Easter 3—Jubilate
Dear friends in Christ. Our continued joy of this Easter season as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection victory over our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell is reflected in today’s Introit, the first Latin word giving today its name: Jubilate. [Ps 66. 1] Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Easter is our greatest cause for rejoicing and shouting for joy to the Lord—not only us but also all the earth. Not only did Jesus’ resurrection bring us great joy because sin and its consequence—death—were destroyed as Jesus entered death and rose from the dead and because now eternal life in heaven awaits us in both soul and body but Jesus’ work also has effect on the whole creation: Shout for joy to God, all the earth—not just people. So often in the psalms and prophets nature is pictured as praising God. St. Paul also writes [Rom. 8.19-22 AAT]: For the created world is waiting on tiptoe to see the unveiling of God’s sons. For this created world must waste away, not because it wants to but because its master would have it so, but it does so with the hope that this created world also will be freed from the slavery of decay in order to share the freedom of glory with the children of God. We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth until now. The point? Simply this: Jesus’ victory over our enemies also causes all creation to rejoice and praise Him; creation yearns to be free from the change and death and futility of its present state, it yearns for release from the sorry sway of sin and death; it yearns for the Last Day when our Lord’s dear Christians are revealed and death, corruption, futility will all be undone. Creation, too, is destined to be freed from the slavery of decay that it now suffers under and to share the freedom of glory with the children of God. And so all creation joins us, dear Christian, in shouting for joy to the Lord for His saving work and undoing/ destroying the work of the devil.
But just like the created world is waiting on tiptoe to see the unveiling of God’s sons, that is, for the Last Day, the day of Jesus’ return in glory, so also are we. We have, through faith in Jesus, His victory over sin, death and the devil; we stand in a new and right relationship with God—we are reconciled to Him; we have eternal life. But why aren’t we always shouting for joy to God? Why are our lives so often filled with sorrow and anything but joy? Because, we still have our old sinful nature within us, we still have the devil tempting and leading us into sin, we still have the sinful world around us trying to lead us away from our Lord; because, in short, we are sinners living in a sinful world. That’s why our Shout[ing] for joy to God requires patience. As we live out our lives as Christians in the here and now, waiting on tiptoe for the Last Day/ the day of our final rescue, Jesus’ words of our text still sound in our ears: “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” Our lives will often be times of trial and hardship, when it seems that Jesus is not there, that we don’t see Him. But again, that is a little while, and [we] will Jesus again—that is, times we are certain of His presence, grace, help, rescue, etc. In those times, yes, it will be easy to Shout for joy to God; these times assure us that the Lord is with us and they strengthen us for the times it will be more difficult to Shout for joy to God. And, in the end, looking to Jesus and His work, assured of His gracious presence even when it looks like He is not there, given patience by and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we join all of creation in praising our Lord for His Easter triumph for us over our spiritual enemies.
1. In our text, Jesus is talking to His disciples on the night in which He was betrayed and telling them of the upcoming events and pointing them forward also to the time after His resurrection—to Pentecost and beyond. Jesus begins telling the disciples: “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” And He was giving them a little to chew on and to ponder. What exactly did Jesus mean? The disciples couldn’t figure out exactly what He was talking about: So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” But they would soon find out. At this time Jesus doesn’t go into great detail like He had done earlier [Lk 18.31-33] when He foretold His betrayal, arrest, mocking, scourging, crucifixion and resurrection. Would they understand it/ could they handle it even if He did? But He does give them a hint here: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
When Jesus tells the disciples here a little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me, we can clearly see in 20/20 hindsight that the first little while is the time of His arrest, death and burial. The disciples wouldn’t see Jesus because they all fled in the garden when He was arrested. Peter and John did later follow Jesus at a distance but Peter ended up denying Jesus 3 times. Even though John was at Jesus’ cross with Mary, Jesus would not/ could not be seen by anyone as He was placed in the tomb and the tomb sealed and guarded. Here He was certainly hidden within the confines of the tomb. That was Jesus’ little while: that little while He was in tomb.
What happened? Jesus tells the disciples: you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. They will be very sorrowful because of Jesus’ crucifixion and death; they will have no comfort. But the world, Jesus’ enemies, and here in particular the religious leaders would rejoice because they thought they had gotten rid of Jesus and had Him killed; that He was finally dead and gone.
That’s how it is and how it continues on. The world, those who want nothing to do with Jesus are always trying to get rid of Him. Sometimes it’s by bloody persecution of the Church and His Christians. Now, especially in the west, it’s by making faith seem like something no “modern/ reasonable” person would do, or to make the holy Christian faith something unattractive, it is as “intolerant;” it’s by making so many enticements on Sunday and other holy days that the meaning and significance of Sunday and holy days is being drowned out; it’s by the claim that we have religious freedom—so long as we keep it within the confines of the four walls of the church and dare not exercise it in our daily lives, but if we do by, for example, by not taking part in a government health scheme requiring abortion coverage the full force of the government is felt; it’s by even so-called Christian theologians who reject that the Bible is the word of God and Jesus is who He says He is. So, yes, the world will think it has gotten rid of Jesus and it will rejoice.
But what happened a few days after Jesus spoke our text? He rose from the dead. What happened to every attack on Jesus and His Church since? In the end it failed. A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me. What glorious words pointing to Jesus’ resurrection: and again a little while, and you will see me. That little while between Jesus’ death and burial! What happened in that little while? Jesus entered death and by entering death He destroyed it, as we say in the communion liturgy in the Proper Preface for Easter that Jesus, by His death has destroyed death and by His rising to life again has restored to us everlasting life. It only took a little while for Jesus to destroy for us our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell. What a glorious comfort and assurance Easter is for us—Jesus rose from the dead, victorious; the forgiveness of sins was announced and in Jesus the whole sinful, condemned world is reconciled to God.
And what else did Jesus say? I am going to the Father. Now that He rose from the dead and our spiritual enemies lay crushed and defeated at His feet, Jesus, true God and true man, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, in that position of power and authority to guide, govern and rule all things and so He can be present with His Church and each of His dear Christians.
2. How vital it is that we remember that little while that Jesus spoke about to His disciples. He used that little while to gain victory and blessing for us. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you and so on Easter it happened!
Just like that little while from Maundy Thursday evening to Easter Sunday was one of greatest sorrow for the disciples because they did not see Jesus, so also we, too, have our little whiles, that is, times that it seems like Jesus is not there: a little while, and you will see me no longer. These are times of our greatest trials as Christians precisely because it looks like Jesus is not there. At times like this we will weep and lament and because we are, our spiritual enemies rejoice because they think they are driving us away from Jesus, because they think we are despairing of our faith, because we are seemingly devoid of any comfort or consolation. But precisely in these times of spiritual trial and struggle, when we are fighting the devil and his temptations and it seems that Jesus is hidden from us, let us remember for our comfort Jesus’ words to the disciples: A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me. That’s the trial: A little while, and you will see me no longer. But in the boldness of faith, let us cling firmly to the second part of Jesus’ words, those glorious words of promise: and again a little while, and you will see me. We will see Jesus again; He will not always remain hidden to us. Let our comfort be that little while. To be sure little while is a relative term—a little while compared to what? In the midst of our trials it may not seem like a little while but let us not look at our little while but at the little while that Jesus was gone from the disciples—those most difficult hours when it seemed that literally Jesus was gone for good. In that little while Jesus brought about our forgiveness; He reconciled us sinners to the holy God; He destroyed death; He made us dear children of God and heirs of heaven. If He did all that for us in that little while, what do we have to fear in our trial/ hardship/ testing/ cross? We have peace with God in Christ; we are reconciled to Him.
Yes, our little whiles will come. And let them come, as nasty as they may be! We will suffer in them. We will endure them. But let the storm pass—let the little while run its course. It will have a blessed result as our Lord is certainly allowing that little while, where it seems like He is not there, to come upon us to purge sin from us, to purify our faith and to be conformed more and more to Him.
All the while that we are in the trial and holding on to Jesus’ promise and again a little while, and you will see me, let us make sure we see Him by remembering our baptism and that baptism connects us to His death and resurrection, that in baptism we are covered with His holiness and that’s what the Father sees and is well pleased with us—that He’s not out to get us; let us make sure we see Jesus as we faithfully run to His word to hear His word of promise to us, that very word through which His Holy Spirit works to strengthen our faith in the midst of our trial; let us make faithful and diligent use of the Blessed Sacrament in which Jesus gives us His very body and blood. How can Jesus be absent from us if He is giving us body and blood and all the blessings He won for us on the cross? Look at the bread and wine and there you are seeing Jesus--His very body and blood. Even in the midst of our little while when we weep and lament, we have true inner joy of heart and in every trial now let us do as we will do eternally, Shout for joy to God. INJ Amen