The Lutheran Hour
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"Short-Term Sorrow"
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Text: John 16:20
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! By Jesus’ resurrection God’s promise is made and kept: faith in the Savior will turn lives filled with sorrow into an eternity of joy. May God grant this grace to us all. Amen.
Years ago I heard about a doctor, one of those loving, old country doctors like the kind you saw on TV programs like Little House On The Prairie. The only difference between the “Little House” doctor and this one is that this fellow was real. He really lived and he really loved his people. Some MDs might call those folks “patients,” but he called them his “people.”
They were his people because he brought them into this world; he took care of their bouts with measles, mumps, and chicken pox; he took care of broken bones and farm accidents; he was the one who signed the death certificates. From cradle to grave these were his people and he loved them. The only individual he loved more than his people was his wife. While he was a big man, robust and hearty; she was what people back then called “frail.”
“Doc and his little lady” became a fixture around town. It seemed that they had always been there; it seemed that they would always stay there. But you know, and I know, that is not the way life is. Death came quickly and abruptly upon the couple. And, as sometimes happens, it was the big, strong doctor and not the frail, fragile wife who was called home to Jesus.
The town went into mourning and his funeral was the biggest anyone could recall. The church was packed 45 minutes before the service began; a crowd waited outside. Then, as the church bells tolled, as the doctor’s casket was wheeled up the aisle being followed by his lonely wife, people exchanged looks of sadness, of sorrow, of sympathy. It wasn’t the first time they had done so. When news had first raced through town about the doctor’s demise, every person’s thoughts had turned immediately to the physician’s wife. They all knew; they all agreed that she would be heartbroken, devastated, and her days filled with despair. They knew she could not long survive without him upon whom she had relied for so long.
The doctor passed away on a Thursday; his funeral was on Saturday; and on Sunday, his wife, still clothed all in black, walked to church alone. She made the five-block walk in silence and sat in the same pew where she and her husband had sat the Sunday before. The pastor preached a good sermon that Sunday, but only one person heard it. Everyone, except for that one individual, was watching the doctor’s wife; to see how she was doing, to see how she was bearing up. If anyone was waiting for her to fall to pieces they were disappointed. There was only one person who heard the sermon that day; who heard of how Jesus Christ had come into the world to give His life to save us; to bring comfort to those who mourn; to bring heaven to those who had once been destined for hell. Only one person heard the pastor’s sermon that day and that person was the doctor’s widow. She heard, and she believed that Jesus had conquered death for her husband and all who believe.
The next day, Monday, people began to move forward with their lives. Mothers dug into a week’s worth of wash; farmers checked their livestock; the banks gave out loans; the grocery store restocked its produce; the children learned about the great presidents of the country.
I wouldn’t say the doctor was forgotten. He wasn’t. For the first time in years, his office remained dark and those who had relied on him for so long knew they now had to find someone else to help care for their maladies and treat them in their infirmities. No, the doctor wasn’t forgotten. Especially when the doctor’s wife, using her husband’s keys, went into his office. She stayed for just a minute or two; but when she left, people noticed a difference.
On the front door she had hung a sign. Closer inspection showed the curious it was the same sign the doctor would put up when he was called out to set a fracture or deliver a baby. The sign read… “GONE OUT-BE BACK SOON.”
A good many years before – centuries, actually – Jesus Christ hung out a similar sign:
“Going out, be back soon.” No, Jesus’ sign was written, nor was it hung on an office door, but it pretty much carried the same idea. Jesus gave a warning to His disciples when He said, “You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” With the prophetic knowledge that only God’s omniscient Son could have, Jesus knew that His life, the most exceptional life this world has ever seen, was drawing to a close.
Now, please understand, when I say His was the “most exceptional life,” I am picking my words very carefully. I make no exaggeration, amplification, or embellishment. If Jesus had come as a doctor, His name would be listed at the head of the world’s great physicians. He never encountered a physical disease, but He was a match for it. Blindness, lameness, leprosy, all were healed with a word or a gesture. By the same standard, if Jesus had confined Himself to being a counselor, the world would have considered Him to be beyond compare. Those who were plagued by past sins found forgiveness; those who had no hope found themselves healed; those who were caught up in an endless spiral of self-destructive behavior found that Jesus’ helping hand could lift them up from the depths of depression.
His had been a magnificent life. The world has never seen such love before, or since. Those whom society had cast out found a friend, a benefactor in the Christ. He returned a living son to a mourning mother; a resurrected brother to saddened sisters; and delivered a daughter from death and reunited her with her despairing dad. With a shout He had rescued His disciples from a storm, with a blessing He fed thousands with five loaves of bread and a few fish.
As a teacher, Jesus had shown Himself ahead of any university scholar. He had spoken with authority yet His words were so simple that uneducated shepherds and illiterate slaves found themselves emotionally enriched and spiritually enlightened. His penetrating words convicted people of their sin; His loving absolution shared God’s grace which brought forgiveness to penitent hearts and peace to consciences which had been troubled. His thoughts, Divine thoughts, were cloaked in common stories and delivered in a way that mothers with their small children lined up to receive His blessing. Although people were willing to listen to
Him speak for hours; in short seconds He taught all generations how to pray and directed their eyes to their heavenly Father for guidance.
But Jesus’ life was marked by more, far more than these things I have so briefly mentioned.
You see, my friends, Jesus did things that no person has ever come close to, or dreamed of doing. While you and I and everyone we know have regularly and repeatedly done that which shows the sinful blackness of our minds and souls, Jesus, as God’s perfect Son, remained spotless and pure. When He was tempted, when He was offered the opportunity to take an easy path, a more self-serving way; Jesus always took the sacrificial road. When confronted by Satan, He, not the tempter, emerged victorious. All this Jesus had done so that those who believe on Him as their Savior will be forgiven of their sin and someday be restored to the perfect life which the Father had given to humanity in the Garden of Eden; that He had always wished His children to have.
A most exceptional life? Indeed! And for that exceptional life, Jesus had been hated and hounded by those He had come to help; He had been despised and detested by those He had come to deliver; he had been criticized and condemned by those He wished to bring back to the Father’s family. It was then, with the Commandments kept and temptations refused, Jesus knew His earthly ministry was coming to a conclusion. Jesus knew, as part of the Father’s plan to redeem humanity, He would be sacrificed; He would be convicted and crucified for crimes He had never committed. Knowing the details of His painful passion, and wishing to temper the tragedy which His disciples must live through, Jesus warned, “You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” At that moment the disciples didn’t, couldn’t, understand that Jesus was saying, “I’m going out, but I’ll be back soon.”
Without understanding the Divine plan behind the events which seemed to sweep over them and their Rabbi, the disciples were confused. They were confused when one of their own, Judas Iscariot, came to the Savior’s place of prayer, and, for 30 pieces of silver – the price of a bargain-basement slave – betrayed their Lord. They were confused when Jesus was railroaded in a kangaroo court; they were confused by the lies which were told about Him and the insults which were heaped upon Him. They were confused at the insults, the blows and spit which rained down upon Him. The disciples were confused at what they saw. They were confused when the Roman procurator, having pronounced Jesus innocent of any wrongdoing, had Him whipped and ordered His death. They were confused when they heard of His crucifixion and His death. But when they heard how a Roman spear had punctured Jesus’ heart, their confusion was replaced by understanding. They understood that death is final. They understood Jesus wasn’t going to be coming back soon; they understood Jesus was coming back never.
Have you ever seen the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Etched into a black granite wall are the names of 58,253 Americans who died in that Asian war. Since the memorial opened some 35 years ago, the ebony stone has stirred some deep emotions. If you go to Washington and watch, you will see visitors reverently, respectfully walk its entire length without a stop.
Others will halt in front of a specific name; they will remember a daughter, a son, a spouse, a comrade’s sacrifice. All who look at the names which are recorded in stone know these men, these women, will not be coming back soon. Robert Bedker, Willard Craig, and Darrall Lausch might disagree with what I’ve just said. They might disagree because, even though their names are listed among the monument’s dead, they managed to survive the war and return home. Because of data-coding errors, each of them was incorrectly listed as killed in action. They weren’t. (NOTE: According to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund there may be as many as 38 living individuals whose names are recorded on the Wall. http://www.vvmf.org/index.cfm?SectionID=85#faq8)
Of course, there was no bookkeeping error when it came to Jesus’ death. He did die. Even most of Scripture’s skeptics agree on that point of history. But Jesus did not stay dead.
Three days after His lifeless body was laid into the tomb, Jesus returned from the dead. As the defeater of death, the Savior from sin and Satan, Jesus returned and gave notice to this sin-sick world that things would no longer be the same. Unbelievable? Of course. But it happened just as the Bible says. Jesus returned and showed to His weeping, worried disciples that He was very much alive. By the Holy Spirit’s power, and with God-given faith, the disciples eventually understood what Jesus had been trying to get through to them when He had told them that their sorrow was going to be short-term. They understood and held on to Jesus’ words: “I’m going out, but I’ll be back soon.”
The wondrous thing is, those words of Jesus don’t apply just to Him. Those words are true for all people, who by the Holy Spirit’s power have been given faith. That’s what the Savior promised when He said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). Jesus wanted everyone, including you who are listening today, to know that His successful sacrifice guarantees eternal life to all of His followers.
Saint Paul echoed that truth when he wrote: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39). Because of Christ, death has been conquered; because of Jesus, nothing can separate us from God’s love. Because of Jesus, every believer has been given the sign: “Gone out – be back soon.”
I wish, with all my heart, that I could sit with each of you today and explain the eternal importance of those words. For many of you, right now, those words may just be words. If that is the case, it will not always be so. Death is not a respecter of persons; his cold hand touches everyone. Think of those who are closest to you, most beloved by you. The day will come when death will split apart that precious relationship. On that day what would you not give to know that the hospital room, the accident, the ravage of disease, the open grave, the crematorium, is not the end? What would you not offer to be assured the pain you endure is temporary? Because of Jesus, it is.
I know. I have seen it. I have been with a mother and a father who watched their 14-year-old son die after an illness of less than 24 hours. I have spoken at a high school whose student body was mourning the passing of two classmates who were killed as they drove to school. I have been with a man and a woman as they released into the Lord’s hands a spouse of 60 years. I have been there. I have seen that these words of Jesus are more than words. They are God’s truth; they are salvation. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, life eternal is the Lord’s gracious gift to you. What can I tell you; how can I convince you? The truth is, I cannot. Only the Holy Spirit can touch your heart.
Those of you who know me; who are regular listeners to The Lutheran Hour; know that I have occasionally mentioned my father. He was, and even though he has been gone more than 15 years, remains one of the most important people in my life. I’d like to talk about him… well his death… for a few minutes. My father died suddenly. I got a call saying he had suffered a stroke; an hour later he had been declared dead. His leaving was just that fast.
He was healthy and then he was dead. The next day, I and my family drove to Chicago for the wake and funeral. When we arrived, dad’s slippers were still under the kitchen table where he liked to read the paper and eat a piece of toast. His plaid coat still hung on the hook by the garage door; his most recent creation in stained glass sat, unfinished, on his basement worktable. Everything was the same, but dad was dead.
Some time before, dad had written some notes about his wishes for his funeral. One of those notes said: “Have Kenny preach my sermon… if he is able. Don’t pay him anything.” Dad was practical. Another note read, “Have Tom (Tom is my brother) help you with the finances.
Don’t pay him anything, either.” Well, I managed to get through dad’s funeral sermon, and then, according to Chicago custom, the family took the guests, especially those who had come from a distance, out to lunch. This was the time my sister, my brother, and I had most dreaded. It was going to be a terrible strain on mom. She loved dad. I mean she loved dad, even as he had always loved her. Together they had given us a wonderful home in which to grow up. We had no idea how mom would do at that dinner. Although she was the smarter of the two, she had always let dad lead. If you’re bent out of shape by that, all I can say is, mom never felt demeaned, and dad never made demands. He led, because he was a Christian man, an honorable man, a man worth following. And now dad wasn’t there to lead.
At any rate, we went to the funeral luncheon. My brother, sister, and I were fully prepared to have mom sit in a corner and cry while we circulated among the friends and family members. It never happened. Mom was everywhere. She talked, and she laughed and she smiled, and yes, she cried. She was a hostess and we kids sat there with our mouths open; shocked and pleasantly surprised at what we were seeing. Afterwards we asked, “Mom, where did that come from?” As I remember, she replied: “Dad’s dying quickly like that was good for him; tough on me, but good for him. I’m glad he went that way. Besides, I know where he is, and our time apart won’t be long. I did what I did today because that’s what dad would have wanted me to do. Mom had hung out a sign on the door of dad’s life. The sign said: “Gone for a while; be back soon.” And he will be.
Now the question is, does your family have that sign? Will they be able to hang it out when you leave? Can you hang it out for them? I pray so. God grant it may be so. And if you need to know the Lord will make it so… call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR: 74-34
AIRS: May 6, 2007
TOPIC: Why Does God Care?ANNOUNCER: Now Pastor Ken Klaus answers questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.
KLAUS: Hello, Mark. And hello to you, the listener.
ANNOUNCER: A listener asks, “Why is God concerned about human beings at all? We are mere specks in a gigantic universe.” Our listener thinks God wouldn’t, and couldn’t, be concerned about us – which leads him to think that maybe Christianity is just a religion that people invented in order to make themselves feel more important.
KLAUS: You’re right… a question and a comment. Let’s take care of the question first. “Why is God concerned about insignificant – and sinful – human beings?” Did I get that right?
ANNOUNCER: Well, with one important addition – you mentioned “sinful.”
KLAUS: Yes, the answer to the question is many-faceted. First, it would be presumptuous of
me to say I could understand what is in the mind and heart of God. He’s far above me, or what anyone else can comprehend. Having said that, I do know the Triune God is a God of
love, because He has revealed that to us in the person of Jesus Christ. You know, over the years, Mark, I have seen mothers love their children, even when those children are less than perfect. Now, if a mother has that kind of love, what kind of love can you expect from the Creator?ANNOUNCER: That certainly makes sense… although God doesn’t make excuses for us the way some mothers might.
KLAUS: Good point. Our perfect God cannot simply dismiss or ignore our sins and laws. He expects us to be perfect as He is.
ANNOUNCER: But we can’t do that.
KLAUS: No, we can’t. Which is precisely why He sent His Son into this world to take our place. Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the laws and requirements we had broken, and then took upon Himself the punishment we deserved.
ANNOUNCER: But why would the Creator of the universe sacrifice His Divine Son for
insignificant people like us?
KLAUS: And that, my friend, is a question I simply can’t answer. Why God would do something like that – allow His Son to live, suffer, die for the sins of somebody else. It doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t sacrifice my son or daughters for someone else… you wouldn’t either. Still, in His grace, His undeserved and certainly impossible-to-be-understood grace, God did that for us, in Christ.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s really what the definition of God’s grace is… His undeserved kindness toward us, in Christ.
KLAUS: Right. God shows us undeserved kindness in allowing His Son to take our place. With Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, we are assured that the job of redeeming us has been complete. The payment has been accepted in full. Mark, I’d like to go just back for a minute. Compared to the universe, we might seem to be unimportant. But God does say differently.
ANNOUNCER: And where does He say that?
KLAUS: Take a look at Luke 12 (verses 6-7). Jesus is talking about fear and worry, and during the course of His discussion He says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not,” Jesus says, “you are of more value than many sparrows.”
ANNOUNCER: So, He’s saying that if a small and seemingly insignificant sparrow doesn’t escape the eye of the all-knowing and all-caring God, human beings won’t escape God’s care either.
KLAUS: Absolutely.
ANNOUNCER: But we still have to deal with that final comment our listener made: Is Christianity merely a human attempt to make ourselves feel more important?
KLAUS: And that is where I disagree with our listener. I completely, 180 degrees, disagree.
ANNOUNCER: Please, explain.
KLAUS: I disagree because man doesn’t have the ability to invent something as onderful as Christianity. You know, if you read Aristotle you are going to find him to be a very smart guy. Aristotle was deeply interested in God. He used his brain to look at the universe. He concluded a lot of things about God: He said there had to be one; he figured this God had to be all-powerful, all-caring. He figured out God had to be just and a God of order. From his study of nature and the universe, Aristotle figured out a lot of things about God.
ANNOUNCER: However…
KLAUS: …However, Aristotle could never figure out that God was gracious. Grace, undeserved kindness, sending His Son to die for the sins of another, doesn’t make sense. Which is why you don’t find that concept in any of the other religions of the world. They all, in one way or another, take the view that we must somehow earn God’s acceptance and favor. Only Christianity talks about God giving His Son to redeem sinful, undeserving, insignificant humanity. What Jesus did couldn’t be invented by humankind.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s our reply to the listener’s question. It’s by grace we’re saved… and grace is not a human religious concept.
KLAUS: Agreed.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“At the Lamb’s High Feast” arr. John Leavitt. GIA Publications
“At the Lamb’s High Feast” arr. Charles Ore. From From My Perspective, vol. 1 by Charles Ore (© 1992 Organ Works Corporation) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Allegro” by J.S. Bach. From The Water Is Wide by the Concordia Trio (©1999 Kevin Dolan)