Christ has risen! He has risen, indeed. Alleluia!
The sermon text is from John 16:12-22. Jesus said, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”
The Holy Spirit inspired King Solomon to pen these words: “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” Something about that has never seemed quite right. At least for us who are in Christ, we think joy should fill all our waking moments. How could we be anything less than giddy when we consider our future? In the glow of Easter’s resurrection reality, shouldn’t life’s load be lighter than air?
In our text, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would soon come upon the disciples and guide them into all truth. He warned them their hearts and hopes would shatter when they saw the Lord of Life dying on the cross. While the world celebrated Jesus’ death, the disciples grieved. And though the disciples couldn’t yet understand, Jesus was telling them that after their heart-rending grief they would rejoice to see the Living Savior – and that joy no one could take away.
“So many churches, so many pastors and Christians have so little joy today.”[1] Who could deny these are challenging times – even for Christians, or, given our corrupt world, especially for Christians! So many families are struggling to make ends meet; struggling without jobs or hope to find a job; struggling to love and support their spouse; struggling to raise Godly children or care for aging parents; struggling to rise from the ashes of despair when illness or death incinerates hopes and dreams for the future; struggling to breathe while running from one obligation to the next; struggling to find room in over-crowded lives for the Christ who alone brings true joy.
Of all people our lives should be filled with joy. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” Philippians 4 says. Psalm 100 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.” Rather than scowls and frowns etched into the lines of our face, our Introit Psalm says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth; Break forth into joyous song and sing praises!”
Yet, we have the sense that joy, being a fruit of the Holy Spirit, shouldn’t be so much work. It’s probably true that some of the most depressing sermons ever preached nagged people about being joyful, as though reminding someone of what they aren’t enables them to produce what they can’t. Among the works of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5 counts love, joy and peace. If joy – I mean real joy – were so normal we wouldn’t have to pray our Collect, “O God, Grant that our hearts may be fixed where true joys are found.” If joy were something that the Law could beat into us, we wouldn’t have to ask God, “Create in me a clean heart… Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.”
I think unbelievers have the stereotype of Christians as joy-less people – and if we portray that it’s to our shame. They think we’re old, “sticks-in-the-mud” who can’t have any fun. The world clamors and craves and scrounges for a joy that has no future but eternal death and hell. And because they have no hope for life beyond this world, I think unbelievers even more ambitiously crave joy among the things of this world.
Now, it’s true that unbelievers find joy in many of the same things we Christians enjoy – though they don’t realize or believe they are gifts from God. Things like family, work, hobbies, entertainments are good gifts from God. Like sunshine and rain that fall on believer and unbeliever alike, the gifts we enjoy here on earth are God’s witness to His care. True joy traces those gifts back to their source. True joy knows “every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.”
God creates us to find perfect joy in Himself. But the corrupted human heart is like a junkie looking for the next fix. When our friendships or marriages and families or work, or life in general becomes joy-less, it can’t be healed by replacing a spouse or buying a car or boat or taking a long vacation. No spending spree can purchase true joy or bring it back when it’s gone. If our life is joy-less – and let’s be honest sometimes it is – it does no good to treat symptoms. By that I mean, joy-less lives can’t be healed by piling on extra things, jobs, games, or persons. The problem lies deeper.
The sinful human heart is like that ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico leaking its toxic death into our lives. Burning off oil or trying to scoop it up doesn’t get at the real problem. Joylessness has a root cause, and that cause is our sin-corrupted heart. Jesus said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality.” Our corrupted sinful nature is a deep well of death that must be capped.
Notice in our Gospel lesson, grief crushed the disciples at Jesus’ death. Their hearts were gushing fear and hopelessness, but Jesus didn’t wait for them to pull themselves together and man up. He didn’t wait for them to collect themselves and then reward their newfound joy with some Easter Good News. For the disciples to be dragged, gloom-dripping from the oil-slick of sadness and self-pity, God acted for us.
Remember when Jesus was born, the Christmas angels thrilled Bethlehem’s shepherds, “Rejoice! I bring you good tidings of great joy that shall be for all people. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus is joy in the flesh. He came as true God in human flesh to bring real, lasting joy to our dying world. Jesus entire life and ministry was about joy. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me. He has anointed Me to preach Good News to the poor; to preach freedom for prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
When Jesus rose from the dead, the angels of God rejoiced with great joy. Our Living Lord broke the iron grip of sin, death and the devil. God has redeemed you and me and all creation from hopelessness and joylessness and opened the floodgates of lasting, joy in the nail-pierced hands of our Savior. But God doesn’t stop there. Our Risen Jesus the Good Shepherd searched mountain and valley to find us lost sheep, lifts us to His shoulders and carries us home. Jesus rejoices over you: “Rejoice with Me! I have found my lost sheep.”
The truth is Jesus told a parable about us – We squandered our Father’s inheritance in sinful misery, but God the Father watches and waits for His prodigal sons and daughters. Our Father comes joyfully jumping, embracing us with His Word of forgiveness. He clothes us in the Baptismal robes of Jesus’ righteousness. He invites us to the Altar of the Lord’s Supper and the feast of forgiveness in Jesus’ body and blood – for PRAISE GOD – once we were lost but now we are found. The Bible is filled with God finding joy in us, even angels rejoicing in heaven that we sinners have been washed clean in the precious blood of Jesus the Lamb of God.
Easter changed it all. God the Father rejoices that Jesus is bringing us home. He celebrates Jesus’ victory for us. Even now He’s preparing a wedding feast of joy in heaven for all who know Jesus through faith. (And we rejoice, that one day by God’s grace we’ll take our seat at that wedding feast with fellow believers like Wendy who will soon be a world away.)
As we rejoice that God finds joy in us and sent Jesus to give us eternal joy in heaven, it’s important that we keep perspective. All of God’s good gifts are for your joy in His love, and with the Psalmist, we “give thanks unto the Lord, His mercy endures forever.” We rejoice in life’s good gifts, but we’re just traveling through this world it’s not our true home.
Earlier we prayed, “Grant, O God, that we fix our hearts where true joys are found.” Many times our lives are blissfully happy, blessed beyond our dreams. But many times our lives are difficult and trying, and here God is also blessing us as He bends our hearts and hopes toward heaven. Just after our text Jesus said, “I have told you these things that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world.”
Life can be a slog sometimes. Joy that’s rooted in an experience is fleeting. Your team wins a game. Your child is born. You get a raise. All those feelings can dissipate, especially when your team loses, your kid is a brat, you lose a job. Our joy is rooted in a promise – Jesus died and rose from the dead for you for the forgiveness of sins. In water that promise was put on your head. In His body and blood, that promise is given into your lips. That kind of joy can exist even when we feel deep sorrow, because we know we have a heavenly home waiting. That heavenly joy our Epistle talks about is Jesus’ gift and no one can take it away. Revelation 21: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Amen.
Christ has risen! He has risen, indeed. Alleluia! And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Observation Rev. Matt Harrison, A Little Book on Joy.