Ascension
Acts
1:1-11
5/18/23
On May 6,
twenty million people watched an event that was filled with tradition and
ceremony. They watched the coronation
and enthronement of Charles III as king of England. A little over two thousand people were
present at Westminster Abbey for the event.
Guests had been invited from 203 countries around the world.
Charles reused coronation vestments that
already existed, rather than having new ones made as traditionally has been
done. I guess that was a nice cost
cutting gesture for an event that is estimated to have cost between sixty and
one hundred twenty million dollars.
Charles III
is seventy four years old. As first in
the line to the throne, he had waited his whole life to become king because his
mother, Elizabeth II lived to the age of 96.
His time had finally come, and the event was filled with pomp and
circumstance that few can do like the British.
Twenty
million people watched the ceremony.
Tremendous expense and planning went into it. A whose who of world representatives were
invited. Yet the irony is that after the
coronation Charles was really no different than before. As king he has no real political power. He is a figurehead – a symbol that somehow
represents continuity with the past.
Today we
celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. This is not a day that garners worldwide
attention. Even many in the Church
largely ignore it as churches fail to have services on this day. But while this day receives far less
attention than the coronation of the English king, its real importance far
outstrips anything that can be said about him or any other human leader.
Our text
this evening is from the first chapter of Acts.
The ascension of Jesus serves as the “hinge” that joins together the two
works of Luke – his Gospel and the Book of Acts. We hear a brief account of the ascension at
the end of Luke, and then a more extended account in Acts.
In our text,
Luke tells us about the timing of the ascension as he states about Jesus, “He presented
himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them
during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” For forty days Jesus was with the
disciples. Why were they so sure that
Jesus had risen from the dead? Why were
they willing to suffer and die to proclaim the message about Jesus? It was because they had experienced the risen
Lord in an absolutely unmistakable fashion.
As Peter told Cornelius, the disciples ate and drank with the Lord. They
had conversations with him as Jesus taught the disciples and prepared them for
their upcoming mission.
The
disciples weren’t expecting Jesus to leave.
Instead, they asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the
kingdom to Israel?” Now based on what
the Old Testament says, this was really quite understandable. It was only natural to think that the end
time event of Christ’s resurrection would inaugurate the beginning of Israel’s
restoration.
Yet what the
disciples failed to understand was that Israel was always meant to be a light
to the nations. God had promised Abraham, “In you all families of the earth
will be blessed.” Israel was not an end
in itself, but a means by which God would bring salvation to all people. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of Israel,
and now God’s saving work was extending out from Israel to include all nations.
Jesus
answered, “It is not for you to know times
or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Christ had already commanded his disciples
not to depart from Jerusalem because they would be baptized with the Holy
Spirit in not many days. Now he told them what the Spirit would do – he would
give them power to be witnesses in a work that would reach to the end of the
earth.
We
learn that after he had said these things, he was lifted up and a cloud took
him out of their sight. Jesus withdrew
his visible presence in the ascension.
While the disciples were gazing into heaven, two angels stood by them
and said, “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.”
Perhaps
it is not surprising that the ascension is overlooked in the life of the
church. It seems anticlimactic. God sends his Son into the world as he is
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He carries out a miraculous ministry as he heals
and casts out demons. Then he dies on
the cross – numbered with the transgressors for us. And on the third day God
raises Jesus from the dead. He defeats
death and begins the resurrection of the Last Day.
That’s
where we want the story to end. We want
the risen Lord visibly present with us.
But the ascension is about more than just no longer seeing Jesus. In ten days we will celebrate Pentecost. On that day Jesus kept his word as the
disciples received the Holy Spirit.
Peter proclaimed about this remarkable event, “Being
therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured
out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”
The ascension is the exaltation of Jesus. It is the enthronement of the risen Lord who had humbled himself in order to carry out the Father’s will. Peter went on to say, “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” The apostle says in his first letter that Christ “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
We
must remember that Jesus did not lay his humanity aside in his
resurrection. Instead, his resurrection
was the renewal of humanity – a transformation to the status of being immortal
and imperishable. The Son returned to
the Father different than when he was sent.
He returned as the One who is true God and true man. The incarnate Son has been exalted as Lord
over all. God has demonstrated this by the ascension.
This
leads us to reflect on three important truths. First, Jesus the exalted Lord
has poured forth the Spirit. The Spirit
is the presence of Christ with us. The Lord has not left us. Instead, he
has given us his Spirit so that he can be with us in all places and times. He has given his Spirit to empower us to bear
witness to his death and resurrection in a work that circles the earth.
Second,
the ascension of the Lord is a great comfort to us. Christ has taken risen humanity into the
presence of the Father in heaven.
Because he has, we know that we too will one day dwell in risen bodies
with God. We know that we will live in
God’s presence because Christ does now.
What
is more, we know what the ascended and exalted Lord now does for us. Paul told the Romans, “Christ
Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” Enthroned at God’s right hand, Jesus Christ
speaks on our behalf. We have an
advocate with Father in the exalted Lord.
Finally, the
ascension of Jesus gives us the proper orientation. The angels said after the ascension, “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.” The ascension of Jesus points us
towards his return on the Last Day. It
is a reminder that we need to live in ways that are ready for Christ.
Jesus said, “Stay
dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who
are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that
they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed
are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” We need to live lives of faith. We need to be
focused on receiving the Means of Grace as we make Christ’s Word and Sacraments
the center of our life. We need to be
striving to live in ways that share Christ’s love.
We
don’t want to be caught unprepared. Jesus said, “But know this, that if the
master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming,
he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must
be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Jesus’ ascension serves as a powerful
reminder that the Lord will return on the Last Day.
On
this Feast of the Ascension, we rejoice in the knowledge that the incarnate Son
of God has been exalted. He has been
enthroned at the right hand of God. Through his Spirit he continues to be with
us as he creates and sustains faith. Present
with the Father, he intercedes for us and guarantees that we will live dwell
bodily in his presence as well. And in
the ascension, we find the reminder that we must live as those who are ready
for the return of the ascended Lord.
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