John 16:12-22 (Easter 5C)

John 16:12-22 (Easter 5C)                                             
St. John’s, Galveston 5/18/25 
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

    The message this morning is based on the Gospel reading from John 16. Jesus tells His disciples about the “little while” when they will see Him no more.

    There is a popular way of reading and studying the Scriptures that has done great harm to the faith of some and to the overall confession of the Church. Each passage in the Bible is believed to have a unique meaning according to who’s interpreting it. And so, while a particular passage means one thing to one person, it may mean something altogether different to another person. The reader or hearer becomes the ultimate judge of what the Bible says and what it means. As such, the Scriptures are robbed of their ability to convict the hardhearted and to console those who are cast down, in part, because they have been neutere of their authoritative character and of the absolute and unwavering truth that they intend to proclaim.    

    Unfortunately, our current cultural climate welcomes and exalts all things that put the individual in the forefront and in control. Consequently, for decades now, the Church has wrestled with trying to accommodate individual likes and dislikes among her members. Pastor and author, Peter Burfeind, comments on the change that’s engulfed the church, a change that manifests itself most clearly, in what has been called, the Churches “worship wars.”  “Self-directed worship (he says)!  Such a concept would have been considered blasphemous only a half century ago, but here we are. A great swath of American Christianity has joined the great American Cult of the Self. They feed at the trough of consumerism, where what-fits-me replaces what-is-true or what-is-good.”

    The more appropriate way to read and understand the Scriptures is to begin by asking, “what did this particular passage of Scripture mean to the people to whom it was originally given?” The historic context of any passage of Scripture is critically important to its proper interpretation and understanding. Mind you, it’s not that the Scriptures are stuck in the past, as if they were relics of a bygone era, but they were given to a particular people at a set time in history. That being the case, we aren’t free to assume that the original recipients of the Bible understood it with a 21st century point of view. Of course, once we’ve determined the original meaning of a passage, we can then go about the business of applying it to ourselves.
 
    Turning to the Gospel reading for this morning, we have a passage that referred to something that only the disciples experienced. Just prior to His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus said, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again, a little while, and you will see me.” No doubt those words seemed to the disciples like a riddle. Not understanding what Jesus was saying, they began to discuss it among themselves. “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’?” “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”

    The “little while” of which Jesus spoke, was the time period between His death and resurrection. As such, it was the disciples who suffered the fear and the anxiety, the loneliness and, perhaps, the despair of having seen Jesus crucified and laid to rest in the tomb. They are the ones who had to endure, at least for a “little while” the darkness of a crucifixion without a resurrection.  “A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.”

    For us to understand what Jesus said to His disciples, we must, at least initially, try to envision a world without the resurrection of Jesus. What would that be like? Well, life would be a perpetual and eternal Good Friday, wouldn’t it? However, without Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that Good Friday would come without the assurance of God’s forgiveness and grace. In speaking of the connection between Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection, St. Paul wrote, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”  He went on to write, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

    If Christ had not been raised from the dead, you and I would “weep and lament, but the world would rejoice.”  We would weep and lament because the atonement, the monumental act of God taking away the sins of the world, would have all been for naught. Our lives would be a guilt-ridden mess, as we tried to walk through an endless maze of do’s and don’ts. We would move from one miserable failure to another, hoping all the while to finally make atonement for what we’ve done and for what we’ve become. And yet, whatever bar we envision that we’ve reached, it would only be raised higher in our never ending attempt to please God.    

    And, all the while “the world (that is, the unbelieving world,) would rejoice.” Like the closing scene in the Wizard of Oz, where everyone dances because the wicked witch is dead, so the world rejoices at the prospect of the death of God. Nihilism becomes the order of the day. Nothing would have any purpose. There would be no meaning to anything in life.

    Author, Kurt Vonnegut, who was a self avowed atheist, sums up life as he sees it from a Biblical perspective.  

    He says, “In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.      And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done."  And God created every living creature that now moves, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close to mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.      "Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.      "Certainly," said man.      "Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.      And He went away.” 
   
    Such is life without both the death and resurrection of Jesus. “You will be sorrowful (says Jesus), but your sorrow will turn into joy. 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. 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.”

    You and I can only imagine the “little while” that the disciples suffered because Jesus has been raised from the dead. The darkness and the somber mood of Good Friday have been swallowed up in victory.  God is not dead! He is alive and present here today in His Word and in body and blood laid upon this altar! These, that is, His body and blood, are given for you, He says, that you might have life and salvation. I have come, Jesus says, “that you might have life and that you might have it to the fullest.”    

    Life does have purpose and meaning! You are reconciled to God through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus. The “the little while” you experience is your wait for the return of Jesus. It, however, is a “little while” filled with hope and joy. You sing and rejoice because, in the atoning death of Jesus the devil is bound and because in His resurrection, death has been swallowed up in victory! No one, my friends, can take that assurance from you!

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +