Preached at St. John Lutheran Church,
Clinton, Iowa
Ephesians 1:15–23
St. Luke 24:44–53
In the name of the Father and of the + Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The ascension of our Lord was not an
afterthought, or one last hurrah before He was seen no more. It’s not simply a
tidy and awe-inspiring way to get Jesus neatly back into heaven where He
belongs. His ascension to the right hand of the Father is the consequence of
Christ’s victory and the culmination of our salvation. Jesus offered the
sacrifice of His blood in payment for the sins of the world. He redeemed me, a lost and condemned person,
purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the
devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His
innocent suffering and death. For that reason, the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion, and above every name that is named. The same Jesus who was born
of a Virgin in Bethlehem is seated on the throne of heaven. The same Jesus who
walked the hills of Galilee and hungered in the wilderness is ruling with all
authority and power. The same Jesus whose blood was shed and whose head was
crowned with thorns is gloriously alive and crowned with divine majesty.
Psalm 47 sings, God has gone up with a shout. But the only
way for God to go up is that He first come down. And He
did. Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of
the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my
Lord. And your Lord, indeed, the Lord of heaven and earth. The antiphon, God has gone up with a shout, summarizes
the two perfect natures of Christ. He is God, and this God goes up, that means,
this God is a man. So with His ascension this Jesus Christ, true God and true
Man, is enthroned in glory at the Father’s right hand.
And this is where we must leave
our limited earthly notions of space behind. The right hand of the Father is
not a physical place, and the human nature of Jesus that came forth from the
Virgin’s womb and was nailed to a cross, is not now confined to a particular
place, strapped to some golden chair. Instead, God’s right hand is a figure of
speech referring to God’s power that is active always and everywhere. As true
God, the Son of God always possessed this power and already had all things
under His authority. But now, Jesus, as true Man, possesses this power and has
all things under His feet. This was even true during His earthly life, but He
didn’t fully use this power. Now in His ascension, Jesus, the God-Man, always
and everywhere possesses and uses His power. The Ascension doesn’t change who
Jesus is. He is still true God and true Man. But it changes how He works and
how He is present with us, His Church.
This might all seem like pretty
high-minded stuff, not very down to earth. Many people would find it strange
that we’re taking the time to contemplate such impractical things. But if
Christ’s human nature is ascended on high, then certainly we can raise our
human minds and hearts to think upon such high and heavenly things. And if
Christ is glorified as a man, and is also present with us now, still as a man,
then the ascension is no useless theological trivia. It is a source of great
comfort and strength for us who share that same human nature.
And the early Lutherans realized
this too. The ascension of Jesus became a focus for controversy between the
Lutherans and the Reformed. The Reformed asserted that Christ’s human nature
was confined to heaven at the right hand of God, so it couldn’t possibly be
present anywhere else, certainly not in the Lord’s Supper. Today, almost all
Protestant churches hold this view, including the present-day Reformed
Churches, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and the great
variety of non-denominational churches. Against all that, the Lutheran Church
still speaks with the voice of the Scriptures, testifying that the crucified,
risen, and glorified body and blood of Jesus Christ is present and given to us
here in the bread and wine, just as Christ promised. Jesus is at the right hand
of God, which is present and active everywhere, so He is also present and
active everywhere, not just as God but even as a man. And so if He promised to
be here with His Church, giving His body and blood for our nourishment, then He
is. His Word says so.
What great comfort we can draw
from this now. Our Lord Jesus is present with His Church here on earth, even while
we are fighting under the banner of His cross and struggling in this vale of
tears. Our God shares our human substance. He is related to us and He is not
ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters. In His flesh He was tempted like
us and He shared in our sufferings. And in His flesh He is risen, ascended, and
rules. He knows us and loves us. He nourishes us and cherishes us. You see,
doctrine matters. This is not highbrow, academic musings. Doctrine is life –
the very life of our ascended Lord given to us, even in the midst of this dying
world. He is risen and exalted, but He has not forgotten and He is not gone. He
is here with us, giving His body and blood to us, so that we might have
communion with Him, being true members of His body, flesh of His flesh and bone
of His bone.
St. Paul wrote, God put all things under Christ’s 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. Christ’s ascension is not the end. When the disciples left that mountain,
they were not sad, thinking He had departed, but they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. The ascension means that Christ’s work goes on. In Luke’s Gospel he dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day
when He was taken up. Now Christ continues to do and teach in His Church. This is what it means that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be
proclaimed in His name to all nations. This is what it means that He gives
us His true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in the bread and wine
for us Christians to eat and drink. This
is how our Lord still works and extends His kingdom. This is how our God and Brother is still with us.
The Ascension of our Lord might
(and should) draw our minds and hearts to high, heavenly things, but it’s no
afterthought. And He doesn’t float high above us, disconnected from our lives
of struggle and pain here on earth. Christ’s ascension draws our minds and
hearts to the heavenly things He gives us here on earth: His Word and His
Sacrament. And Christ’s ascension draws our minds and hearts on to our final
goal, because the Son of God, our Man, has paved the way for us. And so our own
human bodies will become like His, risen and glorified, elevated and admitted
into the presence of God, finally gathered to Him around the throne.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He
is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.
