Sermon for Easter 5: "Easter Turns Sorrow Into Joy"

+ 5^thSunday of Easter – May 19, 2019 +

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

Series C: Acts 11:1-18; Revelation 21:1-7; John 16:12-22

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

When you’re buying a house or moving to a new area, you look at the location of the house, the neighborhood it’s in, the surrounding community, the city or town itself, and so on. Your real estate agent will tell you location is everything.

Reading Scripture is no different. Context is everything. When reading and hearing our Lord’s Words it’s helpful to look at the passage(s), the surrounding verses, chapter, book, and so on.

Today’s Gospel reading, and the next two Sundays as well, are all good examples of why context is important. 

Jesus’ words in John 16 were spoken to his disciples in the upper room on Thursday of Holy Week. Before his trial before Pilate. Before his crucifixion. Before his resurrection.

Think of these next three Sundays of Easter like flashbacks in a movie. We’re in the season of Easter, afterJesus’ death and resurrection. We know the end of the story. The disciples in John 16, however, did not expect the story to turn out the way it did. They heard Jesus’ words beforehis death and resurrection.

So, when Jesus told his disciples, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me,” he was talking about his death and resurrection. For a little while, Jesus was betrayed, killed, dead, and buried in the tomb and they did not see him. And again a little while – 3 days to be precise – they saw him raised from the dead and alive again as he promised.

This is also why Jesus tells his disciples, “you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” If Jesus only dies, and the disciples didn’t see him alive again, and Jesus didn’t rise, then there is no joy, no hope, no gift of the Holy Spirit to guide the Jesus’ apostles into proclaiming the faith that we receive today. If Jesus only dies, then sin and Satan win because death has defeated Jesus just as it has been defeating people since Genesis 3. 

But Jesus does not only die. He lays down his life in order that he may take it up again

It’s true, the disciples and the women wept at Jesus’ death while the world rejoiced that the Son of God was crucified, dead, and buried. But it’s also true that the disciples saw Jesus’ hands, and side, and heard his voice speaking “Peace be with you”, and they rejoiced.

For the disciples, joy wasn’t found within themselves, but without, outside. In Jesus’ dying and rising. Easter turns sorrow into joy.

“Well, that’s great for them,” you might be thinking. “But what about us?” “What do Jesus’ words to his disciples then have to say to us today?”

“You will be sorrowful,” Jesus told his disciples. We get that, don’t we?

There’s plenty of sorrow to go around. Plenty of days we don’t feel joyful. Plenty of things to lament and weep over. We live in a world that hates God and opposes his Christ. We live in a world that rejoices more in celebrity, wealth, and power than compassion, mercy, and love. That rejoices when Christians suffer persecution and death. That rejoices when love for our neighbor grows cold. That rejoices when we look for joy within ourselves, or in anything or anyone other than Jesus crucified and risen. 

The world rejoices and we weep. We weep for the world we live in. We weep with worry and uncertainty for the future. We weep for family or friends who have fallen or drifted away from the faith. For family or friends who suffer inexplicably, and seemingly without end. 

And if all that’s not bad enough, we have our own sinful selves to struggle, wrestle, and live with.

So, where’s the joy? 

Easter.

Easter turns our sorrow into joy.

To be sure, in many ways our situation is entirely different from the disciples. We’re in the season of Easter. We live some 2,000 years afterJesus’ death and resurrection. We have different sorrows, worries, and fears.

And yet in many ways it’s the same. We wait. The final Easter has not come. Not yet, anyhow. We find ourselves living in “a little while” for the day when we will see with our own eyes Christ’s return in glory. When we will join Job in seeing our Redeemer in our resurrected flesh. When our joy will be made full, and no one will take our joy away from us.

You see, Easter turns sorrow into joy.

You can go looking for your sins but you won’t find them. Jesus has taken them all – every sorrow, suffering, and sin; all weariness, worry, and wickedness – Jesus has taken it all into his tomb and left them there.

And there is joy. Jesus crucified and risen for you. The joy of Easter is that death cannot hold Jesus, and neither will it hold you. The joy of Easter is that God’s enemies did not win, the world will not win. Sin and death do not get the last word. Jesus does. Does it mean that all our sorrows will instantly turn into joy? No. Not in this life. But one day they will. Easter turns our sorrow to joy.

The joy of Easter is that the same Holy Spirit Jesus sent to his apostles to strengthen and guide them in their calling, he has also sent to dwell with you, poured out upon you, to lead and guide you through the sorrows of this life to true joy in Jesus crucified and risen for you. The joy of Easter is that our Lord who was with his disciples on the night he was betrayed, took bread and wine and gave it to them saying, “this is my body; this is my blood” comes to you today with his crucified and risen body to heal, forgive, and strengthen you in body and soul to life everlasting.

Today and always, Easter turns our sorrow into joy. 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.