The Fifth Sunday after Easter
Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled
Christ is risen! (He is
risen, indeed!) Alleluia! Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and
our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Jesus speaks to His disciples, and that
mean all disciples everywhere, including you. Jesus says to you and to all His
other disciples, “Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.”
Dear Christian friends,
Today’s Gospel took place on
the night our Lord was betrayed, that is, on the very night that He gathered at
Passover with His disciples (John 13) to give them the precious meal of Holy
Communion (Matthew 26:17-29). By gathering and by speaking in this manner, Jesus
gives us a very sweet and simple picture of Christian worship. When we worship,
we—like the first disciples—we gather around Jesus to hear His Words and to
join Him at the meal He has given to us to eat. To use a common manner of
speaking, worship is Word and Sacrament.
On the night He was
betrayed, our Lord could give His disciples no higher gift than the gift of
worship. Things were already difficult for these men. They felt great
uncertainties about the things Jesus had been saying and doing (e.g., John
6:16-19, 11:14-16). They had already watched many of their friends and
neighbors walk away from Jesus and reject the faith (John 6:66-69). Now things
were about to grow immeasurably worse. The disciples were only moments away
from watching their entire world collapse around them. They were about to be
terrified. They were about to play their own role in denying and abandoning the
Lord of Life. Jesus would soon to depart from them into the arms to death. Even
after His death and resurrection, Jesus would ascend into heaven, seeming to
leave them a second time, as if His first leaving them were not bad enough.
In view of this darkness,
Jesus says to His dear ones with compassion and love, “Let not your hearts be
troubled.” Jesus says these Words to His disciples in the
context of Christian worship—that is, in the context of the Holy Meal that He
Himself has given—and Jesus says these things in order that we may believe
(John 20:30). “Let not your hearts be
troubled.” Do not allow your heart
to be disturbed. Keep your heart peaceful and quiet, like a tree stand in the
pre-dawn hours of the hunt. Keep your heart as glassy and still as the surface
of the water on a windless day. Say to your soul, in the Words of Psalm 43,
Why
are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him,
my salvation and my God (Psalm 43:5).
In today’s Gospel, on the
night He was betrayed, our Lord was saying to His disciples,
· You are about to see Me die, yet even at the
bitter end, nothing will be lost. Let not
your hearts be troubled, for My crucifixion is the glory of God (John
13:31-32), the power by which all people shall be drawn to Me (John 12:32). Let
not your hearts be troubled. The
Scripture will be fulfilled. I shall rise again.
· I will soon also ascend into heaven. Let not your hearts be troubled.
I go to
prepare a place for you, but I am not going away from you. I ascend so that
I can fill all things in heaven and on earth (Ephesians 4). I ascend so that I
may be everywhere present eternally. I ascend so that I may be the One David
was talking about, who prayed to Me in Psalm 139,
If I
ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the depths, You are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me (Psalm
139:8-10).
· Each of you will sin against Me. One of you will
betray Me. One of you will pretend you never knew Me. All of you will run away.
“Let not your hearts be troubled.” I
am the Christ, the Holy One of God! I am greater than your sin, greater than
your sorrow, greater than your regret. I shed My blood for the forgiveness of
your sins, including those you are about to commit.
Today’s Gospel comes from
the book of John. God explains at the end of John’s book that our Lord’s Words
were NOT spoken in today’s Gospel merely for the benefit of the first
disciples, those who gathered with Jesus at that first table. Compare the Words
of Jesus to the miracles He performed: “These
are written,” says the Lord, “that
you may believe Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing, you may have life
in His name” (John 20:31). Stated another way, today’s Gospel gives us a dear
picture of our own Christian worship. Jesus preached the Words, “Let not your
hearts be troubled,” in the
context of the Holy Communion. When we worship, we gather around Jesus to hear
Him say to us, “Let not your hearts be
troubled” and to join Him at the meal He has given to us to eat.
So this is what Jesus says
to you, individually and personally, here in today’s Gospel: “Let not your
hearts be troubled. Do not
allow your heart to be disturbed.” What do these Words mean? These Words mean
that your Lord Jesus knows what is going on! I do not know what is going on
because you have not told me. Your dearest family members and your closest
friends
might not know what is going on, because you might be really good at hiding
things. You are not too good for Jesus. He knows about your anger. He knows
about your jealousy and the way you covet things that are not yours to have. He
knows about your pride, your selfishness, and your desperate quest for
independence. Jesus knows that you are terrified at the thought of how other
people might look at you; He knows that you idolize their opinion of you. He
knows that some of you feel afraid too often, and that others of you must
frequently suppress the urge to panic and flee. Jesus knows that you feel like
He is too far away, and He knows that you are sometimes glad to pretend that He
is not around. Jesus knows you as thoroughly and as completely as He knew His
first disciples, including the betrayer, the denier, and those who ran
away.
In view of your darkness,
Jesus says to each of you with compassion and love, “Let not your hearts be
troubled.” Jesus says these Words to His disciples in the context of Christian
worship—that is, in the context of the Holy Meal that He Himself has given—and
Jesus says these things in order that you may believe (John 20:30). “Let not
your hearts be troubled.” Do not allow your heart to be disturbed. Keep
your heart peaceful and quiet, like a tree stand in the pre-dawn hours of the
hunt. Keep your heart as glassy and still as the surface of the water on a
windless day.
Today is the day we worship.
Today is not the day for you to put on a brave face and pretend that nothing
bothers you. Today is not the day for you to look away from the things that so
deeply anger you, or frighten you, or cause your recurring worry. Today is not
the day to push the realities of daily life out of your mind. Today is the day
for you to look your trouble squarely in the eye. Today is the day for you to
push your hardships and trials into the shape of a cross. Today is the day for
you to listen again to the Living Word of your Living Lord, spoken for your
forgiveness, spoken for your life; spoken for your daily peace and your eternal
rest: “Let not your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God; believe also in Me.”
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