Great is Thy Faithfulness – What Does This Mean?

Grace, mercy, and peace, be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The theme is this: Great is His faithfulness.

I believe you can ask every mother in this room today and get quite more of a description than you bargained for about the pains of childbearing. But let John do the describing for us without the extra embellishments. The woman in labor has such pain in order to give birth to her children, but all of that pain fades away when she holds her baby in her arms. Her sorrow and her pain are turned to joy. When she holds that child, nothing else matters.

And I believe you can ask every mother in this room today about how she feels when her young whippersnappers head off to college. On the one hand, she wants what is best for you, wants you to do your best and achieve your goals. She wants you to be grown up and start your own families. But on the other hand, I tell you the truth, she misses you, her children, when you are gone from the home. She wants you to call her, so she can hear your voice again. She wants you to visit her, to come home. While you are off at college, she has sorrow. But when you return, her sorrow is turned into joy. A little while you are away, and again a little while and you come back.

And this is no different in the life of the church. That our children have left or our neighbors have left. And for many of us, we want them to come back. A little while and you will not see me…but we hope and pray that again a little while and we will see them. We have sorrow now, and the world rejoices at this. The devil loves our suffering. The devil devises divisions, strife, false doctrine, you name it.

When Jesus speaks these words to the disciples, it is on the night in which he was betrayed. A little while and you will not see me. I will be crucified. I will die, and I will be buried. He knows this, but the disciples cannot believe it is true. Sure, Jesus said three times that he would be killed and be buried and on the third day rise again. Sure, the Old Testament prophesied this long ago in Psalm 22 and 31 and in Isaiah 53. But our text today reminds us that the disciples are still not understanding what Jesus means. This news makes them sorrowful, but again a little while and they will see Him, see Him raised from the dead. That will turn their sorrow into joy.

On a day like today, on “Take your Mom to church” Sunday, I hope that many of our mothers are joyful that you are here with them hearing the Word of God and believing it like you were raised. I pray that you come back and that she has joy when you return. But when this Sunday falls on a theme like this one, let us turn to the book of the Bible made famous for sorrow, the book of Lamentations, written from Jeremiah, the so-called Weeping Prophet.

For Jeremiah surprises us when he says to us today, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” This is incredibly comforting for us. This is the Good News and Gospel for our souls. That like our own mothers who love us our whole lives, our Lord loves us even more and greater and it never ceases. He died on the cross because He loves us. His mercies, His grace, is not conditional nor does it only last for a few months or years. God’s mercy is granted to you all the days of your life, even today, in the midst of sorrow.

Great is our Lord’s faithfulness to us! In the midst of lamentations, in the midst of pain, in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of struggles, our Lord’s mercies will never fail us. There is no other piece of our lives that can promise us this. At the school, there will not always be an ear to listen. On the farm, there oftentimes seems to be no mercy. At work, we may struggle with various trials. Even in our homes, there are times of lamentations. But you must always remember and never forget.

Great is our Lord’s faithfulness to you. The Lord is your portion, therefore you will hope in Him. Our hope is not in our jobs or our children. Our hope, dearly beloved saints of God, our hope is in the Lord. This hope that we have is this very thing, that our sorrow will be turned into joy. Rejoice, for you shall see the Lord again, again you will see Him, this time face-to-face in clouds of glory.

Great is His faithfulness. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that we should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. In our lives, we wait for many things, for many prayers to be answered, for many children to come home. Let us also wait for the salvation of the Lord. Let us also wait, for the Lord shall return to bring us, His children, home. Let us also wait, and as we wait, His mercies are new every morning. His faithfulness is great every day.

So also, you have sorrow now, but the Lord will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you forever and ever.

In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.

Rev. James Peterson
St. John
Curtis, Nebraska

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