Sermon - Jubilate 2019 - John 16:16-22

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We spend far too much time feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re like the prophet Jonah, whom God asks, “Do you do well to be angry?” To which we respond with Jonah, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die!” We feel sorry for ourselves when we see others happy and rich and ourselves poor and downtrodden. We feel sorry for ourselves when we don’t receive the honor we think we deserve. We feel sorry for ourselves when our lives don’t go as planned. 

As Christians we even think we have good reasons to feel sorry for ourselves! The world hates us, our friends hate us, even our family hates us because we’re Christians. We’re excluded from things because of our faith. People revile us because of our beliefs and lifestyles. People spurn our names as evil because we proclaim God’s Word faithfully to all around us. So we feel sorry for ourselves! 

But that self-pity is not what Christ is talking about in our Gospel lesson today. “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.” That worldly sorrow is not Christian whatsoever. In truth it’s the very opposite of faith! This self-pitying sorrow is really just murmuring against God, rejecting Him who is the ruler of our life. Feeling sorry for ourselves is the fruit of pride and self-righteousness, as if we don’t deserve anything that goes wrong in our lives because we are just perfect. 

Anyone who understands that they really deserve hell and eternal punishment for their sins finds it impossible to be so dissatisfied with their lot in life, no matter how miserable it may be. What we deserve is far worse than what we’re enduring in this life and I’ll concede that sometimes this life can be downright hellish, but we deserve worse than that because of our sins. 

This self-pitying worldly sorrow isn’t Christian and it’s something we need to repent of and turn away from. To be frank about it, worldly grief only leads to eternal sorrow in hell. St. Paul’s words should admonish us towards this: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

All of that suffering we endure in the world? Christ calls it a blessing! “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!” Jesus even tells us to “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven.” St. Peter says “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.” St. James writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” 

When the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin and scourged because they confessed Christ, “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.” St. Paul writes of himself, “In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.” Why did Christians endure this suffering with joy? It’s as we read in Hebrews, “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” 

What a poor witness it is to the world and before God when we weep worldly grief and feel sorry for ourselves when things don’t go just our way as we wish. We give poor evidence of our faith which conquers this world! We would do well to end the incessant groaning and murmuring because we don’t have all of the pleasures we want in this life, and instead gladly take up our crosses and rejoice because Christ has risen and has triumphed over this world! We have a lasting treasure in heaven which cannot be lost! We all deserve much worse than what we get in life because of our many sins, and God loves us and so gives us a lasting inheritance in heaven, so let us rejoice! 

But there is a type of sorrow which is good and godly and in fact necessary, that’s the type of sorrow to which Christ is referring. This is the sorrow and anguish and grief over our own sins. This sorrow is the key and the way to joy everlasting. “For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret.” 

Christ declares, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and lament… you will be sorrowful.” You will experience deep emotional pain, deep grief, severe and intense sorrow. Not over your lot in life, but over your sins. That deep godly sorrow over sin is the only way to joy everlasting. 

This is why Jesus compares it to the birth of a child, “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.” Without the labor pains of repentance, you cannot have the joy of faith. It’s impossible for faith to sprout up when your heart is filled with the weeds of indifference towards sin. You cannot be comforted with the soothing salve of the Gospel so long as the festering wounds of sin continue in your heart without abatement. 

Jesus came as a physician for those sick and broken by their sins. If you’re not repentant for your sin, if your heart isn’t deeply anguished by your guilt, then you’re only pretending and you’re only deceiving yourself. If true faith and true joy is to blossom in your heart, then you must first know your iniquities and confess with king David, “For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me… I am feeble… I groan because of the tumult of my heart.” Only then, upon your confession and repentance, being frightened because of your sins, can you grab ahold of Christ in faith and say: My sins are forgiven me, I hate sin, and there go I slowly burdened by my cross to my Savior in heaven. 

So many Christians today have no concern or dread for their sin. They consider their sins to be little and innocuous, of no import! They justify themselves saying it’s just a trifle matter, I’m in God’s grace, I have nothing to worry about. Instead of repenting, they deny their sins and make excuses. When they’re reprimanded they just get angry. Such a person is not a Christian and will never have the true joy Christ promises. 

Maybe this is just a bit of fire and brimstone, but today sometimes I think we need a reminder. So let us pray to our holy Father in heaven, let us no longer resist the Holy Spirit, but experience godly sorrow over sin which leads to the joy of faith. 

Because when you’re so greatly anguished by your sin, then you can see where true joy lies. The mother having gone through her terrible anguish gets to hug, kiss, and hold her baby tight. When you as a Christian go through the terrible anguish of repentance, then you get to seize the greatest treasure in this world: God’s grace. By the anguish of Eve, Mary, and every mother, children were born, and the fruit of Mary’s womb was her and our Savior Jesus Christ.

When a Christian learns the depths of their depravity and the weight of their guilt and the punishment they justly deserve, then what joy it is for them to learn of the free gift of God in Christ Jesus which overshaddows their sins! As great as the Christian’s sorrow over sin, their joy of their forgiveness and eternal life must be even greater! This is the joy that we have as a Christians! Joy that bursts the bonds of our anguish over sin! “Your sorrow will turn into joy,” Christ promises! “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!” 

Is your life always going to be happy and will everything go as you planned? No, of course not, and we shouldn’t expect it to, we don’t deserve it and this world is plagued by sin. But our wretched sins are forgiven by Christ who was crucified for us! Your grief over your sin shall turn to joy because Christ has redeemed you! We have been delivered out of this sin-filled world to heaven! God, the creator of everything, knows and loves each of us! Jesus died for us so that we might live in heaven! On that final day our God shall reap a joyful harvest from our tears and our lips shall be filled with laud and praise to Him who has led us through sorrow to eternal joy. 

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!