Easter 3—Jubilate
Beloved. In today’s Gospel, we meet Jesus with the disciples in the upper room on that first Maundy Thursday, just hours before Jesus is betrayed and arrested, setting off the events that would lead to His death for the sins of the world and His resurrection. St. John records the long discussion Jesus had with His disciples to warn and prepare them for the events that would soon take place—not just His suffering and death but also His resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit. And, in fact, the Gospel readings from now until Pentecost are from this talk Jesus had with His disciples that evening.
Today we hear Jesus telling His disciples: Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy, and, in fact, Jesus continues: So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. That time of weeping and wailing for the disciples is the time of Jesus’ death. All the hopes and dreams the disciples had of who Jesus was and would do, would be crushed as they see Him suffer, die and laid in the tomb. But Jesus also promises His Easter morning resurrection as He tells them that He will see them again and that their great sorrow will turn into great joy. And, in fact, as great as their sorrow would be, even greater would be their joy after His resurrection—so great, in fact, that no one will take your joy away from you. But also notice something else—the contrast between the disciple/ Christian and the world/ the unbeliever whose focus is in this life in this world only for the here and now: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. The Christian and the non-Christian/ the world are two different distinct types of people with two different distinct ways of looking at things.
The great divide between the two is Jesus—what does the person think about Jesus: Is Jesus the Son of God and the Savior of the world? If so, then that changes what is important in life here and now. If not Jesus is not the Son of God and Savior of the world, then why not live for self and the here and now—after all Jesus is not Lord but just a lunatic or liar? What we think about Jesus changes our perspective n things—what is vital, what makes us happy, what makes us sad, where we find peace and fulfillment.
This theme of the difference between the Christian and the person of the world/ the unbeliever is picked up by St. Peter in today’s epistle as he writes to these Christians: Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles. Note that distinction—as Christians we are sojourners and exiles; this is the unbelievers’ world since the devil is, as Jesus calls him [Jn 12.31], prince of this world. As sojourners and exiles we Christians are different from the “natives”, the unbelievers, the people of the world: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. Since we Christians are, as St. Peter here writes, sojourners and exiles, that means that we have a different homeland. Our true home is heaven with our Lord. That’s where our focus is and our heart. The person of the world/ the unbeliever has their attention/ focus on the here and now. Their whole lives are centered on the life in this world.
So how is it that we Christians are sojourners and exiles in this world? After all, just like the unbeliever, we both are the marvelous and special creation of God. We are people like everyone one else. Obviously people of the world come from every language, nation, race, etc. –but so do we Christians. The person of the world/ unbeliever and the Christian all walk under the same sun, moon and blue sky. What makes the Christians to be sojourners and exiles in this world is holy baptism and the faith it creates. In baptism, the Holy Spirit comes to us in its word and water and creates faith in our hearts—faith that recognizes, loves and receives Jesus and His gifts; in holy baptism He washes away our sin; in holy baptism we are brought into God’s holy family and made heirs of the kingdom of heaven. Baptism is our new birth, a birth from above, a second birth. And this birth in the waters of holy baptism, saves us and rescues us out of the mass of lost humanity. Remember—baptism unites us so closely/ intimately with Jesus. It unites us with Jesus in His death and His resurrection; in baptism we are clothed with Jesus. Where Jesus has gone, we too shall be. But as it does so, baptism doesn’t just whisk us away into heaven. It most definitely changes us but it leaves us here different and with a new homeland—heaven; it leaves us here in this world as sojourners and exiles.
It is a great comfort to us that we are in this world sojourners and exiles. Although God loves all people and desires all to be saved, the sad reality is that most people reject God and His promises to us in Jesus, reject Jesus and His saving work. But, in holy baptism, we have been rescued from/ separated from the corruption of the world and the resulting damnation. In baptism, we have been placed in the saving ark of the Church. And the moment that we try not to be sojourners and exiles, where we try to fit in with everybody else, with the world around us, we renounce our heavenly citizenship given us in baptism. But again, as we have been rescued out of the world and separated from the corruption of the world, we are now sojourners and exiles in this world. We are different from the world around us. It is simply a fact. The apostle states the attitude of the Christian [Hb. 13.14]: For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come—that is, the kingdom of heaven; and since heaven is our true, ultimate home, St. Paul tells us [Ph 3.20]: But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body.
As sojourners and exiles our main concern, then, is for our salvation—to be one day soul and body with our Lord eternally in heaven. And that simple fact gives form, shape, meaning and focus to our lives here and now: why we do/ don’t do what we do; what motivates us. That’s why St Peter writes in our text: Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Here we come to a simple distinction between the Christians— sojourners and exiles —and the people of this world. All people—both Christians and non—come into this world as sinners. We are all born with that natural corruption to sin that is passed down to us from our first parents and the Fall into sin. But we recognize in ourselves passions of the flesh and what they do— wage war against your soul —and we fight against them. To be sure, there are many virtuous heathen, who also strive to live a life of virtue—but to what end? What is motivation for the person of the world to do what they do?
The Christian/ sojourners and exiles, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit look heavenward and do not want to do anything to endanger the hope of salvation by yielding to the passions of the flesh. The Christian recognizes that a war is going on within him/her—a war for their very soul. Our sinful nature, the passions of the flesh, works together with the devil and the sinful world around us to lead us into sin, to regard lightly the work of Jesus for us, to not care about heaven and our eternal salvation. In short, it wants us to lose our heavenly citizenship and no longer to be sojourners and exiles in this world but regular citizens under its prince, the devil; it works for our eternal destruction.
That’s why we need so desperately to hear St. Peter in today’s text: Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. The siren call of the sinful world and our own sinful nature/ the passions of the flesh, can easily entice us to think that sin is no big deal, to think that our sins are only a harmless gratification of natural inclinations. What makes us and keeps us as sojourners and exiles is that we strive to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. By God’s grace and the working of the Holy Spirit, we recognize that we are at war. The Christian is never at rest in the battle against sin, against the passions of the flesh. Will we fail? Often and daily. We will still sin, even grievously at times. But when we do sin, what do we do? We run to Jesus for forgiveness. We confess our sin and in faith receive His absolution. And in love and thanksgiving, and led by the Holy Spirit, we strive all the harder against that sin. By this daily and honest examination and sorrow over sin and confessing that sin to receive forgiveness, we are putting to death, crucifying our old sinful nature. We say “no!” to the passions of the flesh, because they wage war against your soul. May today’s collect be our constant prayer: Grant that all who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession and follow all such things as are agreeable to it. That’s what makes us sojourners and exiles and make us stick-out/ different from the unbelieving world. Yes, we still have a rebelliousness/ the passions of the flesh in us and we will until our dying breath; we will have evil thoughts/ temptations to sin—but don’t despair; just don’t be taken captive by them. In Jesus, we are forgiven; we are completely pure.
Because we are sojourners and exiles in the world and heaven is our home, that also means that we are servants of God. St. Peter continues in today’s epistle: Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation…. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Living as citizens of heaven while here on earth as sojourners and exiles means that we live under and enjoy the grace and friendship with God, that in Jesus we have the full and free forgiveness of our sin, that hell is shut and heaven opened to us. Living in that forgiveness and eternal life does not mean that we can sin as much as we want since it is forgiven. Just the opposite! No longer being slaves to sin and self, we are slaves to God. Here—cleansed of sin through baptism and redeemed from slavery to sin, devil and death—we have the greatest freedom as now we can in joy and thanksgiving do what God intended people to do from the beginning: to serve God with our free and willing heart. We are led and guided by the Holy Spirit and now it is our greatest delight to show our new spiritual life, that we are sojourners and exiles, by works that are pleasing to God. Even though good works are commanded, they are not a chore but a great delight as they flow from faith. This service to God is true freedom. Our faith is a real power in our life as the good we do—that is the works God has given us to do in His holy law—shows our faith is alive and well.
As we serve God in this true freedom, we are also serving others—the natives/ the unbelievers. We live a life of good works—those very things God has commanded—not to be saved—we already are in Jesus!—but to attract people to the holy Christian faith. We live a holy life as sojourners and exiles on account of the world, to prove the truth of the God’s word and to encourage them to hear the word of Jesus. As sojourners and exiles we are called to live in an alien and hostile world as a witness to, by our conduct, silence what is said against the holy Christian faith and to lead people to glorify Jesus.
Who, then, are Christians? We are sojourners and exiles here who in love and thanksgiving to God serve Him and our neighbor by a life of good works. INJ