You Say Good-bye, I Say Hello

This is the message from the Wednesday Lent Service in Gettysburg on April 9, 2014.  The Bible verses used are John 14:1-31 and John 16:16-33.

            What we just read could really be considered part of Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples.  The disciples had been with him for what we estimate as about three years, although the gospels really don’t make that clear.  And now it’s time for him to leave them.

            The disciples did not really understand that, of course.  As we’ve talked before, that’s one of the constants running through the gospels, the way the disciples did not understand what was going on.  But this sermon series is called “Jesus in HD”.  It’s not about the disciples, it’s about Jesus, both the fully human Jesus and the fully divine Jesus.

            We talked a few weeks ago about how lonely Jesus must have felt when he was on the earth, how there was no one who really was like him or who really understood what it was like to be him.  But still, the disciples were his friends, the people he was closest to on earth.  And now, he was preparing to leave them.

            We assume that the fully divine Jesus knew what was going to happen to him, and would’ve known that even though it was going to be hard, he would ultimately prevail, even over death, and that he would go back to heaven and be with God the Father.  That would’ve been a wonderful thought for him.  But still, he was leaving the people he cared about the most on earth.  And leaving people you care about, even when you know you’re going to something better, is still a hard thing to do.

            I find it interesting, though, that the gospels say nothing about how Jesus felt about that.  Jesus’ concern is for his disciples, not for himself.  In all the things we read tonight, and in the parts we did not read, and in the other gospels that describe this as well, all of Jesus words are aimed at preparing the disciples for what’s going to happen.  He’s trying to get the disciples ready.  He’s telling them that things are going to be all right.

            The one time we get a little insight into how Jesus felt is when Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We did not read that tonight.  We’ll get to it next week during Holy Week.  But we know that Jesus asked God that, if there was some other way things could play out, some other way humans could be saved that did not involve Jesus having to die, that God do it that way.  A lot of times we assume that Jesus did not want to go through the pain and suffering and death that were coming up for him, and I’m sure that’s part of it.  I mean, who would not feel that way?  But I wonder if, maybe, a part of that was also the fact that he did not want to be separated from his friends.  

I don’t know, but it seems possible.  It seems like a natural human reaction.  I remember Wanda’s grandmother, when she was near death, saying that she was not afraid of dying, but that she felt bad because she knew how much her family did not want her to go.  Maybe that’s part of what was going on here, too.  Maybe it was not so much that Jesus was afraid of dying, but that he did not want his disciples to go through all the grief of missing him.

Now, obviously, it’s not like Jesus just suddenly found out that he was going to die.  He knew it for a long time.  He told the disciples about it several times.  Jesus knew what was going to happen.  But no matter how much we try to prepare ourselves, it’s still very hard to say goodbye.

And yet we do it all through our lives.  People come into our lives, they stay for a while, and then they leave.  Not all of them, of course.  But a lot of them.  Of course, with the life I’ve led, living in a half-dozen different places, I may be more aware of it than some.  But still, think about it.  

How many people are there that you went to school with that you never hear from any more?  Even those of you who are still in school, I’ll bet there are people who you went to school with as little kids who are not part of your life any more.  And those who are older, think about people you used to work with are no longer in your life.  Think of family members who are no longer in your life.  There’s an old song that says, “The first time that we said hello began our last good-bye”, and it’s true.  Whether we think about it or not, somewhere in the back of our minds we know, when we meet someone, that at some point we’re going to say good-bye.  And good-byes are hard.

But you know, we could also turn that old song around.  We could also say, “The last time that we say good-bye begins our first hello.”  Because good-byes are what make hellos possible.  Letting go of one thing makes it possible for us to take hold of something else.  Moving away from one thing makes us possible for us to move toward another.  If we never said good-bye, nothing would ever change.  And if nothing ever changed, nothing could ever get better.

And that’s even true of life itself.  Just like Jesus, we, we know that at some point, we’re going to die, too.  We don’t just suddenly find that out at the end of our lives.  We may try to deny it for much of our lives, but we still know.  The time will come that we have to say good-bye, not just to a person, but to our lives on earth.

Ideally, we’ll be able to do it the way Jesus did.  We’ll be able to do it, not being sad for ourselves, but instead thinking about others, trying to prepare them for what’s going to happen.  We may not be able to do that, and I’m not saying it’s a sin if we don’t.  I cannot claim to know what it’s like to be in that position, so I certainly am not in a position to judge anyone else.

But regardless of whether we’re able to do it the way Jesus did, we have the ability to go where Jesus went.  What happened to Jesus can happen to us.  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because of God’s great love for us and mercy on us, and because of our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we, too, will ultimately prevail, even over death.  We, too, will go to heaven to be with God the Father.  

A good-bye is always sad.  Again, even when we know we’re moving on to something better, it’s still sad.  And Jesus knew that.  When he was talking to the disciples, he told them that they were going to be sad when he was gone.  He told them it was okay for them to be sad.  But he also told them that, eventually, their grief would turn to joy.  Because they would understand what Jesus was telling them.  They would understand that Jesus had died and conquered death and gone to heaven, all to prepare the way for us to go to heaven.  And they would understand that Jesus was coming back to take them along that same way to that same place.  In other words, it was okay for them to feel sad at saying good-bye, because their good-bye would not be permanent.

But he also told the disciples something else.  He told them that after they had said good-bye, they needed to say hello.  He told them to say hello to all the people who had not heard of him.  He told them to say hello to all the people who don’t know God.  He told them to say hello to all the people who need to know they are loved, who need to know their sins can be forgiven, who need to know that they don’t have to be alone, that they have a God who wants to be with them and help them and guide them through their lives.  He told them to say hello to all the people who need to know that salvation is available to them through God’s incredible love and mercy if they just come to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.

And that’s what Jesus tells us to do, too.  We need to say hello to those same people.  The people who don’t know Jesus.  The people who are feeling alone and unloved.  The people who feel God’s presence in their lives, who don’t feel God helping them and guiding them through live.  The people who don’t know that salvation is available to them through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is telling us to say hello to those people, just like he told the disciples to do.

            Good-byes are a part of life, and we have to accept them.  But let’s do what Jesus did.  Let’s not dwell on good-byes.  Instead, let’s say hello.  Let’s say hello to all those people Jesus told us about.  And then, someday, we’ll be able to say hello to our Lord and Savior in heaven.