Ascension (Observed)
Christ Jesus – Your Worth
Ephesians 1:15-23
17 May 2015 – Redeemer
What are you worth? How do you answer that question? Do you add up your 401k and IRA balances? Or perhaps you try to put a dollar value on your assets – I wonder what the house, the land, the cabin, the cars are worth? Or do you ignore your possessions and instead take stock of your person – am I able to work and serve? Have I been a faithful husband and a loving son? What are you worth? Is it wealth, assets, work, attitude? And we didn’t even ask if others value you.
Saint Paul in writing to the Ephesians begins his letter by proclaiming to them their worth before God – He uses financial words – like riches and inheritance. He uses superlative words like immeasurably and glorious and great. Saint Paul makes this distinction clear – your worth before God has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Christ. Your worth and value – the immeasurable riches and glorious inheritance that are yours are (if you will) tied to Christ’s stock. As He is raised you are raised. As He is seated on high your future inheritance is secure, immeasurable and glorious. When you are asked about your worth – you look to you. When Saint Paul speaks about your worth he looks (and he would direct you to look) to Christ.
No matter how you measure your value on earth it is diminishing. If you have more money than anyone else when you die all, that means is you’ll have a more expensive coffin and burial vault. The writer of Ecclesiastes realized this when he wrote, “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:18–19, ESV) Whatever your measure of your worth – it is diminishing. You may have to move out of your house some day and dip into your savings to pay for a nursing home or medical care. You will be of less service to others and require more service from them.
St. Paul prays that the Christians in Ephesus and the Christians in Saint Cloud would see what God has done in Christ Jesus – that you would have the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you would know “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.” These riches, this value, your worth are proclaimed in Christ’s bodily ascension – in the fact that God put all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church.
Do you want to know your worth? God became a man – not a lion or a golden retriever or a bald eagle, but God took on human flesh. We call it the incarnation – God “enfleshing” Himself in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This didn’t make God any less, but it did make man more. Christ Jesus came to restore man and woman to their place, to communion with Him, to righteous sons and daughters of your heavenly Father. Christ Jesus came into the world to restore to you your worth – your place, your life, your righteousness before God, your humanity.
You will never find your value in your valuables, even in the people that you value most and value you the most. When the writer of Ecclesiastes realized this he threw up his hands and basically said, “Life is like chasing the wind.” You pursue this and run after that or look forward to this day on the calendar, but when you take hold of it or the event comes to pass, you immediately set off for the next possession or event. The person you value most in life might die. And the person who values you most cannot stop you from suffering, sickness, or death.
Why is that? It is not a problem with the world – it is a problem within you, within me. It’s actually a problem with our eyes and our hearts and our minds. Our eyes are clouded and cannot see clearly where life is found. Our hearts are in arrhythmia and don’t beat to the rhythm of life. Our minds are disordered so that we cannot perceive reality. The Bible calls it sin, but it might be better understood as a spiritual blindness, terminal heart disease, or even spiritual dementia. Now, if you have ever received such a diagnoses – macular degeneration, congestive heart failure, lewy body dementia – you know the outcome and your only hope is a miracle.
That miracle for us is Jesus. He became a man, born with eyes that saw perfectly the way of salvation, born with a heart that beat in the perfect rhythm of life, born with a mind that was always faithful to His Father and always loving to His enemies. The Devil tried mightily to cloud His eyes with worldly glory, to interrupt the heartbeat of life in Him, to turn His mind toward glory instead of the cross. But Jesus saw only His Father and you. His heart lived in faith towoard His Father and in love toward you. His mind never thought of His own worth, but rather of your worth before His father.
Jesus lived a perfect life for you in the flesh. Then He bore your sins in His body at the cross. His eyes closed in death for you. He heart stopped beating for you. He gave up His Spirit and breathed His last for you. Here is your Divine Intervention, your miracle. It is in the flesh and blood of Jesus. This is the working of great might that God worked when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.
Your value to God is tied to Jesus. Your stock is in Him – that’s what happened in your baptism – your life was linked to Christ. You were united to Him – His life for your life. His death for your death. His resurrection is your resurrection. What did Christ accomplish? The forgiveness of your sins, your righteousness, your place in the Father’s household, your name in the will, an inheritance of life and the resurrection.
How do you know this? Because God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. God’s Word reveals this to us. Over 500 people saw Jesus alive after His crucifixion. Mary Magdalene hugged Him. Thomas touched Him. The Emmaus disciples had communion with Him. Peter and John ate breakfast with Him. This is what is unique to Christianity – we don’t all worship the same god for no other god came Himself for you. The God of Holy Scripture did. He came in the flesh born of Mary. He lived a righteous life for you and died a sin-atoning death for you. And God raised Him from the dead – declaring everything He said and did to be true and complete. That’s your value and your worth.
In a few minutes you’ll be asked to write a value, a dollar value, on a commitment card for Redeemer. Downstairs, before we eat, I’ll talk to you briefly about where your dollars go that you give to Redeemer. You probably already know that the greatest expense at Redeemer is your pastor and I would be the first to admit I’m probably not worth what you’re paying me. But consider what you hear and receive in the Word and the Sacraments? We live in a world that judges the worth of people all the time – and judges many to be worthless – especially the unborn and the elderly. There isn’t one of us who has not despaired of life because something we valued came crashing down like the stock market on Black Monday. But here in God’s preached Word and in His Holy Sacraments, we are given wisdom in our foolishness and revelation in our blindness. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, in His flesh, and He is seated at God’s right hand. He sits at the head of His Church, which is His body – that’s you – united to Christ so that the Father sees you, forgives you, loves you, writes you into the will of life and the resurrection. Those are your riches. That’s your value and worth in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
16 May 2015 anno Domini