A Homily for the Third Sunday after Easter

A little while and ye shall see me. – S. John 16:16

It is one of the great promises of Scripture: “yet a little while and ye shall see me.” When the words were spoken to the disciples, shortly before the Last Supper, the disciples were puzzled and confused by them. (“What does he mean, ‘yet a little while’?”) They were still basking in the triumph of Palm Sunday, when the crowds met Jesus along the road crying, “Blessed is he who cometh in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” They were about to celebrate the Passover, the great festival of liberation, this year in Jerusalem.

Jesus said to them, “A little while and ye shall not see me, again a little while and ye shall see me.” And they did not know what he was talking about. Within the next twenty-four, Jesus was arrested, tried before the Jewish Sanhedrin and before the Roman governor, crucified, dead, and buried. Just a little while, and they did not see him, because he was buried in the grave. But then, on the third day, came Easter and the Resurrection. Again a little while, and they saw him again, standing in their midst.

Jesus said to them, “A little while and ye shall not see me, again a little while and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” And even after Easter, they still they did not know what he was talking about. Even as they walked with him to the place from which he would ascend into the heavens, they asked him, “Are you now going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” But he ascended out of their sight. It had been just a little while, and they did not see him.

But he left them—and us—with this promise: “Yet a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”

Throughout Scripture, this phrase, “yet a little while,” is used to introduce the promise of God’s ultimate victory and to counsel the faithful to be patient and to persevere, because the sufferings of this present world will end in just a little while.

In the thirty-seventh Psalm, the psalmist wrote:

Fret not thyself because of the ungodly;

neither be thou envious against the evil-doers. . . .

Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone:

thou shalt look after his place, and he shall be away.

But the meek-spirited shall possess the earth,

and shall be refreshed in the multitude of peace. . . .

The Lord knoweth the days of the godly,

and the Lord upholdeth the righteous.

The psalmist acknowledged that the evil-doers, the greedy, the selfish, the violent, the deceitful people may now seem to have the upper hand. But this is just a temporary situation, it will last just a little while, and then God will come to redeem his own: the evil-doers will be mowed down like grass, their swords will pierce their own hearts, they will blow away like smoke, their seed will be rooted out.

Similarly, the prophet Isaiah wrote:

Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off.

and the prophet Haggai wrote:

Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all the nations, and the desire of nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, . . . and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of Hosts.

So, too, Jesus, on the eve of his passion, warned his disciples that, for a little while, they would be sad, while the world around them rejoiced; but their sorrow would be turned to joy—a joy so complete that all of their pain and lamentation would be forgotten.

And this is a message for us, also. We, since our baptism, have been engaged in the struggle against the devil, the world, and the flesh; and many times as we look about us it seems that the devil, the world, and the flesh have got the upper hand. But the day of the Lord is coming, for Jesus Christ has overcome the world. Yet a little while, and our sorrow will be turned to joy; the earth and the sky and the sea will be shaken, and the Lord will give peace to his people.

As he does so often, Jesus quotes the Old Testament and then reveals a new or deeper meaning. He shows the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, albeit, sometimes, in an unexpected way.

Twice earlier in Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of what will be in yet a little while. Once, at time of the autumn harvest festival called Sukkoth, Jesus sent his disciples ahead to Jerusalem, then joined them secretly. And during the festival, he said to the people:

Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come.

On that occasion, in contrast to the Passover discourse in today’s Gospel lesson, it was the Jews of Jerusalem who were puzzled by Jesus’s saying. But on that earlier occasion, he did not explain; instead, he went on to say: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” And he promised them “living water.”

But later, shortly before he speaks the word’s of today’s Gospel lesson, he tells his disciples:

Let not your hearts be troubled. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

And when the disciples say that they did not know the way, he responds: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; and no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. And at that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

And this is also his promise to us. No matter how bad things may seem in this world, we must not let our hearts be troubled; we must be of good cheer, because Jesus Christ has overcome the world. He has gone ahead to prepare a way for us, and in yet a little while we shall see him face to face.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, they (and we) are counseled:

Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; . . . we are not of them who draw back into perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

Because we believe, we have confidence, we shall be patient, we shall persevere. And, to that end, the Father has sent a Comforter in Jesus’s Name, that is, the Holy Ghost, who brings to our remembrance all that Jesus said, and so strengthens us to persevere until the great day.

Yet a little while, and we do not see him. But again a little while, and we shall see him, because he has gone to the Father; and where he has gone, we shall go also, and we shall evermore dwell in him, and he in us.

Church of Saint Mary Magdalene

Orange, California

11 May 2003

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