Joy Comes with the Morning Psalm 30:5

Grace, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our message today taken is from Psalm 30, verse 5 Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Have you ever had a night of weeping? A night of tossing and turning? Not able to sleep; or maybe falling asleep just before dawn, only sleeping an hour or two?

There are troubles that can keep us up at night; and they may seem insurmountable at the time. But Jesus’ resurrection proves, that they too, shall pass. Things will get better. There will be joy for us again, no matter how bad or sad things might seem at the time. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Our Gospel today is Luke’s account of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples on Easter  evening. The weeping was about to pass, and the joy about to begin.

To reassure them that it really was him, he invited them to touch his hands and feet, and then he ate a piece of fish.

Then he explained to them from Scripture that the Messiah had to die and rise, and he explained why he had chosen them to be his apostles, “that repentance and forgiveness of sin would be proclaimed in His name to all nations.”

Then he promised them that they wouldn’t have to do this monumental task by themselves. They would receive power from on High, the Holy Spirit, who would do it through them. 

In today’s lesson from Acts 3, the apostles pick up where Jesus left off, continuing to do miracles and to proclaim the good news. This probably happened a few months after Jesus rose and ascended.

The miracles they did were in support of the message they shared, that Jesus died and rose and there is eternal life and joy in Him.

Just before the events of our lesson, Peter healed a man who had been unable to walk since birth. Every day his family or friends would carry him to one of the temple gate called “Beautiful” so he could beg for food or money.

When he asked Peter for money, Peter said, “I don’t have any money to give you, but in the name of Jesus, walk.” Not only did the man stand up and walk, he started to run, and leap for joy.

He hadn’t been able to walk since birth, so you can imagine his joy as his leg muscles were regenerated and he walked for the first time.

It’s a joy to see our little children learn to walk. Soon, you can’t keep up with them. They have this big world to explore, and little legs to take them there.

This man had been waiting for this since he was born, probably never expecting to walk in this life.

To show the power of the Gospel, and His mercy for those who hurt, God, healed Him through the apostle Peter.

The people who saw this were understandably amazed. Peter used it as an opportunity to share the healing message of the Gospel. He said, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or stare at us as if by our own power or piety we made him walk?” Peter wanted to be sure that they knew it was God who did this, miracle, just as He had done a far greater miracle a few months earlier in raising His Son from the tomb. 

Peter said, “The God of Abraham… the God of our fathers, glorified His Son Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied before Pilate… You killed the author of life… But God raised him from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And His name - by faith in His name – He has made strong this man whom you see and know; the faith that is in Jesus has given this man perfect health. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

Peter was saying that as Jesus gave this man physical healing and refreshed his legs to walk, so he would give you spiritual healing and refresh your soul to leap for joy.  

This teaches us that sometimes in this life there’s healing for our body, but in  Christ, there’s always healing and refreshing for our soul, and then eternal healing for our bodies at the resurrection.

With this healing love from God that we have in our hearts and souls, there’s also healing and refreshing for our relationships; which is something we always need, to renew, and repair, and refresh our relationships.

Our Epistle tells us about the love that does that. John writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God.”

The foundational relationship for people is the relationship between parent and child. It’s the first relationship we have, and the relationship that impacts all the relationships we will have in life; with friends, with spouse, and with our own children.

The relationship that the Heavenly Father has given us with Himself through His Son is the most foundational relationship of all, and the longest lasting, and the most impacting.

That’s why we baptize our little babies, so that this key relationship in life, this saving, forgiving, healing relationship gets started in them right away. The sooner we have the love of God, the Father to lead and help us in life, the better we start we have in life.

A good start in life is important. We get life off to a good start when we begin it with Christ and His love for us.

To grow our relationship with Him, our faith and love, God gives us His Word to keep and guide us through life. And Jesus gives us Himself, His body and blood for our blessing, and our soul’s health. And a healthy soul is a joyful soul, which takes us back to our Psalm verse, Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes with the morning. With Christ in your life, the bad doesn’t last forever.

Good Friday was the worst day ever in the lives of the disciples. But a mere 3 days later everything changed, and Easter Sunday was the best day of their lives.

After that amazing day they had many good days, and many difficult days. But they knew their troubles wouldn’t be forever, because Jesus suffering and death had not been forever; he had risen. They saw with their own eyes, where this life in Christ leads to, a glorious resurrected life with joy forever.

When we know and believe that, then we have joy even in this life, too.

We may grieve for a time; even Jesus did that. But as we grieve, we know that it’s not going to be that way forever. God will heal our hearts, so that we can rejoice again; so we can praise him, and serve him with joy!

Then will come the day when He heals our body completely, as he raises us for life in heaven. What a glorious, happy day that will be. As we said Easter Sunday, there will be joy on the mountain, running and jumping and leaping for joy.

You get to the point where in life, where you can’t jump very high anymore.

When we rise from our graves, we’ll be like spring calves; we’ll jump for joy. We’ll be so excited about our glorified bodies, and the beauty of heaven, and the happiness of it all.  

Whether we’ll actually, literally leap for joy or not, I’m not sure. But I do know for sure that we’ll be happy like never before.

At times, this life may seem like a dark, long, lonely night, but there’s a happy morning waiting for you. Remembering that lifts our spirits, even on the darkest night.

Jesus rose that you might rejoice even in the midst of your troubles; and that you might leap and rejoice in heaven forever. For now, serve Him, and praise Him, and shout for joy: He is risen! (He is risen indeed. Alleluia!)

As you serve and rejoice, may the peace of God, which passes understanding, guard you heart and mind, in Christ Jesus our risen Lord. Amen.