Third Sunday after Easter
Bishop Ray R. Sutton

It seems that life constantly places us somewhere between the beginning and the end of something, waiting for the completion of what was started. It could be any kind of project, a school year, a pregnancy, a degree program, a job, a business deal, a contract, waiting for a new job, buying a home, an engagement for marriage, time left before retirement or a crisis of any sort for which we’re waiting for the resolution. Humans are always in the middle of some phase or period in their lives. It is in these middle times that we often face our greatest challenges. Waiting patiently, not losing sight of the goal, keeping the faith to the end, and staying on track when we don’t seem to be making progress are only a few of the little tests we face when we’re in the middle of a phase, a process, or one of those pendulum swings in life.

Our Gospel lesson from John 16 talks about the phenomenon and challenges of living between two critical times. Listen to the language of Jesus teaching His disciples in the Upper Room just before He was crucified: “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” (John 16:16). Understandably Jesus’ statement confused the disciples. They asked among themselves what He meant by, “A little while and you will not see Me . . . and a little later you will see Me?” Eventually Christ interrupts their confused state. Jesus was going to leave them. He was also going to return.

Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t tell them when and of what event in particular He was speaking. He was prophesying of a time when He would leave and a moment of return. The time of not seeing Him and seeing Him again could be His own Death and Resurrection. It could also be His Ascension into heaven and His Second Coming. It could be referring to the struggles that the Church would face through history waiting for the return of Christ. Or, Jesus might be speaking of all these events. Often prophetic portions of scripture have what is called double or multiple fulfillment. No doubt the Church has historically understood our passage as referring to the anticipation of Christ’s Ascension. In a few weeks we will celebrate this event. It was a glorious moment but it contained sadness for the disciples. Jesus left them once again. Whatever the case, whether the words of not seeing and seeing Christ again refer to His Death or Ascension, the spiritual teaching is the same.

What Jesus concentrates on with the disciples is not so much the exact time and place of His departure, or departures, and return/returns. Instead, Jesus addresses them with a message of hope for those challenging moments when they will become tired of waiting for His return. He tells them, “I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice: and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.” Jesus then uses the analogy of child birth: “A woman when she is in labor has sorrow, because her hour of delivery has come: but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she soon forgets the anguish, because of the birth of her child.”

Jesus then summarizes His lesson on living after His departure and before His return. He tells the disciples, “Now you have sorrow, but I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice. This joy no one can take from you.”
Christ’s lesson transcends the departures of His Death and the Ascension. He seems to turn to a universal principle that applies to all times of struggle or trial when we’re working toward the end of something. These moments, according to Christ, apply to every difficult transition in the life of a Christian as a kind of birthing process.

Jesus explains our spiritual struggles as offering occasion for giving birth to Christ in our lives. It could the first time we invite Christ into our lives. It could be other times when Jesus comes into our life in a new and more profound way. If we’re not a Christian, the heart of our battle is recognizing that we need Christ in our life. Yet Christians often struggle through hard times and tests after they become Christians. Ironically, when we struggle it often seems as though Christ has left us. And when we come to the other side of whatever the struggle is, it is as though Christ has come back. Actually Jesus has never left us. What has happened is that through our trials, we come to the point of allowing Christ to take more of our life, letting Him come into areas where we’ve told Him to keep out. Then we discover that Jesus returns.
According to Christ, this sense of the return of Christ to us is like a birth. Jesus enters our lives with a greater manifestation of His presence. It is His presence that has comes forth in ways that we previously did not know. Our trials have given birth to a new sense of Christ in our lives.

Joy always follows sorrow for a Christian. No matter what, joy comes again. And the joy of Christ no human can take away. This joy of the Lord has always confounded the non-believer. For this reason, a minister I once knew was always fond of telling his parishioners, “The best is yet to come.” So when we’re caught in the middle of the struggle between when Christ came and when He’s going to rescue us out of whatever mess, let us remember, “The Best is yet to come.” Amen.