The Long Goodbye
John 17: 11b-19
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the seventh Sunday of Easter is the Gospel reading John 17. A few years back a friend of mine gave me a video to watch called “How to talk Minnesota”. The whole idea of this humorous video was to explain the culture of my home state. I thought many of the things mentioned about Minnesota also apply to all of the Midwest states, including Illinois. One of the things that the video mentioned that I think applies to the entire Midwest is the long goodbye. Most of us have experienced the long goodbye. It goes like this. You visit friends or relatives for the evening. Food is usually prepared and after supper you spend time visiting and talking. But then comes the time to leave and get back home. You mention to your host that it is about time to go. They point out the fact that you cannot leave yet because you haven’t had dessert. So you stay for some dessert. It would be rude to leave right after eating the dessert so you stick around for a little longer. But after a while you once again tell the people that you are visiting that it is time to go. They tell you to wait a minute so that they can give you leftovers from supper. You stand in the kitchen and talk to them as they load you up with food. Your conversation moves from the kitchen to the door. After some time you move from the door to the car. If you are with your spouse or have children, this process of saying goodbye takes even longer because you can’t get everyone out the door at the same time. After spending about ½ hour by the car you finally get into your car and leave. As you pull out of the driveway you wave to the people that you were visiting until you can no longer see them. Most of us have experienced the long goodbye many times.
In our Gospel reading for today John records for us the words of a prayer that Jesus spoke before His crucifixion and resurrection. In the prayer Jesus states that He will be leaving His disciples soon and will be returning to God the Father. Jesus was speaking about His ascension into heaven. Our Lord’s words of course came to pass. Jesus died on the cross to cleanse us of our sins and He rose again from the dead to assure us of eternal life. After His resurrection Jesus showed Himself to His disciples for forty days. During those forty days the Lord assured them that He was truly alive. After the forty days were done Jesus ascended into heaven. He left His disciples and returned to God the Father. It seems that the prayer that Jesus spoke in our reading for today was the beginning of a long goodbye He was saying to His disciples. After spending some time with them He was going to leave.
But when we take a closer look at our Lord’s ascension, we see that He was not saying goodbye at all. When Jesus ascended into heaven He did leave His disciples visibly, but He made sure that His work continued in them. The disciples saw Jesus leave visibly but that does not mean that He was not with them. Let me explain. At the ascension, Jesus took His seat at the right hand of God. To sit at the right hand of the Father means that Jesus has been given all power and authority. That means that He is constantly exercising God’s power on our behalf. It means that He is always with His people. Jesus true God and true man is here right now.
Jesus is indeed with us but there are times when we forget this. We sometimes forget about our Lord because we can’t see him with our eyes. Because we can’t see Him we move to the things of this world that we can see. We sometimes focus our attention on the things that give us immediate satisfaction. We focus our attention on the things that we can see and touch and smell. We like to live in nice houses with comfortable furniture. We get our security from the amount of money that we have. We spend hours on our phones and computers often looking up things of little importance. We place the things of this world above dedication to God.
Jesus is indeed with us, but we sometimes forget this. Because we can’t see Him, we move to the things of this world that we can see. Sometimes we focus on what is wrong with the world. When we look at the world we see sin, suffering, evil and death. When we look at what is going on in the world it can make us discouraged. We see unrest and protests all around the country. We watch the news and start to worry that our society is unraveling. We hear about terrorists. We see problems in our own community from broken families to children who have no guidance. We also spend a great deal of time looking within ourselves and lamenting about what is wrong in our life. We complain and are ungrateful. We see all that is wrong in the world, and we sometimes wonder if the Lord is here. We wonder if the Lord is with us.
Jesus Christ is most definitely present in our lives but we sometimes forget this. We forget about the Lord because we can’t see Him with our eyes. Because we can’t see Him we move to the things of this world that we can see. Sometimes we look to the things that give us temporary comfort and place them above God. Sometimes we look at what is wrong in the world and wonder if the Lord is even here.
In our reading for today Jesus tells His disciples that He is leaving them and returning to the heavenly Father. It appears to be the beginning of one long goodbye. After our Lord’s death and resurrection He ascended into heaven. But when we take a closer look at our Lord’s ascension, we see that it was not about saying goodbye at all. Jesus went to heaven to sit at the right hand of God. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him.
The Lord now comes to us in His Word. He comes to us in Baptism. He comes to us in Holy Communion. Through these means Jesus comes to us in a special way in order to create and sustain saving faith in our hearts. Jesus also prays for us and intercedes for us. He prays that we would find joy in the Gospel, that we would be guarded against the attacks of Satan, and that we would be sanctified in the truth. The Lord remains with us, and He works through us to reflect His light. It appears that the ascension of our Lord was one big, long goodbye. But when we take a closer look, we see that it was not about saying goodbye at all. True enough we are not able to see Jesus with our eyes but through the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to see Jesus through the eyes of faith.
Jesus remained with His disciples. He not only guided them and protected them but He worked through them to spread the Gospel message of salvation to all people. The disciples may not have seen the Lord with their eyes after He ascended but He was definitely with them.
It is the same with us. Jesus comes to us in His Word and gives us understanding that all the blessings that we have such as our homes and our money are gifts from God. We worship the Giver not the gifts. Our comfort and security come from the Lord. More importantly Christ has given us salvation. It is Jesus who forgives us and renews us and gives us new life. Jesus came into the world to defeat sin and evil and restore all things. It is Jesus who has overcome sin and Satan by His death on the cross and it is Jesus who has overcome death by His resurrection. It is the Lord who will judge all who do evil in this world and He is the one who will save all those who trust in Him.
We may not be able to see Jesus with our eyes but that does not mean He is not here. The Lord is most definitely here. Jesus will remain with us to the very end of the age. We now look to Jesus with the eyes of faith. When our Lord makes His visible return we will then indeed see Him with our own eyes. Amen.