The Third Sunday after Easter (Jubilate)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is the Sunday traditionally known as Jubilate, or the Sunday of jubilation. Therefore, we continue our celebration of Easter by being encouraged to rejoice. And yet, so often our lives are not as filled with joy as we would like. It’s one thing to come to church and rejoice while singing great Easter hymns, like:

With high delight

Let us unite

In songs of great jubilation (LSB 483:1).

It’s one thing to sing our great hymns and feel the joy of Christ in that moment, but it’s another thing to feel that joy regularly. So often, the joy that we feel when gathered together as Christians is short-lived. We leave church and re-enter the world, and the troubles of life quickly overwhelm us. The health problems which we can never quite seem to escape flair up again, leaving us miserable and frustrated. Our financial woes resurface, and we’re left feeling ashamed and vulnerable. Family issues leave us feeling upset and helpless. Our depression or anxiety come back, and we are sent spiraling. All of the sudden, the joy of Christ is completely overwhelmed by our feelings of frustration and sorrow.

In today’s Gospel text, our Lord offers us important teaching on how to handle these kinds of sorrow. And so, today we will consider how joy is not primarily a feeling, nor is it primarily about where we choose to focus, as some claim. Christian joy is a matter of perspective.

Today’s Gospel text takes place on the eve of our Lord’s crucifixion. Having instituted His last will and testament in the form of the Lord’s Supper, Christ gave diligent instruction to His disciples to prepare them for what was to come. For the days surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection would be an emotional rollercoaster for the disciples. And the fear and sorrow which they would feel at our Lord’s death would be far from the end of their pain and sorrow. For after Christ’s Ascension, the apostles would be sent to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). And as they would go about this task, they would experience sorrow and suffering like they had never known before. For the Christian life is filled with sorrow and pain.

And yet, Christ speaks of the time of their sorrow as, “A little while” (John 16:16a, etc.). The three long days from Christ’s death until He appeared to the disciples in His resurrected body would seem to last forever—filled with fear, sorrow, and pain. And though this time would seem to last forever, in the grand scheme of things, it was only a little while. And likewise, the suffering and sorrow that the apostles would experience in the remainder of their earthly lives would seem to last forever. And yet, this too would only be for a little while in the grand scheme of eternity.

This perspective is key to the Christian life. As we experience earthly pains, they will seem to last forever. Who hasn’t sat in a dentist’s chair or a hospital bed and thought that it would never end? And yet, it does come to an end, one way or another. Our suffering in this life is only for a little while when compared to eternity. Let’s say that you live to be one hundred years old, going through a century’s worth of sorrow. Still, one hundred years is nothing compared to the first man, Adam, who lived over nine hundred years. And even nine hundred years is but a moment compared to the first hundred billion years of eternity. Thus, the patriarch Isaac, who lived to be more than one hundred and thirty years old, rightly described the days of his life as both “few and evil” (Genesis 47:9).

And yet, an eternal perspective doesn’t necessarily grant one the joy of Christ. There was no joy in the words of Isaac when he spoke to Pharaoh about his life. For the perspective of “a little while” does not free us from suffering and pain. To be sure, it does help to keep us from despair, knowing that our suffering will come to an end and that we will come at last to the joys of paradise in the end. But this hope is not the joy of Christ. For joy requires a different perspective entirely.

The key to this joy is revealed at the end of the Gospel text, when Christ says:

“A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21).

Our Lord’s illustration of the woman giving birth is not trivial. He did not merely share the first example of temporary pain that came to mind. The example of the woman in labor is important. This is so, first of all, because a woman’s pain in childbearing is real and significant. Even modern medicine cannot fully take this pain away from the woman giving birth. It can dull the pain, but the pain is real and significant. In the same way, our earthly pain is real and significant. What we experience is not always a physical pain akin to childbirth, although this is part of it. But emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain is just as much a part of the human experience. This pain is real and significant.

But the Lord also says that the woman, after she has given birth, “no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21b). And this is an important point as well. For what is it that makes the mother to forget her pain? It is not that the pain goes away after the child is born. In fact, one could argue that pain only increases after giving birth. For not only is there the postpartum recovery, there is also the lack of sleep, the adjustment to life with another child, and the little matter of a lifetime of stress and worry that accompanies raising children. No, the mother’s pain does not go away after she has given birth. But the Lord says: “she no longer remembers the anguish” (John 16:21b). And what is it that causes the mother to no longer remember the anguish of giving birth? Anyone who has ever given birth or has watched a woman give birth knows the answer to this question. The thing that causes a mother to no longer remember the anguish of giving birth is when the doctor places the newborn child on the mother’s chest and she looks upon him for the first time. This is the perspective that is at the heart of Christian joy.

Thus, our Lord concludes by saying:

Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (John 16:22).

Did you catch what He said that is the key to Christian joy? “I will see you again”, and this is what causes our hearts to rejoice. This is precisely our problem as we walk through this valley of sorrow—We are too fixated upon ourselves and what we see. All I see around me is pain and suffering, sickness and death, frustration and despair. But what I see with my own eyes can never grant joy. Christ says: “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me” (John 16:16). But so long as the disciples were focused on not seeing Christ, they were filled with sorrow for what felt like an eternity. In the same way, so long as we are focused upon what we see—namely our own suffering and pain—we will be led to despair. But remember the mother gazing upon her newborn child. When we stop focusing upon ourselves and become like a child, then we will find true joy. For it is not what we see that grants Christian joy. Christian joy is found in Christ seeing us: “You now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice” (John 16:22).

And so, dear friends in Christ, we must stop focusing upon ourselves and what we can or cannot see. For in so doing we will never find true, lasting joy. Let us rather rejoice that Christ sees us. Let us lift up our voices in praise that He looks upon us in favor and comes to us in this place. Let us kneel in joyful awe that He is present in the Sacrament in His Body and Blood to grant us forgiveness, life, and salvation. What matters is not your life circumstances and what you see. What matters is that Jesus sees you. He looks upon you with favor and grace. And so, you can trust that no matter what sorrow or pain you experience in this life, it is only for a little while. For Jesus sees you, and He makes your heart to rejoice. And no one will take this joy from you.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.