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Easter 5 2025
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
May 18, 2025
Acts 11:1-18, Revelation 21:1-7, John 16:12-22
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When wives are pregnant they really appreciate husbands giving them advice and letting them know that it is not really that bad. Especially during labor, the ladies are looking for helpful suggestions from their husbands. They enjoy pregnancy jokes like how the pain of giving birth is almost as bad as a man having a cold……Well…maybe not. It has been a little while for me, but what I learned through being present four times during labor and delivery is that silent handholding may be tolerated.
In our Gospel reading today we have an unmarried man talking about the pain of childbirth. That may be dismissed as mansplaining, except, well….it is Jesus, God in flesh, the creator of the world. He was there in the Garden of Eden when the curse of pain in childbirth was put onto Eve and all women. So, for Jesus to talk about childbirth is probably okay.
Jesus talks about sorrow and joy and He uses a clear example. John 16:21 (ESV) 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”
It is a miracle of God that women who have gone through childbirth once, are willing to do it again. The joy of holding that newborn baby helps her forget the difficulties and pain. The great joy of a newborn baby overcomes the sorrow of having to face the anguish.
In the reading today from John, Jesus is in the upper room speaking with His disciples on that fate-filled Thursday night before heading out to Gethsemane. Jesus warns the disciples about what is coming. John 16:20 (ESV) 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful…” Before leaving the upper room Jesus tells the disciples that they will be sorrowful…but that is not the end of the sentence. “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
In 18 hours or so Jesus will be dead. The anguish He experiences during these hours is intense. The disciples go on a dark journey of observation through the valley of the shadow of death and they are afraid and troubled and devastated. They go from the high of Jesus’ teaching and washing feet and instituting the Lord’s Supper to His arrest and trial and His being beaten and humiliated and mocked and abused and flogged and crucified. The disciples, in the depths of their fear, watch their leader, their teacher, their Messiah, being destroyed. Jesus’ life fades away in front of them as he dies on the cross. The Romans make sure by piercing His side.
What are the disciples thinking as Jesus’ body is taken down from the cross and washed and wrapped in preparation for burial? How crushingly heartbroken are they as the stone is rolled in front of the tomb. What is the depth of their grief? The disciples, grown men, are overcome with weeping and lamenting. Hiding in the shadows, overcome with grief, they watch those around celebrating because the annoying teacher from Galilee is finally dead and gone. The chief priests and scribes and Pharisees are experiencing the thrill of victory. The disciples are living out the sting of defeat.
Jesus told His disciples that He would be killed and after three days rise from the dead. They should know this is true, but it so hard to believe Jesus will rise standing there witnessing the brutal finality of His death. The disciples are overwhelmed by grief and even if they could cling to the truth that Jesus will rise from the dead there would still be grief at His death. Death is tragic as we see with Jesus weeping outside Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus knows what He will do next, and He still weeps.
Death is painful and sad. Facing your own death or the death of a loved one is certainly one of the hardest things that you will ever have to do. Even though you know that you will die, death remains such a strange and foreign thing to happen, it is disorienting and overwhelming. Death is not natural; it was not part of God’s original plan. Adam and Eve were not designed to die and so death brings great grief.
Death is devastating, but it is not the end. Paul teaches in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 (ESV) 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
By rising from the dead Jesus defeated death. Romans 6:3–5 (ESV) 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
In this life there are times of great sorrow. There is conflict and financial struggles and sickness and injury and death. There are periods of sadness and struggle and anxiety. You can start to think, “Am I really a Christian? Why is life so hard? Why do I feel so bad? Why am I so afraid?” In your struggles you can feel the scorn of unbelievers who just shake their heads and ask, “Where is your precious Jesus now? If Jesus is real, why do you weep and lament?” Jesus’ words to His disciples can also apply to you, today, in the midst of your struggles, “You will be sorrowful… but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
This is the great good news of Easter. Jesus conquers death and the grave. While you are currently locked in the struggles of this life and you weep and lament, this is not the end. Easter turns sorrow into joy. Because Jesus rose from the dead, you will rise from the dead.
The Church is under attack from worldly forces that would like to see faithful Christian churches and schools disappear. Our church body faces the challenge of fewer members and fewer pastors and teachers and many struggling parishes. There is a lot of stress and strain and anxiety. What does the future hold?
These struggles and emotions are captured well by Anglican hymn writer Samuel Stone in “The Church’s One Foundation”
Though with a scornful wonder
The world sees her oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping;
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.
Like Jesus said, “You will be sorrowful… but your sorrow will turn into joy.”
Now, joy can be tricky. The important thing to remember about joy is that joy does not come from within. Joy is not from your personality. Joy is not from you being able to conjure up positive thoughts. Joy is from Jesus. Joy is from knowing that Jesus rose from the dead. Joy is from Jesus rising from the dead for you and promising that you too will rise from the dead. Easter turns sorrow into joy.
This is the great good news of Easter. Jesus conquers death and the grave. While you are currently locked in the struggles of this life and you weep and lament, this is not the end. Easter turns sorrow into joy. Because Jesus rose from the dead, you will rise from the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:54 (ESV) 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
On that day you can boldly confront death and demand, 1 Corinthians 15:55 (ESV) 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Because Jesus rose from the dead, the day is coming when death will be defeated forever. You wait for that day with great anticipation because you live in the valley of the shadow of death.
When we are standing at the side of a fresh grave ready to lower a brother or sister in Christ into the ground it is a somber, mournful moment. But there is great hope. What are the last words I speak at the graveside before the benediction? “Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia! Let us go forth in peace in the name of the Lord.”
Like a woman giving birth, the pain and grief of death and trouble is not the end of the story. Resurrection day is coming.
Today is graduate Sunday for our school’s 8th grade class. As our graduates leave Immanuel Lutheran School and go out into the world they go with life-altering, eternal knowledge. It is a rough world out there. I pray they will all stay connected to Immanuel or another Bible-believing church in order to be fed by God’s Word and Sacraments. As you conclude this divine service today and go back out into a world full of sorrow and trouble you also go out with life altering, eternal knowledge. You go -- knowing Jesus has risen from the dead – knowing you will rise from the dead. Despite the struggles of life, you go forth in peace and joy to love and serve in Jesus name. Easter turns sorrow into joy.
Amen.