Grace, mercy and peace be to you from our risen and ascended Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
The Feast of Ascension is one of the most
important feasts of the Church Year. We might not realize this because it is
often a forgotten feast. After all, this holiday lands toward the end of the
Easter season and right before the festival of Pentecost. The fact is, though,
Ascension Day is right up there with Christmas and Easter in its importance.
About 30 or so years earlier, Jesus took upon
Himself our human flesh. Before the Incarnation, Christ was only fully God, but
at the Incarnation He chose to take on our flesh as He became fully Man to be
our Savior from sin, death, and Satan. On Ascension Day, our Lord takes our
flesh – our human flesh – with Him into heaven, where He sits at the
right hand of God the Father with all authority.
But what does this mean for me? What does our
Lord’s Ascension do for me? Well, if you understand that in your Baptism, you
are the Body and Jesus is the Head. So, wherever the Head goes, so does the
Body. (Ephesians 1:22-23)
So, now that Jesus has risen from the dead, so
will everyone who believes in Him! Now that Jesus has ascended into heaven and
sits at the right hand of God the Father, by grace through faith in Jesus, you
will enter heaven.
The Ascension of our Lord is a feast to
celebrate Christ returning to His throne!
Even if we don’t quite understand what this
means, don’t worry. You are in fact in good company, since the apostles didn’t
understand everything either. Time and time again, the apostles were looking
for Jesus to establish an earthly kingdom, rather than a heavenly kingdom. In
fact, they asked Jesus that very thing just before His ascension: “Lord,
will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6b)
Time and time again, as Jesus spoke of His
suffering, death, and resurrection, they did not understand why He had to die. In
fact, right after Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ, Jesus again revealed
to them that He must suffer, die, and be raised. Peter immediately said to
Jesus: “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew
16:22)
But oddly enough, the apostles did understand
what was happening on this day, nearly 2,000 years ago.
[The Ascension of Our Lord]
As
the apostles were on the Mount of Olives, a short distance east of Jerusalem,
they witnessed Jesus being taken up into heaven. They saw with their own eyes
Jesus ascending into the clouds.
The
apostles knew that their risen Lord was disappearing from their sight in a different
way than He had on various occasions during the past 40 days. This time, Jesus
did not simply vanish as He had before. Before their very eyes, He was being
taken up higher and higher in the air until a cloud folded itself around Him
and hid Him from their sight. These men became actual witnesses as He ascended
into heaven, for they had kept their eyes fixed on Him all the while He was
making His ascent.
They
stood staring up into the sky in amazement. And who wouldn’t?
So,
here they are staring into the sky and with good reason. They are straining
their eyes attempting to see Jesus after the cloud hid Him from their sight.
Then,
suddenly, two men in white robes speak to them saying: “Men of Galilee,
why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you
into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”
(Acts 1:11).
On this day, the apostles understood the meaning of what they were witnessing. They remembered the often-repeated promise of their Lord: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17).
At
this moment, the apostles were fully aware that they were seeing Him rise up to
heaven, where He was before. It was equally clear to them that from then on, He
would be what He was before. In other words, He would resume the use of which
He had renounced in order to redeem them and all sinners.
Now,
they knew, He would rule with supreme power over heaven and earth. No longer
would He be visibly present among them as the lowly Son of Man, but He would be
invisibly present everywhere with the same human body, now marvelously
glorified.
[The Right Hand of God the Father]
When
Jesus ascended, He took His seat at the right hand of God the Father. But is
Jesus stuck in heaven? No! Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father
gives us the picture that Jesus is the absolute sovereign who rules the whole
universe both with the power of His authority and with the power of His grace.
You
see, Jesus is not limited by space. Think of His promise: “Surely I will
be with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). So, if
Jesus were restricted to being in one place at a time, He could not fulfill
this promise. He could not be everywhere with all of His believers at the same
time. So, just because our senses cannot perceive Him, this does not mean that
He is no longer present. We know He is here with us through His revealed Word
in the Scriptures and as He provides His Body and Blood under the bread and
wine to forgive our sins and strengthen our faith!
However,
we, like the apostles, may question how this can be. But Jesus assures us
saying, “This is my Body, which is given for you.” And “Drink
of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My Blood, which is shed for
you for the forgiveness of sins.”
Jesus is present here as He has promised when we gather in His name. He did not leave us – His flock – to fend for ourselves. No, He is here where His Word is preached and His Sacraments are given.
[The King’s Return]
During
His visible time on earth, Jesus exercised His divine powers in only a limited
way. But once He had completed His redeeming mission on which His Father had
sent Him, His renunciation of divine powers for a time, His self-chosen
humiliation, came to an end.
Now,
this same Jesus who bodily ascended into heaven will return with His crucified
and risen body. At His departure, the apostles saw Him as the divine and human
Jesus. At His return, everyone will see and recognize Him as His apostles did,
and He will return without a doubt!
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of
command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of
God”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16).
This
event is full of promise for us! We indeed know He will return as the Judge who
will strike paralyzing terror into His foes. But because He is and remains our
Savior, the sight of Him will fill our hearts with overwhelming joy. For He
will be our acquitting Judge, the Judge who will speak to us these gracious
words: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance,
the kingdom is prepared for you since the creation of the world”
(Matthew 25:34).
This
day, the Ascension of Our Lord, is the great coronation of Jesus Christ, the Son
of Man, in heaven. As He bodily returned to heaven, the angels and the heavenly
host marveled as a fully human being received the crown and is given all
authority in heaven and on earth. As fully God and fully Man, His rule is now
of grace and mercy, where repentance for forgiveness of sins is preached. He is
the Lamb who was slain. Behold your Ascended King! Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
T SOLI DEO GLORIA T
Preached at GlenFields (May 11, 2021), Grand Meadows (May 13, 2021),
and Orchard Estates (May 14, 2021)
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