Ascension (Observed)
Jesus Didn’t Go Away
Acts 1:1-11
28 May 2017 – Redeemer
Jesus didn’t go away from us in the Ascension. Yes, He ascended into heaven, but that doesn’t mean He went away. If the Apostles who witnessed His ascension thought He was abandoning them, why did they return to Jerusalem with great joy? You don’t usually rejoice when someone leaves you, unless your brother and his family stayed too long at your lake home or your 35-year-old son has lived in your basement since High School. When they leave you rejoice.
Saint Luke tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead He gave His disciples commands. He commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the promised Holy Spirit. He charged them to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the ends of the world. He gave them many convincing proofs that He was most certainly alive and ordered them to witness that fact. All of that together tells us He did not go away from us in the Ascension, but actually comes closer to us.
How is it that Jesus actually draws closer to us in His ascension? To understand that assertion I have to take you back to catechism days. You might remember your pastor teaching you about Christ’s state of humiliation and Christ’s state of exaltation. When Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the only begotten Son of God took up residence in human flesh He humbled Himself. Throughout His life on earth Jesus did not fully use His divine powers. He required sleep and food like any other human. He accepted the constraints of His body and could only be in one place at one time. He let a whip tear off His flesh and iron nails pin Him to the cross. He who ruled the world, let soldiers and governors and priests rule over Him unjustly. He gave Himself over to death.
He restrained His Godly might. He humbled Himself for us. In humbling Himself Jesus took everything wrong with you into Himself. He bore your sin in His body, suffered God’s anger at your rebellion. He died for you. In that work, in His humiliation, He delivered you from sin and death. The only begotten Son of God became a man and humbled Himself to save you from your sins.
Once that work was accomplished the days for humility were over. When Christ came alive in the tomb He entered the state of exaltation. Now He uses all of His divine powers fully, even as He still resides in human flesh. Remember how He walked through walls and doors in the resurrection. He still had scars in his hands and side. Still ate food like all men, but now there was no holding back. He fully used His Godly might and authority. The first stop in His exaltation was hell to proclaim His victory over the devil and His demons, to stand in His risen body and fully show His power and might over His (and your) enemies.
Before Jesus ascended He gave His Apostles commands about His Kingdom. In those orders, given to His men and given to His Church, Jesus is with you in a greater way now than in the days He walked this earth.
When Jesus walked the earth, the Kingdom of God was wherever Jesus was. If He was walking down a road in Samaria and met lepers they were cleansed. But the lepers up in Napthali or Zebulun weren’t cleansed that day because Jesus wasn’t there. The Demon possessed man in Gerasenes was set free when Jesus was there that day, but the demon-possessed man in Greece was not because Jesus wasn’t there that day. The prostitutes and tax collectors in Jerusalem were forgiven when they ate and drank with Him, but those in Joppa were not because Jesus was not at their table. But now today, in His exaltation, sitting at the right hand of God, the Kingdom of God is in Saint Cloud and Saint Paul and Saint Petersburg and in Sudan and Saudi Arabia and Spain, because now in the Ascension, even as He is still fully man in heaven, everything has been put under His feet. He fills all in all. He is everywhere He promises to be. As He said to His disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus is with us right now by the working of His Holy Spirit. That’s why He commanded the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem. He would send the promised Holy Spirit. That’s next Sunday – Pentecost. The Apostles would receive the Holy Spirit and then under Jesus’ orders and commands – they would bring Jesus wherever they went.
Jesus told the Apostles to witness to His death and resurrection. Where the truth of God’s Word is proclaimed, where Christ’s death for sinners is preached and His resurrection proclaimed – there Jesus is present with the very gifts He won at the cross. Jesus is here for you in the testimony of His death and resurrection.
He told His men to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name. When you hear the call to repentance, when your sins are not excused or covered, but exposed to the light of God’s Law, when your conscience is pricked and you mouth the words, “I a poor, miserable sinner” knowing that to be most certainly true, then Jesus is near you. He did the same with the Pharisees, the rich young man, Peter and Thomas. When you repent and hear the full and free pardon, “I forgive you all your sins.” When you are loosed from the bondage of sin, when your conscience is washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus is with you. Jesus is here for you in the call to repentance and the preaching of forgiveness in His name.
When you were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Jesus was there for you. In your baptism you were drowned in His death and raised to new life by His resurrection. Jesus is there for you in the water commandeered by God’s Word to save you in baptism.
When you come to the Lord’s Table Jesus is near you, as near as He will get until the day you see Him with your own eyes in the resurrection. For what does He say of this bread, except “This is my body?” And what does He say of the cup except, “This is my blood?” Jesus is most here for you in His Supper.
Jesus has not gone away. He has ascended, but not to get away from you. Rather He ascended to be ever more near you. He’s died for your sin, finished off your judgment, suffered your death, won the Father’s favor, and now having defeated all your enemies by His humiliation He spreads the victory in His exaltation by drawing near to you with His gifts. He is near in the name that is above every name. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
27 May 2017 anno Domini