Yet a little while [Easter 4]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 40:25-31

• I Peter 2:11-20

• St. John 16:16-23a

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!
In the Name…
To you all, my true children in the common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“So they were saying, ‘What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.’”

 
These days we hear conservatives cry out more and more for the Lord’s return. It may be coincidental that their “party” is not in “power” at the same time and maybe you have been paying attention to the past and know that these false teachers have been preaching this same sermon forever.
 
But if what they say is true, that we are living in the last of the last days, then it doesn’t seem so bad. I mean, I have a life, freedom for the most part, friends, family, a job, food, water, air. Everything looks fine. Maybe God was just being dramatic when He was talking about the Last Days?
 
So go our thoughts when we think about this “little while when we won’t see Jesus”. Because in these intermittent days, it appears as if we don’t see Jesus and suspect that fact as being an indication of the little while until the Last Day.
 
However, there are a few lies associated with the proclamation of this “little while. One of them being “life is short” or “only a little while” so live it up for yourself. This is shown to us in Luke 12:16-21, the parable of the rich man and his barns. He was so focused on his prosperity and, knowing his earthly life was short, decided to forsake all else.
 
Jesus offers the lesson at the end, to be rich towards God, instead. Which of course is up to God to give or not. this first lie, we will call false scarcity. That you don’t have enough time to be a decent person.
 
The second lie we’ll talk about today is also a lie about time being short. In this case, we use the short time as an excuse to judge our neighbor. In our hubris, we deem others as going to hell, as we see fit, and yet pride ourselves in going to heaven, as if it’s our doing. 
 
“Don’t you know God’s coming back soon?” “If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?” These sorts of statements betray our lack of trust in God and our overabundant trust in our own spirituality. St. Paul preaches against this in 1 Cor. 10:12 saying, “…let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
 
In lording ourselves over others, we commit the sin of false security.
 
The third lie of time being short, is what we allow done to us without rebuke. That is the lie of allowing oppression “for a short while”. The devilishness of this lie is that it’s done over a long period of time. “Just two weeks to flatten the curve”, “Just a little longer and everything will be as it was”, or “I promise to return it all back to you at the right time”.
 
Repent. Yes the time is short. Yes Jesus is returning soon. However, the time is short enough that Jesus could return today. What I mean by that, is that today it is bad enough here for it to be the Last Day. 
 
You would say, but its not that bad yet, is it? It is. What is so bad? First off, we must not look at outward appearances, as man does, but on the heart. And when we look at the heart, we find that it is the seat of all corruption and evil. Such, that your tiny, private sins are enough to condemn yourself and the world, as happened to Adam.
 
Now what do these three lies have to do with the “little while” that Christ is talking about? It is this: we strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel (Mt. 23:24). We hear Jesus say one thing “a little while” and miss Him talk about joy. 
 
Not just any joy, but joy that a man has been born into this world, the God-man Jesus Christ. This God-man would then go about for a little while, bringing the fruits of salvation to all. He would, for a little while, be handed over, suffer, and die for sinners. 
 
Herein is the real joy of this world. Herein is the sum total of all subjects an objects that should occupy all of our senses. That is, not the little amount of time we are given on earth, but the tiny amount of time it took, and takes, for God to reconcile us to Himself.
 
In a little while, you will be sorrowful because your sins will overtake you. You will be cast from your high seat, removed from your freedom, and told that you only have a short time to make it right. In a little while, the Lord will shake the heavens and the earth and use your sin and you will feel His judgement against you.
 
Yet again a little while and you will rejoice. You will rejoice because you see His Son. Yes, you will see Him on the Last Day, but you do see Him today, in Word and Sacrament, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.
 
The time is short, but the Lord and His Church have all the time in the world. Salvation comes swiftly, as a gift, to you and you have it today, right now, on account of Christ. St. Peter preaches:
 
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet 3:8-9).
 
So we have this “little while”, but we have it with our Lord Who loves us so, that He gave Himself up for us, as a sacrifice. His sacrifice upon the cross made it so that our little while is not spent in agony or anxiety, but in certainty, in confidence, in peace that only His Absolution can give. 
 
Our sin is the “one day” that St. Peter talks about. It is the one day of this whole lifetime that we have, where we feel the guilt and condemnation of our sin and immanent death. The “Thousand days” is the eternity spent with God on account of the forgiveness of sins. 
 
The “little while” is just that: a little while. The “rejoicing hearts at seeing Jesus again” is the revelation that He rose from the dead and sends His Spirit to us in Word and Sacrament. Time well spent, long or short, is time at the Lord’s Table eating and drinking with Him, so that, whether we have a little while or a long while; whether we are anxious or content; whether we live or we die, we are the Lord’s and He is ours.
 
Because in the little while that we saw Jesus, He purchased and won us on the cross, buying us back from sin, death, and the power of the devil. In the little while that we don’t see Jesus, He is praying for us at the right hand of the Father, sending His spirit in Word and Sacrament. 
 
Finally, in a little while, He will return. But at that time there will be no more “little whiles” and no one will take your joy from you. For you will be alive forever, seated at the Right Hand of the Father, with your good and patient Shepherd.