Fourth Sunday after Easter

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In the Sundays leading up to Ascension Sunday, which would be the Sundays after Easter, St. John affords us the pleasure of being present in the Upper Room, as eavesdroppers, listening in on the conversation the LORD JESUS was having with His disciples. JESUS had been walking with His disciples as the Good Shepherd. He was leading them to still waters and to green pastures and teaching them about sin, righteousness, and judgment as they went. — The disciples did not fully understand everything JESUS taught them, but He amazed them and beckoned their hearts to love and adore Him more and more. Their greatest comfort was that they could see Him, hear Him, touch Him, and be with Him. 

And then in the Upper Room, after celebrating what He called the New Covenant in His Blood on the night of the Passover (that which we call the Holy Eucharist), JESUS shared some hard news with His disciples. He said that their hearts would weep and lament because of it—he was going to be leaving them, and they would not be able to see Him any longer. But the LORD said, because He was going away, their hearts would soon turn to joy. — JESUS said, “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again, a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father… 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” (16 & 22). 

Some commentators believe that JESUS was speaking to His disciples about the sorrow that they would experience because of His impending arrest and crucifixion. The disciples would naturally be sad because they would not see JESUS anymore as they had always seen Him after these events; tabernacling among them would be a past memory. Yet, when the LORD arose from the grave on the third day, they would see Him again, and their sorrow and sadness would turn to joy. — A little while and they would not see Him, and then a little while and they would see Him. 

This is a good understanding of this passage, but I think there is a better. — Better, not because this scenario did not play out as I have described, for it did. Thus, this understanding does have its application. Yet when we look at the Greek understanding of the words JESUS uses for ‘see’ another understanding of the text comes to light with its context. 

The LORD says, ‘A little while and you will not see me.’ The word see in this usage is to behold, perceive, and experience with our eyes. In other words, ‘In a little while you will not behold or experience or perceive with your physical eyes, my person and being.’ — But then the LORD says, ‘And a little while and you will see me, because I go to The Father.’ How would the sorrows of the disciples be turned into joy if JESUS went to the Father, who is in Heaven, and they could no longer see Him with their eyes? And how would they be able to see JESUS in Heaven—a realm beyond the perception of earthbound seeing—if He goes to the Father?  — It is because, when speaking about seeing, here,JESUS is speaking about spiritual perception with the heart, mind, and soul, all at once and everywhere and by all the disciples – He is not speaking about an earthly seeing or perception with the eyes, but spiritual sight. — JESUS is telling His disciples their joy will be made complete, because like a woman during the birthing process is burdened with sadness and travail, her joy is made complete when a man is born into the world. Similarly, when the disciples were kept from seeing JESUS with their eyes because of the LORD’s arrest and crucifixion, when He rose from the dead and ascended unto Heaven to rule and reign at the Father’s Right Hand as our Great High Priest, the disciples’ sorrow would be turned into gladness, because they would see a new creation was born into the world. That new creation? The Church and her members – you and me. And in and through the Church, we see and know Christ, globally, spiritually, as One Body. 

Alongside this concept of spiritual seeing that will bring new joy from sadness as a result of JESUS’ glorious Ascension into Heaven, we learn the practical ‘why’ for this newfound joy in the world from today’s Gospel. There, JESUS introduces us to the Holy Spirit – the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, Who He promises, with the Father’s authority, to send to His disciples as a result of His going away. The LORD says: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (St. John 16.7). — The LORD JESUS makes it plain, that unless He goes away to be with the Father, the disciples joy cannot be made full, and they will remain in their sadness. Since JESUS ascended into Heaven, as the Nicene Creed says, the Holy Spirit could not have ‘proceeded from the Father and the Son,’ coming down unto the Church. — And this did happen on the Day of Pentecost for the disciples in the Upper Room, and every disciple since. — Notice, the disciples’ joy of seeing JESUS turned to sadness when JESUS was arrested and crucified, but when they were able to see Him, all and everywhere, spiritually, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Church, the disciples’ (our) joy has been and is being made complete. 

And how do we know that the Spirit of Christ has come into the world that our joy may be made complete? — JESUS tells us that we will know that He has come into the world, when the LORD says: “When [the Holy Spirit] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (St. John 16.8-11). — Sounds conclusive – right? What does it mean. Well, what it means is this. 

JESUS had told His disciples on another occasion: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you … A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also” (St. John 14.15-17 & 19). — In this promise, the LORD JESUS was telling His disciples that He would send His Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – to them, after He was gone. And because the Spirit of Truth would come, they would know that He lived, even though they could not see the LORD, because the Spirit of Christ would live in them. — This conversation from today’s Gospel Lesson refers back to this promise JESUS made earlier with His disciples, and how the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – would come to live in their hearts when they could no longer see JESUS. 

“The future sending of the Paraclete/Comforter/Holy Spirit from heaven is the means whereby the LORD JESUS returns to the disciples, and in doing so brings glory to the Father. Receiving the Spirit and his ministry [in and amongst them, like JESUS’ own ministry], the disciples (we) in turn will know Christ’s presence with us on earth.”1 In today’s Gospel Lesson, we learn that Christ’s disciples will know/see JESUS’ presence in the world by three things the Holy Spirit does through the Church to our advantage. Those three things, JESUS says, are that the Spirit of Truth will ‘expose, reprove, or refute’ the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, because the world has its own ideas about these spiritual realities: sin, righteousness, and judgment. And in doing this, JESUS says in St. John 16.13-14, the Holy Spirit will glorify the Son. He says, “He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” — Especially to making the spiritual matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment clear to all that are in the world.   

The Spirit reproves the world of sin, first and foremost, because they do not believe in JESUS as the Christ, the living Son of GOD. — We know this to be emphatically true, not only because of what we see detailed about the Jewish leaders in the Gospels and their opinions of who JESUS was, but also as we look around us in our culture, government, and the academy. All the world is ready to throw JESUS from the high cliffs of Nazareth for claiming to be the Messiah – the Savior of the world. Not believing that JESUS is who He said He is, the Son of the Living GOD, come to save the world of her sins, is the first and principal work of the Holy Spirit. 

The Spirit of Truth, JESUS says, will also expose the error of the world as it concerns righteousness – for if they do not believe in JESUS, how can they know His commands that lead away from unrighteousness towards righteousness? And what are the convincing tenets of the righteousness that Christ teaches and commands from His disciples. The convincing tenets of Truth are JESUS’ death by crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension into Heaven. — JESUS said that the world would be convicted of their sin of disbelief that JESUS is the Christ (Messiah), and of the righteousness that He commanded, because the Father would raise Him from the dead, and He would ‘go to His Father’ in Heaven. — Christ’s resurrection and ascension in vindication that He is who He says He is, and His words are the Truth. Concerning the ignorance of sin and righteousness, St. Paul to the philosophers in Athens, Greece, made note when giving his defense of the Gospel of JESUS Christ in Acts 17. There, he said, “Truly, these times of ignorance [of sin and unrighteousness] GOD overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this [fact] to all, [Jew and Gentile], by raising JESUS from the dead” (Acts 17.30-31). 

Finally, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit will, as a result of JESUS’ going away, expose to the world its errors concerning judgment, because ‘the ruler of this world is judged’. — Consider this, the world thought it overcame JESUS at the Cross, because the ruler of the fallen world, who is Satan, has convinced the world that JESUS is false, and that this false notion was vindicated at the Cross with JESUS’ execution. But we know better, do we not, dear St. Mark’s. — We know that on the third day, just as our LORD said, He rose again from the dead, according to the Holy Scriptures. According to the Bible. And as a result of His rising from the dead, JESUS has brought judgment upon Satan, the world, and the flesh, such that death hath no more victory, and sin hath no more sting — This is why we sing with heavenly confidence the words penned by John Brownlow Geyer: “We know that Christ is raised and dies no more. Embraced by death, He broke its fearful hold; and our despair He turned to blazing joy. We share by water in His saving death. Reborn, we share with Him an Easter life; as living members of living Christ.”2 We know that our Redeemer liveth! 

Brothers and sisters of St. Mark’s, today’s lessons from Holy Scripture teach us, that unless JESUS goes away where we cannot see Him with ou, the Spirit will not come. And if the Spirit of Truth cometh not, the world will not be exposed for her lack of divine belief in JESUS, her heavenly understanding of righteousness, and her godly fear of the judgment that transpired at the Cross of the ruler of this world and all that follow his ideologies. And since the Spirit of Christ has come, this is why we pray on this Fourth Sunday after Easter, that GOD, for the peace of the world and progress of Christ’s Kingdom, will ‘order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.’ — “If separate particles of steel are lying about on a table confusedly without any connection or order, the way to bring them together is to introduce a powerful magnet among them. Then, being all attracted to the same point, they spring up and cleave to the magnet. It is by making men loyal to His will, and to the hope of glory which He holds out to them, enabling them to see Him in the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit that GOD joins sinful men together in the same mind and in the same judgment. His precept and His promise are the magnetic power, which draws all men into union with one another, and the cement which holds them there.”3  

And as for us, we who have already had our unruly wills affected and ordered, even to this day, having them continually ordered by the Spirit of Truth, let us not forget our great benefit resulting from Christ’s glorious Ascension out of our visual sight. That benefit, St. John records for us in his first epistle when he says: “But as the Holy Spirit’s anointing, (His teaching of sin, righteousness, and judgment to the Church) it teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie…” (1 John 2.27b). The Spirit of Truth’s teaching is not only for the world, but also for us, too – the Church. By the Holy Spirit’s teaching, we can have every confidence that JESUS has overcome the world, and we will be overcomers too…  

Dear St. Mark’s, let us ‘love the thing which JESUS commands, and desire that which He does promise; so that, even among the sundry and manifold changes and set-backs of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where the true joys are to be found, as taught to us by the Holy Spirit’. For by Christ’s Ascension and the coming of the Spirit of Truth, “A new creation come to life and grows. As Christ’s Body takes on flesh and blood. The universe restored and made whole, the Church sings…Alleluia! Alleluia!”4 Amen. 

1 Toon, Rev. Peter, Our Triune GOD: a Biblical Portrayal of the Trinity, (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1996), 182. 

2 Book of Common Praise, “We know that Christ is raised and dies no more”, (Newport Beach: Anglican House Press Publishing, 2017), 259. 

3 Goulburn, Edward Meyrick, D.D., D.C.L. The Collects of the Day: An Exposition Critical and Devotional of the Collects appointed at the Communion, (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1897), 236. 

4 “We know that Christ is raised and dies no more”, 259.