"The Ascension Of Our Lord"
Rev. Steven D. Spencer
Let us pray: O Lord, You have given Your Word to be a Lamp for our feet and a light for our path.
Grant us grace to receive Your truth in faith, hope and love - that we may be obedient to Your Will
and live for Your Glory; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Has it ever struck you how a passage like those read today would be utterly incomprehensible to a person
who had no faith in the risen Christ? Which is probably as it should be. In fact, the whole account told in
Scripture only makes sense if you believe. When you believe you find these kinds of passages, not just making
sense, but also creating comfort from the inside out.
So it is with the account of the Ascension. At first it makes
no sense at all. Why in the world would only Luke record this story, with its tale of Jesus, in His resurrection
body being lifted bodily from the earth into heaven? Then end up forming such a central part of the gospel and
the creeds of the church?
How does it go in the Apostle's creed?
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the
Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and was buried; He descended into
hell; The third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right
hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
He ascended into heaven - and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Or, as it says in The Book of The Acts of The Apostles:
"He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking
intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
"Men of Galilee", they said, "Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who
has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go
into heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
This record of the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven after His death and resurrection is strange story to those
who do not believe, one that is hard to understand, but for me - and for all who believe - it's an account of
tremendous comfort - for it points to - and completes - the picture of whom Jesus was - and is - namely the Son
of The Living God, the One who came from heaven and took upon Himself our flesh and Who, having died for us
returns to heaven both as man and God. Opening the door to heaven for us.
Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the
Father - even as He shares completely His divinity with the Father, He still shares in His humanity with us. He is
there to intercede for us and to care for us until He comes again - in the manner in which He left - upon the clouds.
The Ascension is that part of the account of Jesus that allows us to say, without a doubt, that where two or more
are gathered in His name, He is there. (Matt. 18:20)
The Ascension is that part of the Gospel that allows us to say of Jesus - every knee shall bow - in heaven and on
earth and under the earth. (Phil. 2:10) The Ascension preserves - and indeed helps to fortify - what we call the
Trinitarian mystery - namely that God is three yet one.
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and from there
he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Our Lord Jesus - our Savior - did not simply fade away like some
leaf upon the wind after His resurrection. His form, His substance, His identity, are instead made one with the Father's
- and yet remain unique - much as we believe our form, our substance, our identity, will also, in a similar manner
become one and yet remain unique. That was Jesus prayer in our Gospel lesson. That we “may be one, just as Jesus
and the Father are one.” This oneness shows up in many ways. In one Church, one faith, one baptism, oneness of
the Spirit, oneness of Christian love and oneness of mission.
It is a marvelous account - this saga of the Ascension - if you believe. It assures us of the integrity of the story - and of
our own future within it.
If the story of the ascension is hard for unbelievers to read and understand, then the Gospel
passage today is even more so. For here we have recorded a portion of prayer of Jesus on the night of his betrayal
– that section which is often labeled in modern editions of the Bible: "Jesus Prays For His Disciples". Its talk of being
in the world, but not of the world, it's confusing to those outside the church. So is the idea about how Jesus and the
Father share all things in this realm and the heavenly one and that includes us! Confusion can obscure the message that
Jesus is giving His followers even as He prays to the Father for them.
If you read the passage a couple of times however, two things pop out. One is that Jesus is worried about the group
of followers He is leaving behind. (His concerns are well founded).
The second thing is that Jesus is grateful to God that He has these followers (including you and me). Jesus prays for
His disciples - and for us - knowing what difficulties we will face. He reminds us that we have been called and
consecrated, or as it is translated most commonly, sanctified.
In the Hebrew tradition, to be consecrated meant to
be set apart for a specific purpose. Things were set apart for use in the Temple, but more importantly, people were
set apart to do God's work. To be set apart doesn't mean that we go into the witness protection program. It means
we have been called to be representatives of God in the world. We are sanctified or consecrated in truth to be public
witnesses.
This sense of being consecrated was a theme of the prophets as well. The People of God were a consecrated, a
chosen people. They were not to gloat and feel privileged, but had a responsibility. They, and we as Jesus' community,
must live out the responsibility of that call, that "consecration in truth?" What was the job of a prophet? “To speak
God’s Word”. The forces against us belong to "the world" that what Jesus mentions in his prayer, and knowing the
power of "the world", He is praying for us as we go out to proclaim His message.
It's evident from Jesus' words that He has planted something in us that gives us a different vision, a different way
of being and acting. Hence the talk of being “in the world, but not of the world.” It serves to identify us with Him
- who Himself was in the world but not of the world. Jesus doesn't want His disciples to pull out of this world and
start a new nation on some distant island. Rather He sends us equipped to go into the world and make a difference,
and to do so as one who is not of this world, but rather is "consecrated in truth".
It doesn't make sense - unless you believe. But then it does.
And so does the Ascension - it makes clear just
who and what we have in Christ Jesus.We have the account of God taking on flesh and coming to be among us,
into this world but not of it, fully human, fully one of us; Yet fully God! Then He ascends taking His human nature
with him back to heaven, being there, ruling, and being everywhere. Fully God, fully man.
It’s the completion of the
story, save one item, the promise that He leaves with us, the giving of the Holy Spirit, which we'll celebrate next week.
But Jesus reminds in His prayer.
" I will remain in the world no longer, but I am coming to you."
Because Jesus is glorified and lifted up to God, because He is ascended into heaven, He is able to be with us now. Because
He has been sanctified, He can sanctify us.
His prayer for us is heard. We need not look up and wonder where He is,
for by His going, He is able to come. By His going He is now present. By His going He has sent the comforter.
And with
the power of the Spirit, we hear and believe and we go out into the world and share the Gospel. Knowing that God will
protect us - and bring us safely to His side in His heavenly kingdom when our work and witness is done. For Jesus has
not left us alone, but He shall come again with glory to take us home! And because He has ascended so shall we!
In Jesus name, Amen!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.