[Sermon Archive]
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This Week's Sermon The Ascension of Our Lord 17 May 2007 "A New Reality"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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This Week's Sermon The Ascension of Our Lord 17 May 2007 "A New Reality"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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But now since he ascended into heaven, not just like some other saint but, in the words of the apostle (Eph. 4:10?), far above all heavens that he might truly fill all things, he is everywhere present to rule, not only as God but also as man, from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth, as the prophets foretell (Ps. 8:6; 93:1; Zech. 9:10) and as the apostles testify that he worked with them everywhere and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it (Mark 16:20). [FC SD VIII.27].
In the Holy Gospel Luke tells us that Jesus "was carried up into heaven," while in his second book, the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us that "a cloud took him out of their sight." Contrary to first appearances, Luke does not intend to tell us that Jesus went away. Rather, he tells us that Jesus was removed from the sight of the Apostles. They simply could not see him. If Jesus did go away from them, as the Reformed teach, then Jesus clearly contradicts himself when he promised:
"And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20, ESV)Jesus could not be in heaven and be with us always. So, the Lutheran Confessions do not understand the Ascension of Jesus as what David Scaer calls "some sort of space travel, wherein Christ is transported from one place to another, from earth to any level of the heavens, high or low" [Scaer, Christology, p. 102].
So often we hear people speak of God being "up there." Even the well-meaning billboard I have seen gets it wrong. It says: "He's not the man upstairs, he's the Lord Jesus Christ." To speak of God "up there" means that he is not here, at least, not in any meaningful sense. And he certainly isn't present in his Church except in some ghostly kind of way. The Lutheran theologian Abraham Calov, who lived in the early 17th century, had a particularly sharp ridicule of the Reformed idea of a spatial universe, with heaven "up there," earth here, and hell "down there." Calov said:
But the heaven which Christ occupied is not locally situated above the stars, as the Calvinists prattle. Scripture knows nothing of this heaven. No, it is a majestic and glorious heaven, which, like God Himself, is everywhere. The mathematical calculation we leave to the Calvinists themselves, who have certainly busied themselves with this noble science" [quote by Elert, Structure of Lutheranism, 251].If the Ascension of our Lord is not a going away, just what is it? Another Lutheran dogmatician, Nicolaus Hunnius, said that Christ's Ascension is "a departure into the hidden glory of God." It means that Christ can be present-according to his flesh-everywhere at the same time. The God-man, who suffered, died, and rose from the dead, would now take on "A New Reality." Jesus would be present according to his flesh in Word and Sacrament. All that was gone at the Ascension was the sight of Jesus. He did not really leave his disciples. It is no different than what happened on the day of his resurrection with the Emmaus disciples. After Jesus explained the Scriptures to them and then blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them, he vanished from their sight [Luke 24.31]. They could no longer see Jesus physically. That's exactly what happens at the Ascension. The cloud tells us that Jesus is no longer within our ordinary limits. Jesus now does things and is present according to God's way of being present and doing things while still remaining true man. Remember this, that Jesus did not lay aside his humanity when he ascended up to heaven. Jesus is still and always will be the God-man for you! He will forever be true God and true Man in one indivisible Person! The right hand of the Father is not a geographical place, but the exercise of the whole power of God, which is now in the hands of Jesus, who has promised to use it for the good of his Church! What a glorious day The Ascension of Our Lord is! What tremendous promises are fulfilled!
The new reality which the Ascension ushered in empowers Christ's Church. It means that Jesus is present at every Divine Service in every place in our world, no matter what time it takes place. It does not mean that Jesus is constantly rushing from one place to the other so that he can be present. By ascending, Jesus transcends space and time. He can fulfill his promise to give every communicant his true body and blood, whether he communes at this altar or whether he communes at an altar in a grass-thatched sanctuary in Sudan or whether he communes in on the battlefield in Iraq. In each instance Christ is bodily present with his true body and blood to forgive our sins. It means that Christ himself is present at every single Baptism no matter where or when it is performed. Christ himself is baptizing through the hand and voice of the pastor. It means that Christ is present to hear every confession of every sin and to pronounce his own Absolution to the penitent.
During the singing of the Hymn to Depart on Ascension Day, the Paschal Candle is carried in procession to the Font, where it remains until the Great Vigil of Easter of the next Church Year. This removal of the Paschal Candle symbolizes our Lord's Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings Christ to us through the Sacraments, thus indicating that our Lord's presence is of a different sort than his physical presence with his disciples. "A New Reality" happens when Jesus ascends to the Father's right hand. The Paschal Candle is lit for all Baptisms and funerals.
All of this is possible only because Jesus has ascended, removing his visible presence from the world. The Ascension marks the end of the ordinary post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. He will no longer be present in that way but will be present according to "A New Reality." And a reality it is! That we Lutherans have to celebrate and with which to comfort ourselves.
One might ask: what is Jesus doing now? His sitting at the Father's right hand describes what he is doing now. He ruling all things and filling all things with the glory of his divine-human presence. It means that Christ is ruling in his Church by means of Word and Sacrament. In the world he rules with his power as he guides the forces of this world. We can't always see why he allows certain things to happen, why wars and other cataclysmic events take place, but we have his promise that he will turn them all to the benefit of his holy Church. What a comfort to know that our Ascended Lord is working all things to the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose [Rom. 8.28-30]!
Because our Lord is with us, according to his divine-human Person, we cannot be destroyed because he has already won the victory through his death and resurrection. He leads us in that victory, giving us strength and courage to face everything that the world tries to throw at us. We struggle against those demonic forces, against the world, but we know their fate. They have not won and cannot win. The One sitting at the right hand of the Father is the same One who has promised to return to us according to his eternal glory. But in the meantime, Jesus has ushered in "A New Reality," one that promises that he is always with us, really, truly, for our blessing.