Alleluia Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!
This Sunday, we are presented with a passage from John 16 as Jesus prepares the disciples for His departure. Notably, the disciples repeat back what our Lord tells them, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Though the disciples repeat the very same words Christ spoke, what they mean and what our Lord means are vastly different. It wasn’t until He ascended, and all that was accomplished, that they began to understand what it was speaking to them.
This saying of our Lord invokes three questions. First, what is it that Christ is trying to convey to us now? Second, why is the world rejoicing when the Lord goes away? Third, what ought we to do until our Lord’s return?
And so the first question, what is Jesus saying to us when He says ‘You will not see Me; and again you will see Me’? We may easily assume that He is talking about His death and burial, which will take place the following day and a half after His speaking. For Christ predicted His own crucifixion and resurrection many times before the disciples. But here Jesus adds a detail seen nowhere else in the predictions of the crucifixion. Our Lord says this will happen “because I go to the Father.” This must be His ascension into heaven to the right hand of God, Almighty. Upon His death, Christ, our Lord, does not go to the Father; rather, He descends into hell. The word of God and the creed confess that our Lord goes not to His Father, but to the ruler of this world, the father of lies. This is not part of Christ’s suffering before the resurrection, but a necessary part of His triumphal victory. That Christ will beat down Satan with His pierced foot and preach to the souls in hell. As Saint Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flash but made alive in the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirit in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once for divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah.”
Therefore, Christ must have something else in mind when referring to His going away and return. This must be His second coming in glory. For when Jesus goes to His Father in Heaven and is seated at His right hand. Yet, the Lord goes there to prepare a place for us in order that He might return as the two angels would say to the eleven 40 days after the Lord’s resurrection, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like a manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” The work of Christ begun, and the crucifixion and resurrection have yet to be completed, when all the elect will gaze upon the glorious Christ in the bodily form. The Lord Jesus gives the same promise to the apostles when He spoke these words as He gives to those Christians who will be alive on the last day. For He says to all Christians, “Again you will see Me.” And those disciples who have died centuries ago still have that promise because they will see Christ for themselves in their own flesh, whom we shall behold and not another. How all our hearts yearn for that glorious day of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Without any wavering doubt, God will bring forth the new Heavens and new Earth, our resurrected Lord will appear and bestow upon us glorious and resurrected bodies like His very own. Still, this leads us to our second question. Why does Christ say that someone will rejoice because He has gone away? Our entire salvation rests on Christ’s work and His promise to return. And still, our Lord says some rejoice as He departs, as we remain sorrowful for a time. Without the Holy Spirit, the world loves sin more than it loves God. And when Christ says He will return, it means that for those who have a greater love for the world, they will exchange rejoicing for sorrow. Until that day of our Lord’s return, Christ says they continue to rejoice and live according to the flesh, to their own benefit, and as if they matter the most. They do this because they deny the existence of God and of eternal life. For if they knew God’s plan, they would truly repent.
Yet, the Lord God does not dismiss the foolish and unbelieving at heart. For He shows mercy upon them by every blessing of this life, including giving them you, the church, the living body of Christ, to proclaim a God who was not far off. That by His Son our Lord Christ, the Father has reconciled the world to Himself, that the punishment of sin is paid on the Cross, and His life is given to us when the grave was opened. Now the church proclaims Christ’s victory over sin, death, and hell to all men. For God does not desire the death of a sinner, but that all would repent and live.
And still, for Christians, we are acquainted with sorrow now. As we know what the Lord has accomplished, we still grieve that He is not with us as He was for the disciples. Meanwhile, we rejoice not because we live according to the world, but because we know that the world will come to an end and that Jesus will return as our maker and judge. Now, what should we do until that day?
Dear Christian, live in your baptism. God has made you His own child by water and the word. He has purified you from your sins and has equipped you with all things needful for His coming again in the glory. Through this saving sacrament, you are now free from this world and its corruption. Saint Peter now calls the baptized “servants of God.” And as the Lord’s people, we now honor all people, meaning that we show for the love of Christ, not in fear of God’s judgment, but in the reality of His grace. You love the brotherhood that is your fellow Christians, who have been redeemed and believe in the same Lord. We are now those who wait for this certain hope. And we fear God. We fear God because we love Him because He has given us His Son and life-giving Spirit as we now belong to the Lord, now and always. And finally, we honor the emperor, meaning that we live in the world, but not of the world.
Now, because Christ is ascended on high and will return for us, we know what Christ means when He says, “In a little while you will see me.” The same promise Chris gave the women on Easter morning: He is going to Galilee. This is why we are baptized and do baptize, because His word remains true. ‘In a little while we will see Him.’ Amen
St. John's and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Parish 