between the Christian and the world, the unbelieving world around us? After all, aren’t we part of the same creation? Don’t we all walk under the same sun? The answer to that we find in today’s text from St. Peter: Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles… Who are sojourners/ exiles? They are the ones who are only passing through; they are only here a short time; their true homeland, the nation of their birth and origin is somewhere else. That’s what St. Peter here calls Christians: sojourners and exiles. Although as Christians our true home and citizenship is heaven, we live here on earth; we live among the great mass of unbelievers. Jesus calls the devil [John 12.31] the ruler of this world and St. Paul [Eph 2.2] calls him: the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. We, dear Christian, are the strangers and foreigners, the “weirdos” in this world. Again, note something strange—although the holy Triune God is the creator of the world and everything/ body in it, the devil has come and claimed ownership, presumed authority—just like when he tempted Jesus, he promised to give Him the world, something that wasn’t really even his to give in the first place.
We Christians are now the sojourners and exiles because we have been rescued/ saved / called out of the mass of lost condemned humanity. We don’t belong here in the sense that our true home, our thoughts and affections are not here but heaven as St. Paul writes by the Holy Spirit [Ph 3.20]: But our citizenship is in heaven; and again the Holy Spirit writes through His penman [Hb. 11.13; 13,14]: [The OT saints]…confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth; and For here we have no continuing city but we seek the one to come.
The fact that we are sojourners and exiles, having a heavenly citizenship, is a very Easter theme. Only because of Easter do/ can we have a heavenly citizenship. Because of Jesus’ holy life, God’s holy Law, which He demands to be kept, was fulfilled—by Jesus for us; now that God’s demand of absolute holiness was kept, by Jesus for us heaven is opened. Because by our sins we/ all people commit, we earn and deserve God’s wrath and punishment, Jesus came suffered the wrath of God in our place. God's wrath that shuts heaven has been appeased. By His death He died the death—condemned and forsaken—that we earned. But Jesus rose from the dead--Easter! God has changed His judgment against us from wrath to favor. By His death Jesus conquered death because He went into death holy and sinless, as the sacrifice for the sins of all people. Since the Father accepted the sacrifice of the Son, He raised Him from the dead. Death had to give up its Victim, Christ, and at His command on the Last Day, death will have to surrender all its victims—so by His death, Jesus destroyed death and opened heaven to us, body and soul. Now sin and Satan cannot accuse us of sin; nor can hell drag us down—the Law has been kept, by Jesus for us, who also suffered for our sin. Now through faith in Christ we are His Christians and our true home/ citizenship is in heaven.
Now Jesus gathers us into His kingdom, the Church, to give us by word and sacrament, these gifts and blessings He won for us. With His resurrection and ascension Jesus opened heaven. That’s why we are sojourners and exiles on earth: Because through faith we receive Christ's gifts/ blessings He won and obtained for us--including a heavenly citizenship.
Jesus called us out of this world into His kingdom making us now here sojourners and exiles. Our baptism has become for us our “citizenship papers” for Christ’s kingdom. We can look to our baptism as that time that Jesus came to us and called us and claimed us for His heavenly kingdom, making heaven our true home. At our baptism, not only were our sins washed away but faith was created in Christ in our hearts; we were clothed with/ given His holy, perfect righteousness; and we were made part of Christ’s holy family, the Church, becoming part of His kingdom. It was precisely then that we became sojourners and exiles in this world.
We are always “citizens” somewhere—either it is of the devil’s kingdom or of Christ’s kingdom. As we are born into this world we are citizens of the devil’s; when we are baptized, we renounce that citizenship and become members of Christ’s kingdom and so become sojourners and exiles here where the devil is ruler/ prince of this world. St. Paul puts it this way [Eph 2.12-13]: Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ… alienated … having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So, yes, dear Christian, because of Jesus and His work—because of Easter—heaven is opened to us; and because of Holy Baptism, which gives us the fruit and blessing of Jesus and His work our citizenship is in heaven. What a true joy for us! Rejoice in your baptismal “citizenship papers.”
2. There’s something else at play here as well. Although we now through faith and baptism have our citizenship in heaven, and although we are sojourners and exiles in this world, we still have our old sinful nature—that means that we still have a part of us that feels at home in this world; that is “native” to the devil’s kingdom. That’s why the Apostle here writes—precisely because we are sojourners and exiles in this world, that is, precisely because we have been rescued from the devil’s kingdom and made part of Christ’s heavenly kingdom through baptism—we are to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Do you see what that means? It means that our baptism is to influence and affect who and what we are. We are not “of the world”—its ways now being foreign to us as sojourners and exiles but we are still “in the world,” that is, we still live in this world which has the devil as its prince. And on top of that we have still have our old sin nature within us. That’s what makes our life now as sojourners and exiles such a battle/ struggle. But, dear Christian, remember, that we are sojourners and exiles, means that by the work and grace of Christ we have been inwardly removed from the world. By His Holy Spirit He has worked true faith in Him; He has worked in us true/ right knowledge of God; He has worked in us a true love of the Lord and desire to do His will; Christ has given the Holy Spirit into our hearts to lead us into every good work. We are different—far different—than the vast majority of the world around us; we are now sojourners and exiles, so don’t be surprised that you are different and don’t go along with the ways of the world.
But here is also a call to repentance—as we look over our lives, how often, though do we find that we “blend in” or have “gone native” or “when in Rome…”? Let each of us honestly/ sincerely examine heart and mind, life and action and where we see that we are no different than the unbelieving world, where we are not in heart and life sojourners and exiles, let us, by the power of the Holy Spirit reclaim our heavenly citizenship—that is, return to our baptism, drown our old sinful nature by sorrow and repentance, reclaim the blessings of our baptism—the blessings of our heavenly citizenship: forgiveness of sin, peace with God, and eternal life—and led and empowered by the Holy Spirit by His work in word and Sacrament seek all the more to root out sin and live a life to the glory of God. This is how wee daily live out our lives as citizens of heaven and sojourners and exiles on earth--right here, right now.
The vital thing to remember, dear Christian, is that we are sojourners and exiles. By our Lord’s grace and work He, in holy Baptism, separated us from the world’s corruption. He has given us His holy and perfect righteousness. We are now through faith entirely pure and in full possession of righteousness—His perfect righteousness. We are citizens of His kingdom and long for heaven. And that’s why we fight against sin! Here is our motivation to strive to live a holy and pure life—to live here as sojourners and exiles, not going along with the sinful ways of the world, why we abstain from the passions of the flesh. Because they wage war against your soul. Remember: our old sinful rebellious nature is not destroyed in baptism but still remains in us Christians; but in baptism we are given the Holy Spirit who works a new self within us. Our lives as Christians is one of that constant battle between the old sinful nature that remains and the new self, created in us by the Holy Spirit in baptism. We, the new self/ the Christian in us fights/ abstain[s] from the passions of the flesh. Following the leading/ prompting of the Holy Spirit we put to death/ crucify—we do not entertain the passions of the flesh because our old sinful self/ the passions of the flesh are striving for our eternal destruction, to pull us back into sin, to make us renounce our heavenly inheritance. The good works we do and the life of holiness we live do not gain or preserve faith and salvation/ our heavenly citizenship; but evil works following the passions of the flesh will destroy faith and cause us to renounce our heavenly citizenship as by continued willful sin we resist, grieve and expel the Holy Spirit from our hearts.
But now, let us enjoy our status as sojourners and exiles on earth because we are citizens of heaven and enjoying every heavenly grace, gift and blessing. We have that perfect righteousness of Christ and His Holy Spirit is in us guiding us into every good work and strengthening us and granting us that forgiveness in His holy word and sacrament. Precisely because we are in the world as sojourners and exiles but not of the world we have great cause to shout for joy to the Lord. INJ