St. Paul Lutheran Church
Jubilate – April 21, 2013+
St. John 16:16-22
The Rev. BT Ball
In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
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 a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 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.
Sometimes what Jesus has to say is tough to hear. Today is called Jubliate, but when Jesus comes right out and tells you that you are going to weep and lament, that you will be sorrowful; it does not seem like much cause for jubilation. If you stick with just that, it might be “no thanks Jesus, I’ll pass”. Sometimes you wish that people weren’t so honest, sometimes you might wish that Jesus weren’t so honest either. But He is our Lord and our God, so we’ve got to take it. He holds nothing back, not the fullness of his love, or the honest reality of our own sorrow.So Jesus says to his disciples that you will weep and lament and the world will rejoice. Certainly there has been much weeping and lamenting in a few parts of our country these past days; murderous terrorists in Boston, killing and maiming; plus an industrial accident in Texas causing death and horrific destruction. Still, when Jesus speaks of the world, he is speaking of all those forces that are opposed to His Father, to Himself and to His Spirit created Bride, the Church. Jesus is saying that there will be weeping and lamenting specifically because of the wickedness of the world and the violence of the world exacted on the people of God, specifically because they are that – the people of God, disciples of Jesus.
So it is a very specific weeping and lamenting and anguish that Jesus tells us we will endure, that which comes from persecution by the world against us because we are His and we claim Him as our Lord and our God. It is weeping, lamenting and anguish that comes when the world seeks the weakness and suffering of Christians. It is a tangible sorrow and pain produced by forces beyond your control that seek to hurt you, body, soul, both, because you believe and have been baptized. And of course the greatest one who the world had its way with was Jesus Himself.
He speaks these words on the night when he was betrayed. The night when Jesus speaks to his disciples the world would do its worst against Jesus, the world that His Father actually loves so much that He sent this Jesus, His only beloved Son, to save it. Jesus gives his disciples this word, for they more than anyone else would see what the world would do to Jesus and then they, first before anyone else, would experience the truth of His Word in their own lives. You know Jesus is speaking the truth, because not only did the world and the forces opposed to him rejoice at his suffering, the world wanted it – to have him dead. This is what lies in the sinful heart of everyone born in this world, of this world - to have Jesus out of the way, to have Him removed from the each and every aspect of life, so that there is no one left to give direction or guidance, but self. The world’s problem is idolatry, so is yours. It is idolatrous to try and supplant or remove Jesus from any aspect of life, to try and get around him or through Him. Around His Word; all of it is concerning Him. Because here is the very difficult truth, you are all at war with the self, the Apostle Peter wrote, for the passions of the flesh wage war against your souls. So not only do you have to fight against the world, there is the battle against yourself. And if you rely on yourself to get yourself straight you are going to lose.
So you’ve got the power of the sinful flesh and the world seeking your harm and to cause you all matter of sorrow, lament, weeping mourning. But yet you have promises from Jesus who speaks the truth and he does not, he will not go back on his promises. 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. I will see you, Jesus says, and no one will take your joy from you. Joy, jubilation. Rejoicing hearts. When does all of that happen, well right of course. Here is the place of peace and rest, where all sorrows are turned around to joy because of the love that Christ pours out to his church. You are always hearing “Lift up your hearts.” Because the God of all grace is here seeing you in the fullness of love, forgiving sins and promising victory and vindication over the world. Jesus said, “I have overcome the world”. And he has by dying for this world and being raised again alive to give you the victory over the world – a holy faith which finds comfort and peace. Jesus says it is like labor, a woman endures great pain, and then there is the great gift, a child, and great joy. So it is with Christ. The great pain of his death, but the great joy of his resurrected life. So it is with you. The pain of life in this world, but the great joy of life in Christ at the very same time. And the promise that he will not only see you but you will see him, and then, then, all and only joy, and no one will ever take it from you.
