“You Will See Me”
John 14:19

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Sixth Sunday of Easter—May 26, 2019

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our text is from today’s Gospel Reading.  At the Last Supper, Jesus says to his disciples: “In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but YOU will see me. Because I live, you also shall live.”

I have always had extremely vivid dreams.  Several times in the years since my mother and father passed away, they have both appeared briefly in my dreams, like a home movie being played from my memory.  It is very realistic, and wonderfully delightful to once again see them and hear their voice in this way.

In our text, the disciples are not living through a dream, but a nightmare.  It should be the happiest of festive occasions.  Like our joyful holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, they are gathered for the Passover meal in the Upper Room.  But, a dark cloud hangs over this gathering.  We have come to call that occasion the LAST Supper, because it took place on Maundy Thursday of Holy Week.  In just few hours the tragic, fateful events of Good Friday will begin to unfold.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore.”  The disciples should understand what Jesus, in a very gentle way, is telling them.  For, he put it to them more bluntly on their way up to Jerusalem for the Passover: “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

When Jesus says, “In a little while, the world will not see me anymore” he is again predicting his DEATH.  As he says at the end of the meal, just before they go out to the Garden of Gethsemane, “Yes, what is written about me is coming to fulfillment.”  As it is written about him in the Old Testament Scriptures, and as he himself told his disciples, in less than 24 hours he will be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, condemned to death, mocked, flogged, and crucified.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore.”  The night of his birth into the world, the angels sang with JOY, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”  But, the sinful world spurned and rejected him, and his claim to be the Son of God and Savior of the world.  As the Gospel of John tragically reports, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

That condemnation “they received him not” is directed NOT just at those people, back then.  It is also condemning YOU and me.  For, we too are called to be his own, but so often we too follow instead our sinful ways, and spurn and reject him.  “He came unto his own”—including you and me—“and his own received him not.”

In a few hours in the Garden of Gethsemane, an angel from heaven will appear again.  This time not to joyously sing, but to strengthen him in his sorrow as he prepares to bear our sins in his body on the cross, praying with such agony that his sweat becomes like drops of blood falling to the ground.

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow,” he said.  Sorrow that the sinful world spurned and rejected him and his claim to be the Son of God and Savior of the world; sorrow over YOUR sin; sorrow that “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

Our sins deserve only wrath and punishment.  If God meted out upon sinful humanity the punishment we deserve, the world should have been annihilated at the moment when the very Son of God was nailed to the cross.

But, Jesus says, “I give my flesh for the life of the world. . .  I have come that they may have life . . .  For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore.”  The light of the world, who for a few decades became flesh and lived among us, is being extinguished.  “But YOU will see me.”

The Light of the World is NOT extinguished for you; he continues to shine for you, and all who trust in him.  Those first disciples saw him again on the third day, when he rose again from the dead, as “he came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’” 

Those first disciples saw him again on the road to Emmaus.  “Were not our hearts burning within us,” they said, “while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 

The book of Acts reports, “After his suffering, Jesus showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”  Those first disciples saw him again for forty days after his resurrection, and then, the Gospel of Luke says, “He lifted up his hands and blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

“I am returning,” Jesus said, “to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”  Yet he also promises, “Lo, I am WITH you always, to the very end of the age.”  “In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but YOU will see me.”  Your risen Lord has ascended into heaven and sits in power and glory at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and yet he is WITH you, always, and like those first disciples, you DO see him.  Not just a dream or memory, but you DO see him.

You see him in his WORD, as he said, “These are the Scriptures that testify about me.” 

You see him, in the Sacrament of Holy BAPTISM, as Paul says in Titus, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

You see him, in the Sacrament of Holy COMMUNION.  “Do this,” he said, “in remembrance of me.”  “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,” Paul says “you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

You see him in the love of your brothers and sisters in Christ.  As he also said at the Last Supper that night, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

You see him here, in worship amongst your brothers and sisters in Christ.  “For wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them,” he promised.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but YOU will see me.”  To the world, Jesus Christ is only an historical figure, a memory from the past.  But, for you and all who trust in him, he is not just an historical figure, not just a memory from the past, like my dreams of my mother and father.  He is the living Lord, your precious Savior, who is with you always. 

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians, “We live by faith, not by sight.”  By faith you see him, in his Word; by faith you see him in the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion; by faith you see him in the love of your brothers and sisters in Christ; by faith you see him here among us, as we gather together in his name.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also shall live.”  In this world you see him with the eyes of faith.  But, Job declares that in the next world, “I myself will see him with my own eyes.”  Because he lives, you also shall live, and in heavenly glory you shall see your Savior with your own eyes.  As Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Then we shall see face to face.”  And John writes, “We know that when he appears . . .  we shall see him as he is.”

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore.”  He was crucified, dead and buried.  The third day he rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

“But YOU will see me.”  He is not just a memory or a dream; he lives and is with you always.  By faith you see him, in his Word, in the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, in the love of your brothers and sisters in Christ, and here among us, as we gather together in his name.

“Because I live, you also shall live.”  Finally, in heavenly glory you see your Savior, no longer only by faith, but face to face, with your own eyes.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.”  That precious promise is also our comfort as we remember departed loves ones this Memorial Day.  For, what Jesus says about himself also applies to all who died with faith in him.  “In a little while . . . you will see me.”  In a little while, you will see again your mother, father; grandmother, grandfather; husband, wife; son, daughter; and other friends and loved ones who trusted in him.  “In a little while . . . you will see me.”  You will them all again in the great reunion in glory.

“In a little while, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also shall live.”