19Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? 20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21When 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. 22So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
7 times Jesus mentions this little phrase, “A little while.”
I think mothers know a little something about this phrase “a little while.”
Ask mom’s things like how long their babies stays babies.
Those little whiles should remind mom and us all that “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home,” or as Peter said, we are sojourners and exiles.
One wise Christian I know reminded me this week that we are only passing through, here for “a little while.”
Jesus mentions the sorrow and pain of childbirth turning into the joy of a baby being born to illustrate how quickly sorrow can turn into joy.
Mom’s know a little something about sorrow and pain as well as joy and rejoicing.
You caused them both.
And Jesus is centering this whole conversation around something He is calling going to the Father.
He will give of Himself for your sake, even to the point of death, even death on a cross, to protect you so that you will have a joy no one will take from you.
One of Jesus’ illustrations of good mothers is that of the mother hen that when danger is near, will stretch out its wings to gather and cover her young.
She is saying that she will give of herself to the point that for you to get to her chicks, you will have to get through her dead body.
Last Saturday I heard a pastor tell the story of visiting a farmer who had invited him over to take him out to a burnt down chicken shed.
It had burnt down earlier that morning after lightning had struck it.
The farmer couldn’t put it out and could only wait to assess the damage when morning came.
As he was walking with the pastor over the rubble of the shed, he stopped and he said to the pastor,
“I stopped right here this morning because I had heard chirping.
I dug underneath some of this rubble and there was a dead body of one of my hens.
And underneath the stretched out wings of that dead mother hen was three living baby chicks.”
“That’s just like Jesus,” the farmer said.
“Just like Jesus,” the farmer said. He’s helping us get the directions straight. Jesus’ certainly teaches us about mothers. But good mothers especially teach us about Jesus.
In so far as they sacrifice and protect and comfort and console and heal and feed and clothe, they are just like Jesus.
The lesser teaches you about the greater.
That’s so important.
In so far as mothers are good, you learn they are just like Jesus.
In so far as mothers are bad, you learn you and they need something more, namely Jesus.
In so far as mothers protect and sacrifice, you learn they are just like Jesus.
And in so far as mothers are helpless to protect, the massive forces of sin, death, and the devil, you learn we all need a joy from Jesus, the no one or nothing can take away.
And that is the joy to know we are under Jesus’ wings.
No matter how good, or bad, your mother was or is, and no matter how good, or bad, of a mother you were and are, there are things that mothers cannot protect their children from, even over their dead bodies.
But Jesus can. And Jesus does.
Nothing, no one can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Nothing can get through those wings,
not sin, He who know no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God
not death, God sent His Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish have eternal life
not devil, The Son of God appeared that He might destroy the works of the devil
It took the dead body and outstretched arms of Jesus to fulfill that promises.
And it takes the living body of Jesus still present with us today to keep that promise.
And He is. That’s you, He’s gathering and protecting.
That’s you He lays His once dead now living body of Jesus over.
You are God’s child.
You are protected and gathered.
He gathers you again today so that you don’t forget where you should be gathered.
That you are safe under His wings.
All sin can be summarized in one sin, and that is the have another god –
to say no to God gathering us –
to think we are wise enough that we shouldn’t think, say and do what He tell us in His Word to think, say, or do,
or to think we are strong enough to not need Him to protect us under the wings of His Word and Sacraments in His Church,
or to think that He doesn’t always want to gather us, no matter how rebellious or foolish we have been.
We commit that one sin all the time or so many different way.
Jesus took on the fire of God’s wrath we deserve for our foolish straying.
Jesus took on the eternal separation of God we deserve for our rebellion.
He died that we might live. And He lives to keep gathering.
Mothers know the pain of when their children say no to their protection and wisdom.
And Jesus knew and knows the propensity for us to say no to Him.
Jesus wept over those who rejected His gathering and love and said….O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I wished I would gather you like a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.
But only under His wings are we safe.
He stretched His arms on the cross to protect you.
And He is gathering you once again under His wings with His Word and Sacrament.
Jesus speaks about the sorrow and joy of motherhood.
Sorrow when a woman is giving birth, because her hour has come.
But when the baby is born, she no longer remembers the anguish, for the joy of new life.
It was not easy for you to be born into this world.
It took mom’s blood, sweat, and tears and more sorrow and pain than you can imagine not only to birth you, but to raise you.
And it was not easy for you to become a child of God. It took the death of the Son of God, along with more blood, sweat, and tear filled Words and prayers from more people than you could ever know.
And you did nothing to be born.
And you did nothing to be re-born.
By grace you have been saved, and this is not of your own doing, lest you think you could boast.
It was not easy for you to become a child of God, but it is God’s eternal joy.
And your sorrow turning to joy. A joy that no one can take away from you.
What this day also ought to do is remind you of the love and sacrifice of Christ,
and the joy that He gives you in being children of God in the midst of great sorrows,
that as mothers carry life within them, so you also have life and hope within you,
that it is not you who live but Christ who lives within you,
that even the world scorns and hates you,
you are under His wings protection that no one and nothing can harm, that is not also for your eternal good.
Christ continue to work in you the will to keep saying, “yes,” to God gathering you,
until the day He gather’s you and you see Him as He is.
It will be just a little while, Jesus says.
It will be soon and very soon.
Don’t forget we are sojourners, that heaven is our home.
There, all our sorrow will turn into joy.
We are God’s children now, but we know when He appears, we shall see Him as He is.
Our comfort is that He sees us here.
Here, good mothers and mother hens will always be just like Jesus.
That here, we have Jesus for good mothers and us all to be just like.
And that here, that as we fail to be just like Jesus, we have Jesus, for us, with us, in us,
with powerful and loving wings outstretched,
to be the one who saves, protects, and comforts.