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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The newspaper for the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and for the whole Cleveland-Akron Designated Marketing Area in Northeast Ohio, is called The Plain Dealer. Founded nearly 175 years ago, The Plain Dealer, like other newspapers, faces challenges in today’s world of electronic communications, and so, in recent years, The Plain Dealer, like the Kilgore News Herald, has reduced home delivery of its printed editions and concentrated more effort on electronic delivery of its news. The award‑winning paper’s name, The Plain Dealer, always struck me, as I heard about it in my work as a journalist, and so its name came to my mind in connection with today’s Gospel Reading, in which Jesus tells the disciples that the hour is coming when He will tell them plainly about the Father, and the disciples think Jesus is already speaking plainly but really do not know all that Jesus is talking about. As we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, we realize that our Triune God in some sense is “The Plain Dealer”, especially when it comes to our joy and peace.
Today’s Gospel Reading picks up right where last week’s Gospel Reading left off (John 16:12-22), continuing what is called Jesus’s “Farewell Discourse” on the night He was betrayed. Earlier that night, Jesus had said that for a little while they would not see Him, that He would go to the Father (John 16:10), and that both the Father would give and Jesus would send the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; 16:7), Who would declare to the disciples the things of the Father and the Son (John 16:13, 15). The disciples did not know what Jesus was talking about, and He knew that they wanted to question Him. Then, as we heard, Jesus spoke of a time when they would not have to question Him about anything, and apparently, by His demonstrating His knowledge of the disciples’ questions without their asking them, the disciples knew that Jesus knows all things—and so did not need anyone to question Him—and thereby the disciples also believed that Jesus at least came from God, if not also that Jesus was going to God the Father.
Instead of after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, the disciples thought both that Jesus was speaking plainly and that they knew what He was talking about right then and there (confer Ridderbos, ad loc Jn 16:29, 30, 544), but Jesus was skeptical. Jesus asked them, “Do you now believe?”, and Jesus told them how in just a few hours they would be scattered and leave Him, even as He was leaving the world, which departure the overconfident disciples apparently still did not understand. How like the disciples are we, even after the coming of the Holy Spirit? Even if we know Jesus has attributes of God and confess faith in His Divine origin, are we always gathered to Him, and do we always stay with Him? Or, do we let the tribulation of the world rob us of the full joy and peace that He gives us by His Word? No doubt even we, who do know and believe, continue to live our lives as if we do not. Because our sinful natures still cling to us, we continue to sin in countless—sometimes unspeakable—ways. For such sinful natures and actual sin, we deserve nothing but death now in time and eternal punishment in hell.
But, as Jesus in the Gospel Reading told the disciples to “take heart”—or to “be of good cheer” or to “take courage”—so Jesus calls us to repent of our sin and to believe in Him for the forgiveness of our sin. Even if the disciples were not quite there with their knowledge and faith, they at least were on the right track, and so are we. Truly as Jesus said, He came from the Father into the world—for us people and for our salvation, He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried. Truly, as Jesus said, He was leaving the world and going to the Father again—the third day He rose again and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. In its length, the Hymn of the Day by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther told well of Jesus’s coming and going for us (Lutheran Service Book 556). God the Father loved the world by giving His only Son (John 3:16), and, upon the Son’s return, the Father through the Son gave the Holy Spirit Who deals plainly with us about the joy and peace that are ours—joy and peace given to us by the Holy Spirit Who Himself is given to us through God’s Word and Sacraments (Augsburg Confession V:1-2).
Now, I will be the first to admit that, even with the Holy Spirit’s help, I still do not think God always deals with me as plainly as I might like, and the English Standard Version of today’s Gospel Reading does not particularly help. In the Reading’s first verse, the E-S-V translates two seemingly distinct Greek verbs with the same English verb. At least one other version (NASB) translates with a clear distinction between not questioning Jesus in the future and petitioning the Father in Jesus’s Name. Jesus commands us to so petition the Father in prayer, and He promises that we will receive, so that our joy may be full. We do not ask for “whatever” we want, but, convicted and indicted of our sins by God’s law, and trusting Him to forgive our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, we pray specifically for the forgiveness of sins—for its joy and peace—which we receive from God through Holy Baptism, individual Holy Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar.
Today’s First Reading and today’s Epistle Reading give examples of God’s Word and Sacraments bringing joy and peace to God’s people, both now and for eternity. In today’s First Reading (Acts 16:9-15), St. Paul and his companions, including St. Luke, carry out the mission of the Church, bringing the Gospel’s joy and peace to Lydia and to her whole household, who were baptized in Philippi. And, in today’s Epistle Reading (Revelation, 21:9-14, 21-27), entrance into the holy city of the new Jerusalem is granted to those who, by Holy Baptism, both have been cleansed of their sins and had their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. As we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, what Jesus says to us—whether the Word read or preached or the Word with water, bread, and wine—is for us to have peace. In the world we have tribulation, but He has overcome the world, and in Him we have peace, and He enables us to live our lives accordingly. We can be absolutely certain that our prayers for such peace and joy in Jesus’s Name are in keeping with God’s will and so are answered through God’s means of grace.
People reportedly argue about the bias and quality of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper, but we should have no such thoughts about the Triune God as our “Plain Dealer”. Whether or not we always understand everything as we might, the Triune God is clear about our sin and what He has done about it by Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection from the grave. When we repent and believe in Jesus, then God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin might be. The Father has loved us, and, aided by the Holy Spirit, we love and believe in Jesus. In God’s Triune Name, this Divine Service began and will end. In God’s Triune Name, we were Baptized and are Absolved. In God’s Triune Name, we have joy and peace. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You! (Psalm 67:3, 5).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +