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INJ
St John 16:16-22
'Joy that Cannot Be Taken'
Divine Service
Jubilate, 3rd after Easter | April 29th, 2007
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
Dear Saints,
iubilate Deo omnis terra. The first verse of Psalm 66 in the Latin Vulgate, the first part of the Introit Psalm, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth.” That's how this Sunday gets its name, “Jubilate,” “Make a joyful noise.” So this Sunday is joyful noise making Sunday.
There's a lot of joy in the Scriptures. From our first lesson, “Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break forth in singing, O mountains! for the LORD has comforted His people and will have mercy on His afflicted.” [Isaiah 49:13] Later Isaiah promises, “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” [Isaiah 51:11]
St Paul lists joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” [Galatians 5:22-23]
David sings in the Psalms, “You [O LORD] will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” [Psalm 16:11]
Even in our collect for the week last week, we were so bold as to ask for perpetual gladness and eternal joy: “Merciful Father, who by the humiliation of Your Son raised up the fallen world, grant to Your faithful people perpetual gladness, and make those whom You have delivered from the danger of everlasting death to be partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.”
Our Lord Jesus, in our Gospel text, speaks of joy, “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” “Therefore you now have sorrow;” that is, when Jesus dies and is laid in the tomb, “but I will see you again,” the resurrection, “and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” [John 16:22] This is Jesus' promise for us, that His resurrection will bring to His disciples and to us a joy that cannot be stolen.
But look, when Jesus says that no one will take or steal our joy from us. This means that someone or something is trying to take our joy, and we know this very well, don't we.
The Lord's good news of joy, His Gospel, the forgiveness of all of our sins comes to us every morning, even as it has this morning, “I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” Forgive, free, loosed from the bonds of death, conscience washed free, the total and complete assurance that God is with us, that He loves us, that God is our dear Father and Jesus is our Brother and our Friend, that no one and nothing can separate us from His love and care and that you have the Holy Spirit in your heart who is there for you as a deposit of the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. You hear this, and believe it, and there is great joy. I see you smiling when I tell you how much Jesus loves you, in spite of what you've done or said or thought. Your conscience is cleansed and your are set at peace. This is the joy that Jesus gives.
And yet our enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil hate it when you are happy, when you are joyful, and they are hell bent on taking that joy from you. It is like Jesus said when He taught the parable of the Sower.
The Sower goes our to sow His seed, and some falls on rocky ground. Jesus says, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.” The world and the flesh and the devil are always trying to overcome our joy with trouble, tribulation, persecution, rejection. The devil would take our eyes off of Jesus and His word, the goodness of His promises, and have us look at the things around us, and have joy or sorrow based on the daily ups and downs. I'm healthy: joy; I'm sick: sorrow. It's sunny: joy; it's cloudy, or it's snowing again: sorrow. I've had a good nights sleep and a nice cup of coffee: joy; I was up all night: sorrow. I've got it all together, checked off my whole to-do list: joy; things are unraveling at the seams: sorrow. All my friends are alive and well: joy; my loved one has died: sorrow.
This is how the devil would give things to us. Now this doesn't mean that we are not effected by the things around us, that we are not sad or frustrated and the trails of this sinful world. It's okay to be sad, to cry. Even our Lord Jesus weeped at the news of His friend Lazarus' death, and cried over the unbelief of Jerusalem. But the devil wants us to think that we can judge how God thinks of us based on what we see around us. “God loves us if we're rich and hates us if we're poor; God loves us if we're healthy and hates us if we're sick.”
But this is the devil's lie, the devil's tempting us to idolatry, to make the Lord the servant of our feelings.
We, dear saints, are Christians, Christ's own people. We have joy even in the midst of our sadness, for our joy is anchored to something deeper, something more solid and secure than our daily circumstances, something that never changes and is eternal. We have joy because we have Jesus, and nothing can change that. Nothing can separate you from His love, not your sin, not your death, not your sorrow. “For I am persuaded,” says St Paul, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:38-39]
Nothing, no one, can take away your joy, it is as sure as your Jesus is risen from the dead, as sure as His death in your place, as sure, as absolutely sure as God's love for you, His smile, His forgiveness, His Word. As sure as the Lord Jesus is to come to you today and feed you His body and bloody for the forgiveness of all of your sins. He is your forgiveness and freedom and comfort and peace. Jesus is your joy.
“Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again,” says Jesus, “and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” [John 16:22]
May God grant to us His Holy Spirit, and restore unto us the joy of our salvation. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO