"In that Day" Fourth Sunday of Easter Jubilate Commemoration of Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs May 11, 2014 John 16: 16–23
In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Today is Mother’s Day. On this day we show extra gratitude for the person who gives so much love and does so much for us. I think maybe the best gift that can be given to your mom is for her to be able to say to the family, “Today you will ask nothing of me.” All kidding aside, what a blessing that each day children ask their mother of many things. While it can be wearing on a mom for her family to need her for so many things, what a blessing God gives in the vocation of motherhood. Moms know how to care for a family like no one else. Moms derive great joy from loving and serving their family. In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of the joy that overcomes the travail of giving birth: “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.” In the same way, the travails of taking care of her family give way to the joys of loving and caring for her family. It’s nice, though, for them to not be so needy. It’s nice when everything doesn’t fall on you. It’s nice when the rest of the family members learn that they too have a vocation from God to love and serve the rest of the family. It would be really nice if a mom even now and then would be able to say, “Today you will ask nothing of me.” The fact is, moms get weary. Moms need love and need someone to care for them. Moms need time where it all doesn’t fall on them. With Jesus it’s different. With Jesus there is no need for Him to rest and recuperate. He doesn’t get weary or over-taxed. When He says, “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. In that day you will ask nothing of Me,” He isn’t saying, “Thankfully, there will come a time when I won’t have to put up with your incessant neediness and questions. In that day you will ask nothing of Me.” What Jesus is saying is that He has come to accomplish what we all need. You can see by the disciples’ confusion that they didn’t even understand their own need. Aren't we so often like them? Jesus said, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” They knew who Jesus was. They believed in Him. But they didn’t really understand. They were still stuck. They wouldn’t see the true glory and the true need for His suffering and death and His resurrection until after He had suffered, died, and rose. Until then, it was not understanding. It was not seeing that Jesus knew all along what they needed and was going to do what was needed for them. When Jesus speaks in this way there is always a tension. There is the tension of, “This is what I have come to do, but until I do it, you won’t quite get it.” And there is the tension of, “Once I do it—once I go to that cross and suffer there alone; once I am placed in that grave; once I leave that grave in the dust—then everything still won’t be perfect. You will still be living in this sin-filled world. You will be huddled up in fear. You will eventually see that the mission of the Church, the making disciples of all nations, will not be up to you but the Holy Spirit and therefore you will still have many questions and you will still not understand many things and you will wish that I were still around.” We live in that tension. We live in that realm here on earth where we know who Jesus is, we know what He has done, we know we are about the business of making disciples of all nations, and yet there’s so much we don’t understand. So many questions we have. So many sins we still struggle with. So much guilt that keeps piling up there in the back of what is supposed to be a spiritual, godly life. When, exactly, Jesus, is that day when we will ask nothing of You? When will it be that we will come to the fullness of understanding? When we won’t go through the struggle and the sorrow anymore? Jesus says in the Gospel reading, “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.” So when, exactly, will that be? It’s easy enough to go straight beyond this life as we know it and say that it will be in heaven. And certainly it is true that in heaven there will be no more questions. Where we will understand perfectly and the joy we experience will be perfect. Where we will see everything as it is meant to be seen. So, that’s great and all. And, yes, we should look forward to it. And it’s the ultimate existence. But Jesus didn’t pay for all of your sins just to say, “Okay, now hang out here until I call you Home to eternal life.” We don’t just have all these questions and inability to comprehend as a step along the way to all those questions being erased in a flash when we enter the Pearly Gates. He did pay for your sins to ultimately deliver you from eternal death and secure for you a place in heaven. But while you wait for Him to call you Home to heaven, He sets you in that tension. He gives you all His blessings even as you don’t realize them in all their glory. He gives you new understanding—a new heart, a new mind—even as you still live in this fallen world and still do not comprehend His will in the fullness of His glory. He gives you freedom from your sins so that you may be freed up to be a servant of others. He takes away your guilt so that you may know that you whether you live or die you belong to the Lord. As you await that day He gives you this day. Each and every day you ask Him even as you already know. As you pray in the Lord’s Prayer for daily bread and for forgiveness of your trespasses, He has already given you all things in giving His body to you for food and His blood for you to drink; He has already forgiven you of all of your sins. As you daily live in your Baptism, daily repenting, He has already raised you up to new life that extends outward in love toward others. This is the tension you live in which is resolved in being united with Him. You do not see Him and yet you are united with Him in Baptism and partake of Him in His Holy Supper. You still sin, you still do not fully understand, you still have questions, you still struggle, you still have sorrow, and yet are fully forgiven, fully transformed, fully free, and have full joy in His love and salvation. The tension is a struggle in itself and yet it’s not a bad thing. Rather, it is one more gift of your Lord to draw you to Him so that in that day you will ask nothing of Him. In this tension you do not know as you ought and yet you continue to learn and grow. In this life you have full and free forgiveness and salvation even as you continue to receive more and more forgiveness, grace, and mercy from your Lord. As you live each day you see that your Lord continues to bless you abundantly and that the more you give, the more you love, the more you serve, the more you are strengthened by your Lord who has given you His all. In that day you will ask nothing of Him. In that day you will see that there is nothing greater than to ask of Him, because He delights in nothing more than being requested of and giving of everything He has. As you await that day rejoice in this day, in each day, in an eternity of forgiveness, of grace, of mercy. Of His love, for you. On this day and forever. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
