It’s the first day of school. You watch as children are being dropped off by their parents. You look over at the kindergarten classroom and find parents with children clutched to their legs. More than a few tears are being shed by both children and parents. You hear a parent saying to their child, “It’s alright. Go on in. I’ll be back in just a few hours to pick you up and take you home.” While the child knows the parent is right, the child still has a hard time letting go, of not being able to see the parent for all that time. But if the child doesn’t let go, what will they miss out on? Learning, playing, friends, so many good things.
While I don’t think that you necessarily would have found Jesus’ disciples clinging to Jesus’ leg after his resurrection, you do find them having a difficult time letting him go. Actually, there was one follower of Jesus who had been physically holding onto Jesus after his resurrection. You might remember how Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, overcome with emotion at seeing Jesus alive, grabbed ahold of Jesus and did not want to let him go. Jesus reminded her, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). She just didn’t want to let him go! But she wasn’t the only one.
Throughout the forty days following Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus had repeatedly made appearances to his disciples and followers. We’ve looked at some of those appearances over the last couple of weeks: the two disciples travelling on Easter afternoon to the town of Emmaus, the disciples on Easter evening, one week later again to all of his disciples including Thomas, and later on at the Sea of Galilee where Jesus ate breakfast with seven of his disciples and had that Good Shepherd conversation with Peter. But those were not the only appearances that Jesus made. The Apostle Paul tells us, “After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6). Yes, as you heard in the opening chapter of the book of Acts, “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive” (Acts 1:3). Jesus made it clear at multiple times, to multiple audiences, and in multiple places that he was in fact alive. But his appearances were not only to assure and re-assure and re-re-assure his disciples that he was alive, it was also to prepare them for what was going to happen next. He was preparing them for what we are going to be celebrating next weekend – Jesus’ ascension into heaven – the time when Jesus would permanently remove his visible presence from this world and from those disciples.
The disciples were having a hard time with that thought. They wanted to hold onto Jesus. They wanted to keep him here, to see him and to have him do what they wanted him to do. You see that in the question that they asked Jesus just before his ascension into heaven. The disciples asked Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Why did Jesus have to leave? He could stay and set up his kingdom and they could rule the world together, make people’s lives peaceful and perfect. It would be so good if Jesus just stayed! It was troubling to think of Jesus not being there, not doing what they were convinced Jesus should be doing.
That’s one of the reasons why Jesus made those multiple appearances to them. He was preparing them for that time when they would need to let him go. And how was Jesus preparing them for that? He prepared them by reminding them of not only why he had come INTO the world, but also why he was LEAVING this world. He reminded them that he did not come to stay here or bring heaven to earth. He came to return to heaven and then bring people from earth to join him in heaven. Jesus was repeatedly reminding them of the promise he made to them and to every Christians on the night before his death, “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back to take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2,3). Yes, Jesus needed to leave them. They needed to let Jesus go, but letting go was hard. Letting go is still hard.
Letting go is hard because we feel that in some way we are losing control. And let’s face it for the most part we like to be in control or at the very least to feel like we’re in control. When you’re used to driving the car and suddenly you find yourself sitting in the passenger’s seat with someone else driving, it can be a little difficult. You might have some sore legs from “breaking” when the person doesn’t slow down as quickly as you’d like. You might question the route that the driver is taking because it’s not the route YOU would have taken.
Do we ever find ourselves trying to hold onto Jesus, in some way trying to control Jesus, telling him what to do and when to do it? That’s especially true when we look at the things that are going on in our lives and think, “This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, Jesus! I just don’t understand! I just don’t get it! That’s not the type of ‘kingdom’ we thought you were going to give us! My way was so much better!” Like Jesus disciples, our hearts are troubled.
And what does Jesus remind us of? “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). That word for “troubled” has the idea of being agitated or stirred up. It’s like the washing machine that is tossing your clothes to the right and left to get the dirt out of them. It’s like swimming in a lake when and when you get too close to the bottom your stir up the silt so that the water gets all murky and you can’t see where you are going. Yes, our hearts can so easily be troubled when it feels like our lives are being thrown back and forth, flipped upside down by the unexpected. We find ourselves frantically trying to “tread the waters” of this life when things don’t go as we had planned or preferred, and our hearts become murky as we ask, “Why God? When God? What now God?” And what does Jesus say is the solution to troubled hearts? “Believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1). So simple, isn’t it? “Believe (trust) me.” And there’s a little, and sometimes a large, part of us that wants to fire back, “Why? Why should I trust you?” And Jesus actually anticipates that question. He says, “Remember! Remember why I came. Remember why I left.”
Remember why Jesus came. Jesus came to pay the price for your place in heaven. Do not underestimate the cost for that place in heaven. On this Memorial Day weekend we gratefully recall the cost for the freedoms that we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. We appreciate the sacrifice of those in our military and their families, the very high price that has been paid. The sacrifice of time, energy and even life itself. But all of those sacrifices combined cannot even begin to pay for the price for even a single place in heaven. Heaven’s home and the unending peace that comes with it, required God sacrificing his own life. As the Bible says of Jesus, “With your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Jesus battled the devil at the cross and was willing to give his life in our place. He suffered the eternal death of hell that is required of us, for our sinful doubting and our demanding of God. He poured out his holy, precious blood, as the payment for us to live in heaven’s home, to be live in the eternal peace of God’s presence. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is receipt of his purchase, confirmation of our your reservation in heaven’s home. But in order for Jesus to take us there, first Jesus needs to go there.
You see, just as Jesus came INTO this world with a specific purpose (to pay the price for our place in heaven), so Jesus LEAVES this world with a specific purpose. He leaves so that he can come back to take us to that place he has prepared for you in heaven. That is the promise that Jesus fulfills every time a Christian dies. Like that parent who returns at the end of the school day to pick up their child just as they promised, so Jesus immediately comes to pick up his children from this world on the day of their death, just as he promised.
Jesus’ disciples needed to be reminded of that. We need to be reminded of that promise. Why? Because we so easily can lose sight of it in the troubling circumstances of our lives. If I’ve visited you in the hospital you’ve probably heard me say, “I’m not here to tell you anything new. I’m hear to remind you of what you already know.” God is not constantly reinventing his message to meet popular opinion or what’s trending now. Instead we have a God who is consistent and faithful, who simply reminds us of why he came, why has gone, and how he will come back for you. In that we find what Jesus promised, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you… Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27). It’s okay to let go because Jesus never will. Amen.
