https://app.dropwave.io/episode/6a0b3706-5749-41a5-9a71-9f4a19f9e0ee/jubilate-deo-third-sunday-after-easter-ad-2025.mp3

++ JESU JUVA ++

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Adam tried to steal joy from God; he was rewarded with sorrow instead. To the woman God said: Your pain in childbearing shall be multiplied.

This kind of sorrow wasn’t supposed to happen. Childbearing should have been only joyful, not full of pain. There was to be no death, no sorrow, no return to dust. God had created a world where there was to be joy. But Adam and his wife took what God had not authorized. They had sinned. Now, unless they had sorrow over their sin and trust in Christ to forgive their sin, they could never know true joy.

Repentance has two parts: sorrow over your sin; and faith in Christ to forgive your sin. This is the order of Godly repentance. Sorrow first, then joy.

How do I know if I have true repentance? Not even the most despondent sinner can accurately measure the weight of his own sin. Consider what your sin cost. Your sin required God to be nailed to a tree. We can hardly begin to comprehend how costly that sacrifice was. The knowledge of the full weight of our sin comes to us not through our senses but through the proclamation of God’s Word — especially His law — and it is received by faith.

This is comforting, because it means that the first part of repentance doesn’t depend on how acutely you feel your sin. If it did — if it depended on being sorry enough, then you would never know if your sorrow was sufficient. And if you are honest with yourself, you should agree that how ever much sorrow you feel over your sin, your sorrow could be deeper. Even on a physical level: if you recall the worst pain you have felt, you also realize that there can be a pain that is still greater. Your sins are always greater than your ability to own up to them.

So this means you will never be sorry enough for your sins. You will never reach perfect contrition. No matter how much sorrow you think you have over your sins, your sins are worse. You deserve the Lord’s punishment for your sins far more than you think. It is to such souls, carrying the sorrow of sin, that Jesus has come to relieve you.

He has come to turn your sorrow into joy, to raise you from shame and crown you with honor, to remove your shameful covering and clothe you with His own righteousness. Your salvation does not depend on your sorrow; you do not pay for your sins by mourning over them. No — Your salvation depends on Jesus. Christ alone paid for all your sins. His work alone has redeemed you. Saving faith does not look to the depth and strength of your own sorrow; saving faith rests in Christ Jesus alone.

But this does not mean that we don’t need to be sorry for our sins. No — we should mourn over our sins more. We should crucify our flesh more. Throughout the Christian life, we should grow in the knowledge of the depth of our own sin. You should see your sin more deeply now than you did when you were younger.

Deeper knowledge of your sin leads you to greater sorrow. The deeper you understand your sin to be, all the more brilliantly shines the brightness of joy in your Savior. His love for you, you poor, wretched, miserable sinner — His love for you becomes clearer. He who is forgiven much loves much. (c.f. Luke 7:47) Your joy in Him is full.

Yet if there is no killing of the old Adam, there will be no rising to the joy of salvation. Without sorrow over your sin, you will never have joy in Christ. This is why sorrow over sin and the joy of its removal does not only belong to the day of your conversion, but to your daily life. This daily dying and rising to new life in Christ is a little while of sorrow. This sorrow is relieved when you see Jesus again.

For when you are in the depths of your sorrow over sin, the cause of your sorrow is that you cannot see Jesus. You do not see the sacrifice He has made for your benefit. Instead, it feels like you must pay for your sins. You must earn your way back into God’s good graces.

You do not consider that the cause of your sorrow is your sin — a trouble that you cannot resolve yourself. You try to put the blame on others, or your circumstances. You say it was a bad thing that happened to me. But you do not consider that the cause of your sorrow was that you were looking away from Jesus. You were not listening to the voice of your Good Shepherd. You followed other voices, other desires.

But when your eyes are redirected so that they are fixed upon Jesus and His work on your behalf, then your heart is filled with joy and courage. When I have Jesus, “My heart from care is free; no trouble troubles me” (LSB 467).

This is the continuous daily order of the Christian life: sorrow and faith. You see your sins and you are sorry for them. You want them gone. Yet they still cling to you. No matter how energetically you fight them. No matter how much your discipline your flesh, sin still finds you. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25). It is Jesus Himself who gives you the joy of the Gospel. In Him, you have joy and peace.

But if there is no sorrow, there is no joy in Jesus. The world has no godly sorrow. They do not mourn their sin. Instead they celebrate it. They affirm one another in it. They believe they do not need the death of Jesus for their sin.

So they laugh at you Christians for your reliance upon Jesus. They laugh at your sorrow over sin. To the world, sin is no big deal. Everyone does it. It’s harmless. To them, sin is a game; it’s good fun; it’s entertainment; it’s freedom; it’s happiness. To such in the world who do not mourn over their sin, the joy of the Gospel is equally foreign. They cannot know or grasp true joy.