Hear the words of the Gospel lesson appointed for the Third Sunday after Easter:

          “Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while , and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while and ye shall see me?” Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice:  and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

          Typically in this material world, we want things to last. We don’t want the cell phone we just paid several hundred dollars for to last for just a few months, right? We want to get several years of use out of it at least. We buy a car for thirty or forty thousand dollars with the intention that we’ll be able to use it for many years and if we’re able to buy a home, we spend a much larger amount of money hoping that it might last us decades.

          And so we want things to last outside of just things we buy. A balanced meal will give us energy and keep us feeling good much better than the same amount of calories from candy and soda. In school or other training, we spend time and effort studying the material so it stays in our head and is a benefit to us moving forward rather than forgetting it when we step out of the class or another training session.

          In this morning’s gospel, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ focuses on something that endures much better than a well-made car or a good meal. He zeroes us in on the joy we have in His victory over sin and death. While we’re moving farther from the celebration of it, we’re still basking in the joy of His Resurrection…and one of the important points to make during this season is how that Easter joy and blessing endures.

          We know that the motivator for Jesus’ work, the Father’s undeserved love for we sinners, lasts beyond this world and into eternity. His Resurrection, then, is not a one-time event that comes and goes…it’s an eternally-important event that continues to bring so much comfort and blessing for us all the days of our lives.

          Our Lord is making that same point in our Gospel lesson for this morning. The lesson is taken from the teaching He did during that Maundy Thursday evening, just prior to His betrayal and arrest – and it’s that heavy context that serves as the back drop of what He has to say.

          This helps us to understand what He means when He says, “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”

          The disciples didn’t understand what He was talking about in the moment, but, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see what He’s referring to pretty clearly. In just a matter of hours He would be arrested. The disciples would scatter and, for the most part, they would not see Him again. We know John, at least, was at the cross, but we don’t know for sure that any of the other disciples saw Our Lord again after this night.

          So then, Jesus was hidden from them in the Sanhedrin, with Pontius Pilate, with Herod, and then came the cross and, finally, the tomb. At that point, it was too late. If they had a change of heart, if they wanted to see their teacher and friend again, it was impossible. The stone was in place, the seal was applied, and the guard was posted.

          Of course, we know what comes next. Jesus said, “and again in a little while you will see me.” It wouldn’t be until that first Easter evening, but He appeared to most of these same disciples where they were scared and huddled together.

          In that disappearance and reappearance was the assurance of all that Our Saviour promised to do. In His disappearance, He was cut off from the land of living because, with His death, He paid for our every sin. In His reappearance, we have the assurance that all things are complete.

          Our Saviour completed the work that His Father gave Him to do. He gave His life to save us, and we have the full and free forgiveness of every single sin. Just consider that…consider what Easter joy is ours!

          But, have we felt joyful from April 20th on? That morning we gathered together here for a beautiful Easter service; we rejoiced that Our Lord had been raised from the dead. What could possibly drag us down? What could possibly rob us of that joy? What could possibly make us feel sad knowing that He has conquered sin, death, and hell for us?

          Well, actually…a lot. He says as much: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice:  and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

          Life brings sorrow in this world. Yes, we trust that Jesus Christ is Our Saviour. Yes, we rejoice that heaven is ours. But we won’t always feel good because we still live in a world of sin. The world attacks us, friends fail us, and we become sorrowful at our own inability to live our lives the way Almighty God expects us to. While we live in this world of sin, sorrow goes hand-in-hand with us.

          Our Lord uses the analogy of a woman in labor to show not only the severity of the pain and the sorrow that life here produces, but also the inevitability. No child is born without pain…even modern medical science, which has some options to lessen that pain, cannot eliminate it entirely. A child being born causes considerable pain to the mother who brings that child into the world.

          But, to Our Lord’s point, that pain is temporary. When the child is born, the pain physically begins to subside, but also emotionally, as the mother gets to hold the child, the joy of the birth well-overshadows the difficulty to get to that point. If mother and child are healthy, joy beams brighter than sorrow and pain. It’s no surprise that God uses this picture to describe life in this world.

          Pains and sorrow are unavoidable here in the present world, but we know what is coming. Eternal life is waiting for us…where there will be no sin or sickness or sorrow or pain. Heaven is prepared for us…where the Father will wipe every tear from our eyes. Perfection has been won for us… where nothing bad will ever happen to us again.

          No wonder the Apostle Paul, writing in Romans 8:18, observed: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

          And that’s great for then, but what about for now? How do we scrape by in this life without despair, without giving up hope, without losing track of the promises Almighty God will absolutely keep? “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again , and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

          This morning’s gospel ends here…but let me add the next two verses: “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

          We have sorrow now, and that sorrow will evaporate when our Lord and Saviour returns at the last day. But until that day, we have access to God through prayer. Our Lord said that the disciples, at that point, had not asked for anything in His name, which makes sense. He was right there; why would they ask the Father for things in Jesus’ name when they could just ask Him directly?

          But there would come a time when they wouldn’t see Him anymore, not the brief time when He was in the tomb, but after His Ascension. The disciples would live through the very beginning of the time that you and I live through right now. We, as they likely did, long to be able to ask Our Lord for help, for guidance, for support, and it’s frustrating or sad to think that we don’t have direct access to Him.

          But, He says, we actually do. Asking the Father in Jesus’ name is tantamount to speaking to Him directly. When we can’t see Our Lord with our physical eyes, we ask the Father for what we need in the Son’s name, and we can be sure that we will have what we need.

          This connection to Our Lord and Saviour in prayer is what makes our joy complete. It will find its completion in the spiritual comfort we have at present, and the ultimate completion in our eternal life with Him forever. The sorrows of sin will pass away, but Almighty God’s joy never will. His love, and our joy in that love, endures forever. Why? …because Jesus Christ Our Redeemer is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Amen,

The Rev. Deacon Timothy Fleming