A sermon on John 16:16-23 for the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Delivered by Pastor Caleb Strutz.

One thing that I’ve learned by being a parent is that time is relative. Time itself seems pretty absolute—you can measure it in minutes and in seconds—but how lengths of time are experienced differs dramatically from person to person. For example, I lay down my four-year-old for a nap. She’s having a hard time falling asleep so she asks for me to snuggle her. Okay, that’s fine, just let me finish the dishes I started, it’ll be a little bit. Two minutes later, “Dad, why is it taking such a long time?” A little while for me feels like an eternity for her because she has to wait to get what she wants.

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus uses a rather ambiguous and vague timeline: “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Not hard to see why the disciples are so confused. And indeed, as they experienced those “little whiles,” they probably didn’t feel all that short. But as we see how the disciples experienced Easter and how we experience our lives as Christians, we listen to Jesus giving us a lesson of warning and a lesson of comfort and encouragement. Because it’s only a little while and then unending joy.

I. A Lesson of Warning

Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be jumping around in John 16 and looking at parts of Jesus’ farewell discourse to His disciples. To put it in context, this is an extended section of teaching on Maundy Thursday in the upper room. Jesus is giving His disciples what they’ll need to know to prepare them for His suffering, death, and resurrection.

With that context in mind, it’s pretty easy for us to make sense of what Jesus is saying here. They’re seated with Jesus, celebrating the Passover, they can see Him now. A little while and they will not see Jesus. Indeed, a mere few hours until He is arrested and they flee. And again a little while, after three days in the tomb, and they will see Him, risen from the dead.

Jesus wants to prepare His disciples for this, He warns them of what’s coming. After this first little while, they “will weep and lament.” The specific words used even bring to mind mourning at a funeral, Jesus is speaking of His death and the sorrow and the sadness and the grief they will experience during that troubling time. He warns them of what’s ahead.

“[Y]ou will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.” Their sorrow will be compounded by the opposite reaction of those around them. Many rejoiced to see Jesus killed, few wept. Elites were proud to see their plan in action, crowds were jeering, soldiers were mocking, which would only increase their lamentation. Jesus warns them that times of sorrow are ahead.

While the “little whiles” Jesus mentioned applied to His disciples from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, they also apply to us as individual Christians and as the Church, albeit on a different time frame. We’re far enough along in the Easter season, that our focus is starting to shift. We’re moving from looking back to Easter to looking forward to the Ascension and Pentecost. And we live in a post-Asension world where we don’t see Jesus. In a certain sense our entire lives are this “little while” of sorrow.

We do not see our Savior face-to-face. So how can we be assured of His presence? Although we live in a world where Easter has happened, we don’t seem to experience the unending joy that Jesus promised. Rather, our lives are filled with sorrow.

We weep and lament over all sorts of things. Finances, broken relationships, an inability to get our act together. We sorrow over our sin, at how we have hurt others. We lament the effects of sin, that we are hurt by others. Where’s the end? This doesn’t feel like a “little while.”

And we seem to be stuck in this same period of mourning as the Church. Evil seems to win in new ways every day. While the Church only ever seems to get smaller and weaker. And the world rejoices all the while.

Jesus told us to expect sorrow and sadness. But what’s the deal? Where’s the relief? When will this little while end? It’s gone on long enough, Jesus, I can’t take it anymore, what are you doing? We grow frustrated and discouraged and upset instead of listening to Jesus warning us of what’s going to happen and comforting us with what will happen.

II. A Lesson of Comfort and Encouragement

“[A]nd again a little while, and you will see Me… you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” As long as those three days must have felt for the disciples, in retrospect, it really only was a little while. All the sorrow and mourning and grief that occupied those days was transformed into joy when they saw their Savior again.

Clearly this is Easter, but it’s also something else. Just seeing Jesus physically didn’t answer all their questions. Jesus said, “in that day you will ask Me nothing,” but after the resurrection, they’re asking Him all kinds of questions. Even at the Ascension, there’s still some who doubt (Mt 28:17) and they’re still asking, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6), they don’t get it right away.

So although Jesus is clearly talking about Easter in a certain sense, He’s also looking beyond. He’s looking to a time when they will not see Him physically—they have to ask the Father in His name, pray, instead of asking Him in person. This is fulfilled in the fullest measure at Pentecost when they receive the Holy Spirit, when they finally understand. It is then, when they don’t see Jesus physically, that they see Him the most clearly. It is then that their joy is the fullest. Because then they see Him spiritually, they look at Him with the eyes of faith.

Although we do not see Jesus physically, although we seem to be stuck in the little while of sorrow, we have this same benefit, this same sight, this same joy.

The disciples’ sorrows didn’t end after Easter. No, most of them died for the faith. But they had joy, joy that no one could take because they saw Jesus clearly.

Although we experience much sorrow in this life, we are not without joy. We have joy because we see Jesus. Not physically, but that’s not what matters, we see Him by faith. We see everything He has accomplished. What He has done to give you joy.

Because the sins that we commit and the sins that hurt us, He has carried, He has forgiven. The world that scorns and rejects us, He has overcome by His death on the cross. Although we sorrow, we do not mourn as if Jesus was dead. No, He lives. Now is the time for joy. Because He gives us His victory, He gives us forgiveness, He gives us the reward He has won.

In our lives on this earth, sorrow and joy coexist. Although we suffer, no one can take your joy from you. Because the day will come when joy will overcome all sorrow. When Jesus takes you to Himself or when He chooses to return, whichever comes first, then this little while of sorrow will completely come to an end, faith will turn to sight. In the life to come, He will wipe away every tear from your eye, sadness will be no more, sorrow turned to joy.

But until that day, we still see Jesus and we still have joy. We see Him in His Word, speaking to us, telling us everything we need to know about Him. We see Him on our altar with His body and blood as we look at the bread and wine with spiritual sight, with the eyes of faith.

And through these means He gives us joy. Joy that can coexist with sorrow because it is so much deeper. Sorrow can be caused by any number of external, superficial things, but the joy Jesus gives, the joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven and you are right with God, and that, one day, this joy will remove all sorrow, that joy no one can take from you. That joy sticks, no matter what else might come. That joy endures through this little while until we see our Savior face-to-face.

How long is “a little while”? It could be three days, it could be a lifetime. But it all depends on perspective. From the perspective of eternity, even a life full of sorrow is still only a little while. We have heard from our Savior a message of warning, telling us to expect sorrow and sadness in this life. But He also gives comfort and encouragement that this will only last a little while and He gives joy because we see Him now by faith and will see Him forever in eternity. Amen.