Ascension (Observed)
“So What?”
Ephesians 1:23
1 June 2014 – Redeemer
Is there anything more irrelevant than Ascension day? We’ve got mass shootings, traffic deaths, neglected veterans, and bloated bureaucracies. We’ve got children graduating and leaving the protection of our homes for a world hostile to Christianity. We’ve got aching knees and degenerating backs and deafening ears. We’ve got guilt over our sins and false gods stuffed in every cupboard, closet, and shed we own. Because of our self-centered sin our parents and the elderly are neglected, our children are more wise about the world than they are about God, and our marriages become partnerships instead of one flesh unions. O Lord, have mercy upon us.
For all our troubles today God’s Word declares, “Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.” And all God’s people say, “So what?”
Jesus’ ministry on earth began and ended with 40 days – 40 days after He was raised He ascended into heaven, 40 days after His baptism He was tempted. In those 40 day periods we see the way of Jesus – the way of Jesus for us. Remember the 40 days after Jesus’ baptism. Jesus went without food and water and then the Devil came tempting. Tempting Him to make bread out of stones. Tempting Him to throw Himself down from the temple. Tempting Him to lend His name and power to the Devil’s world domination plan.
When the Devil tempts He tempts you for you! He doesn’t tempt you to steal from the rich to give to the poor. He tempts you to steal from the rich and the poor for yourself. The Devil tempts Jesus for Jesus – your belly is hungry fill it. Prove yourself God’s Son – trust His angels to catch you when you fall. Be a world-renowned superhero – you’ve got the power. I’ve got the plan. Join me and we rule.
Jesus does nothing for Himself in the wilderness temptation. Yet by the time of Ascension He has done everything the Devil has asked, but not for Himself. He does His work for you.
Jesus made bread out of nothing. He fed 5000 with nothing but a sack lunch. He fed them, not Himself. He proved His faithfulness to the Father, not in daring the Father to rescue Him, but rather by following the Father’s will to bear our sin, to have our death and hell laid upon Him. Jesus made a name for Himself, but not with His might or power. He made a name for Himself by putting Himself under every other name, by putting His name under your name, by bearing Bruce’s sin, Bruce’s hell, shame and death. He made Himself nothing and God the Father raised Him from the dead and in the Ascension gave Him the name above every name.
Satan tempts Jesus to self-service, to benefit His body – His stomach, His ego, His power. Jesus does nothing for His own flesh, rather He does all things in the flesh for your flesh.
And would you not agree that most of our problems and troubles are of the flesh? Our eyes lust, our hearts covet, our mouths slander, our stomachs crave, our hands rob. We try to relieve our bodily troubles with bodily remedies – addictions to fitness or food or alcohol. We adorn our bodies with piercings, tattoos, and provocative clothing to assert our uniqueness. We buy things that delight the eyes and fill the stomach and occupy our hands. But as the years pass – our body succumbs to the consequences of sin. Eyes dim, knees stiffen, arteries harden, minds wander, muscles atrophy.
Here then is the “so what” of the Ascension. Jesus took on our flesh so He could take on everything that assaults our flesh because of sin. You have been tempted by Satan, but Jesus took every dart and arrow. You’ve been alone, but He was God-forsaken. You’re dying, but He died. You’ve sought all things to satisfy your flesh – He gave up all He had to satisfy the Father in your place. His eyes closed in death that yours might open to behold Him face to face. He breathed His last that you might breath forever. He was chained, nailed, and sealed in a tomb, that your flesh might be set free, healed, and raised up on the last day.
There is a mysterious union in Jesus Christ between God and Man – it cannot be explained or understood, only believed and confessed. God’s Word clearly teaches that Jesus, from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary is at the same time true God and true man. He is God in the flesh. Never are those two separated. He is fully human and fully divine, true man and true God, from the incarnation for all eternity. So it is correct to say that God wore a diaper for us in the manger. It is also correct to say that God died. And it is correct to say that the man Jesus ascended bodily into heaven – one of the last things the disciples remember seeing according to Luke was Jesus’ pierced hands lifted up. The last thing they saw was the scarred hands of their Savior – His flesh for their flesh. His flesh for your flesh.
In the Ascension of Jesus we learn of another mysterious union – He has united Himself to us. By becoming man He has taken humanity into Himself. In Ephesians Paul likens this union to to the human body – where Christ is the head. The Father has put all things under Jesus’ feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. In chapter 2 St. Paul declares the wonder of this one flesh union with Jesus, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, … raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
This is the “so what” of the Ascension. God has united Himself to you in the flesh of Jesus – God and man in a one flesh union. All that you are Christ has taken into Himself – you died to sin with Christ. You were raised to life with Him. By that same mysterious union all that is Christ’s is yours– you are already ascended into heaven. Your flesh is safe is the ascended flesh of Jesus. That’s not something in the future – that’s right now. You’re forgiven. You’re risen. You’re ascended. Your body is made whole. It is done and finished. On the last day you will simply see, hear, feel, and experience what already is – you have been raised with Christ and seated at the right hand of God.” I don’t believe there is anything more relevant for suffering and dying sinners, for you, than Jesus’ ascension. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
30 June 2014