Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 2, 2021

The Gospel this morning takes us back to Maundy Thursday. Jesus has gathered His faithful students - His disciples - in the upper room to celebrate the passover. In this classroom, Jesus not only hosts the very meal that will bring continued strength and healing to the weary soul, but He also intentionally teaches, encourages, and prays with and for the ones who would remain. Knowing their anxiety, He wishes to comfort them. He does so with the Word - His Word - His very being. Nonetheless, they remain for He must go. And it’s this imminent departure that has the hearts of the disciples palpitating with sorrow.

Why sorrow? Well, for one, because Jesus had assured them that all would not be well for them - at least from the temporal, worldly perspective. “He especially wants to comfort His dear disciples about His departure, because He is now about to die and to leave them alone in danger and distress, in the hostility of the world, in persecution, and in death for His sake. He Himself announces to them earlier (John 16:2-4) with many words that they would be excommunicated, and those who killed them would boast that they were serving God.” (Luther’s Works, vol. 77, 224)

And if that’s not enough, sorrow too, because the total corruption of the human nature often hears the Word of God through a filter of personal understanding and desire. The disciples are comfortable. They like this friend of theirs. They don’t want to see Him go. And they certainly don’t want to witness the reality of what is to come. “I go to the Father” points to - speaks of - the cross. It’s through the blood and death of Jesus on the cross that He goes to the Father.

So, we can certainly begin to relate to the disciples who don’t want to wrestle with the emotional reality of that, can’t we? Sorrow fills our heart each time we’re reminded of the reality of death as we come into this place and stare death in the face as the remains of a loved one lay in a coffin before us. Through the worldly, sinful filter, we cling to the sting of death. We lament the loss of a physical relationship. But Jesus is teaching of and pointing to a greater truth than “the wages of sin is death.”

Jesus says, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” Jesus’ going to the cross is the redemptive and salvific work that had to be done. The blood of the cross would be shed so that the debt from the sin of the world could be paid. The breaking forth from the tomb of death would come three days later so that death could hold the faithful no longer. To this work of redemption Jesus goes. As Jesus goes, the Holy Spirit comes. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth...”

Concerning this truth, we do well to avoid the pentecostal tendency of believing that these verses point us to continued revelations. God doesn’t continue to speak new things to us - “The Lord spoke to me” is a dangerous ground upon which to lay. Rather, what God’s Word teaches us is that the Holy Spirit guides us to all truth. That Truth is found completely in the Word of God. Through the Word, through Jesus, understanding is gained of how Jesus’s death and resurrection applies to the Church - to your soul. The Spirit leads believers into a clearer understanding of God’s truth as they live their lives.

Another point of the person of the Holy Spirit. Some have and will continue to say that we Lutherans don’t focus enough on the Holy Spirit. We don’t open ourselves enough to the working of the Spirit to do marvelous things such as healings, speaking in tongues, and all kinds of other stuff. Well, dear friends, that’s because the Holy Spirit being referred to by those enthusiasts is not the Holy Spirit of the Scriptures. As we will see in the following verses of our Gospel lesson, the Holy Spirit fulfills His role in doing the one and only thing He is meant to do, and that is to point the soul to Christ. It is through Jesus that salvation comes and He alone. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not one who will bring attention to your works, your words, your self-righteousness. No. The Holy Spirit brings you to the foot of the cross, to the empty tomb, to the promised means through which the Lord will continue to be with you - the means of grace - Word and Sacrament. If the one you believe to be the Holy Spirit is pointing you anywhere other than Jesus, he’s no Holy Spirit - he’s an agent of the devil.

And so, let us see how the Holy Spirit works such salvific faith. Jesus lays out the agenda of the Holy Spirit’s coming: “And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” (John 16:8) Now some may hear that and think to themselves, “How does that point us to Jesus? That’s sounds horrible!” Well, yes, in your sin it does. For again, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of the Lord.” (Romans 3:23) But for the faithful child of God, you know that the reality of sin must be amended and that amendment begins with conviction of the heart. That leads to repentance. And that leads to absolution - forgiveness of sin. So, by way of pointing to the reality of the condition of the world and those therein, the Holy Spirit certainly points us to Christ.

Let’s listen to Jesus as he explains it. First, He says the Holy Spirit will convict/rebuke “concerning sin because they do not believe in me.” (John 16:9) Rendered down, the Holy Spirit rebukes the world because the world interferes with the work of God and governs with flawed reason and wisdom. It is safe to say that in our current context, God is non-existent (or at least the truths of God are non-existent) in the minds of those who rule. Rather than a truth that brings about a peace that surpasses all understanding, we live in a time of individual truths that are supposed to bring about a personal peace. The belief is in the self, not of God.

This lives out in our personal lives as we abhor and ignore God’s good and gracious will for our lives - His Law. Going against the Law of God is the living out of unbelief - the rejection of Jesus. When you break any Law of God, you break the first. “You shall have no other gods,” is lived out among us Christians more as a meaningless bumper sticker slogan than a concrete reality. Many of us are more equipped with rhetoric of personal justification than we are with the verses of God’s Word. We tend to look more to our gods of creature comfort and selfish fulfillment than we do fulfilling the fact that God has commanded us to remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Whenever we sin, we announce we are god. When we willingly ignore the truth that God has placed responsibilities on our lives to love Him and love others, we express a lack of faith. It doesn’t really mean anything to us. What’s more important to us, sadly, is how we feel and what others think of us. Thus we spend our days focused on the building up of our idols that give us what we want. And for whatever reason, even though we seem to never really be satisfied with our efforts, we keep on chasing the idols of this world. And so goes the way of the world. And so the rebuke/conviction of the Holy Spirit lays - in the Law. You, dear friend are a sinner, and you must repent.

Second, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict “concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer.” (John 16:10) This is the conviction, the declaration of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit here points us to Jesus. “The Christians’ righteousness before God means and is that Christ goes to the Father, that is, suffers for us, rises, and so reconciles us to the Father that for His sake we have the forgiveness of sins and grace.” (LW 77, 234)

As pilgrims in this world, we need a constant reminder of this reality. It’s so easy for us to lay aside this very truth and go about our days guided rather by the world. It seems easier, at times. It’s more attractive, most of the time. It’s maybe even more enjoyable, especially when talking enjoyment by way of the flesh. But dear Christian, be it known that you are forgiven. And the righteousness that has been bestowed upon you marks and makes you one who is blessed beyond measure.

The righteousness of a child of God is lived out through their love and service to God and to one another. You no longer work in order to be, you work because you are. Your regular reception of Word and Sacrament is not so that you look good and make a good impression on others. No, your reception of the means of grace is the ongoing nurturing of the soul as the Holy Spirit works faith in and through the precious gifts God has promised. It is the ongoing confession that you believe in Jesus and your need for His grace and mercy.

Further, you don’t go around to your neighbors and do simply for the reputation and pat on the back. You love because Jesus first loved you. You understand stewardship as the means for which you care for others with the gifts you have been blessed. Your loving of others is the ongoing confession of faith in the righteousness of God that’s been won for you through the bloody service of your Savior.

Finally, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict “concerning judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:11) Satan and his ways are damned. This final pointing to Jesus by the Holy Spirit is the very pointed and harsh reality that one’s faith is a crucial matter. Bogged down in the mires of this world it may not seem as such. The distractions of living one’s best life certainly do a good job of misdirecting one’s faith. But here in the Gospel proclamation is the truth. Dear Christian, in what do you have faith?

Godly and believing persons know their sin, they bear their consequences - their punishment patiently. They repent. They receive the blessing that is the forgiveness of sin. They wish to amend their lives. And by way of doing so they heed the nudge of the Holy Spirit to be in and receive Word and Sacrament. Those who are worldly do differently. They justify their actions and sin as normal and ok since it’s their truth and find support for such in the world. They don’t repent. And as frustrating as it may be for the faithful to perceive the heathen of the world to be making it better, we know that the judgment to come far outweighs the immediate. One wishes not to gain the whole world only to lose their soul. And that is the bottom line, dear Christians. Your soul. Either you live as ones who nurture it, or as one’s who care nothing for the eternal consequences and reality.

The Holy Spirit points us this day to the truth that surpasses all understanding - peace in Christ. No matter the whirlwind that blows you this day - no matter the joy within you may have that may soon turn to sorrow - no matter the accolades or not of others upon your work - there’s a greater truth in which we live. That truth is the life now and to come that has been won for us because Jesus went to His Father. Dear Christian, may the peace of Jesus’ love for you shown humbly through the cross and tomb rest upon your weary soul. Amen.