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This Week's Sermon The Fifth Sunday of Easter 06 May 2007 "A Little While" John 16:12-22 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

Did you pay close attention to the words of the baptismal hymn this morning? It speaks of the struggle of the Christian life. The refrain might strike some as odd:

O God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Your peace may bless my dying day. [LSB 598]

Happily, there is a connection with all of that and our Gospel reading this morning. Jesus was talking to his disciples on Thursday evening of Holy Week. It is part of our Lord's farewell discourse to his disciples. They would not understand what would happen yet that evening and subsequent day, how Jesus would be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, and led out to crucifixion. They would weep and lament. They would be filled with sorrow and anguish because Jesus was taken from them and killed. Jesus calls the time between his crucifixion and his resurrection on the third day "a little while." Sorrow would come before joy of his resurrection. Do you remember the Gospel reading from the Second Sunday of Easter when Jesus appeared to the ten disciples behind locked and bolted doors, when Jesus showed himself to them and then ordained them for the work of the ministry? John records:

"When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." (John 20:20, ESV)

Noah Matthew Schulz is the newest member of Christ among us. We rejoice today because he has been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Heaven is his because he has been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Next to his physical birthday, no other day in his life will be the equal of this one. On this day he has begun to live the life that never ends, the life of eternal joy with Christ.

But there is this pesky "little while" of our earthly existence. Jesus likens it to a woman giving birth. Perhaps the best word to describe it is "anguish." In a way, we cannot really understand this illustration because child birth in our day is a relatively safe thing, but in the ancient world a woman did not know whether she would live through child birth. For her everything was anguish and anxiety. She would feel all alone in the pains of child birth. But once the child was born and she came through it safely, all the anguish and anxiety was forgotten because a child was born into the world. The anguish and anxiety lasted only "a little while." A change like this often describes the Christian life. There is often anguish and anxiety about our lives and how things will end. There is often pain, sorrow, deep affliction. But Jesus shows us that it does not last forever, otherwise our lives as Christians would be hopeless and helpless. So, we are not subjected to an eternity of grappling with the devil. We will see Christ and we will rejoice in him on the last day.

The world hates true Christians because it has hated Christ himself, just as Jesus said:

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (John 15:18-19, ESV)

The world rejoiced when Jesus died because Satan believed that he had won the victory over God, yet his victory was short-lived. In the killing of Christ Satan and the unbelieving world was defeated. Death swallowed up death. Christ Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and hell. Your victory was won!

But the hostility continues to this day. Anybody who thinks that Christians get a free pass in this world are sadly mistaken. Today Satan and all his crew have become Noah's sworn enemies. Christ has claimed him for himself and Satan will do everything possible to make his life miserable. Luther says that because of our connection to Christ in Holy Baptism, we will be hurled into the jaws of the devil. ". . . This is tantamount to being hurled into the abyss of hell" [AE 24.379f]. A daily battle with Satan goes on, aided and abetted by our Old Adam, who is too lazy by nature, too sluggish, and too tired to engage in a battle like this. He always tries to draw us back, to surrender, thus making it especially hard and unpleasant to keep fighting with opposition and obstacles of so many kinds and to fight to the finish. That's what the Christian life is like. It's much like serving in the military. You put on the uniform and go through your basic training. Basic training is hard and difficult, sometimes downright brutal. It must be if the recruit is to understand the serious intent of the enemy. The enemy is going to try to take his life. He must be ready and able to defend himself, to fight with all his strength. And the new recruit will fight! There are no rear lines where he will never see combat. He will not spend his days as a file clerk in the general's office! Every Christian finds himself on the front lines, engaging in spiritual combat on a daily basis-if he is a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ.

O God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Your peace may bless my dying day. [LSB 598]

Perhaps it is because we don't understand the seriousness of this "little while" of our earthly existence. Perhaps we underestimate our enemy, "the old, evil foe" as Luther calls him in A Mighty Fortress, the one who "means deadly woe." Perhaps we actually believe our enemy to be merely misunderstood, one who really intends to dispense kindness to us. Perhaps we think that the world is really friendly to those who belong to Christ. Indeed, we should repent of our neglect! We should pray that God will not hold our sin of neglect against us!

Holy Baptism brings all that animosity and hatred to us because we are connected us to Christ. It seems a heavy burden, a lot of anguish and sorrow, but Jesus tells us that our sorrow in this world will turn to joy when we see him again. Our "little while" is not three days, but our lifetime here on earth. There are days when your "little while" may seem like an eternity, especially when you are suffering affliction and pain. You think that your trials will never end. But they eventually do and this short life is over, this fleeting breath as the Psalmist calls it. Our lives are like the morning grass that fades and withers by evening [Psalm 90].

In the midst of all this conflict and hostility there is joy. There is the joy that shall not be taken away from you and which never fades or goes away. It is the joy of being "in Christ." It is the joy of having the life of Christ, this life which never ends. The New Testament is full of joy because Christ has won our redemption on the cross and has been raised for our justification [Romans 4.25]. The Apostles were able to speak confidently and joyfully in the face of the world's hostility and anger because of Christ's death and resurrection. They counted the world's riches as loss and Christ as gain.

One day your life will be over, my life will be over. The "little while" of our earthly existence will give way to fuller joys in the nearer presence of Christ in his eternal kingdom. We know that it will happen because Jesus has promised it. He has been raised from the dead and lives forevermore. He has gone on before us as our forerunner, the one who makes all things ready for our heavenly homecoming.

In the meantime he has given us his Holy Supper to sustain us on our way, this way beset with hostility and hatred. He gives us himself so that we can cope with the world, so that we do not lose heart, so that we do not give up. He has laid up great treasures for us in heaven. He wills that we receive all that he has prepared for us. Here he refreshes us with his body and blood, strengthening and preserving us in body and soul to life eternal. In the Sacrament we know that even if we have lost all earthly things, God and Christ have not been taken away from us.

Noah has begun his "little while" this morning. Confident that our Lord will protect and sustain him, we pray for our Lord's protection on his journey, just as we pray for all the baptized with whom he makes this journey. We make this journey in joy, knowing that our Lord will keep all his promises to us, and as we go we pray:

O God, for Jesus' sake I pray
Your peace may bless my dying day. [LSB 598]

And we hear our Lord's comforting words:
"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." (John 16:22, ESV)

Easter triumph, Easter joy!
This alone can sin destroy;
From sin's pow'r, Lord, set us free,
Newborn souls in You to be.
Alleluia!

Father, who the crown shall give,
Savior, by whose death we live,
Spirit, guide through all our days:
Three in One, Your name we praise.
Alleluia!

[LSB 633.7-8]
Text and Tune: Public domain