Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Amen
The text
for meditation is written in the 1st chapter of the Book of Acts;
Verses 1 – 11:
Acts 1:1–11
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 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.
Acts 1:1–11
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 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.
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not
to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he
said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days
from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom
to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 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.” 9 And when he had said
these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out
of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 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.”
Way back at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry, John baptised Jesus in the Jordan and then the Holy Spirit led Jesus
into the wilderness to do battle with Satan.
One of Satan’s temptations challenged Jesus to use His Godly powers to
help Himself – to turn stones into bread.
One of the things that we learn from this account of the temptation was
that, between the time that the Son of God took on His human nature until His
disciples laid Him in the tomb, He never used His Godly powers to help only
Himself. He used His Godly powers to
help others. He healed the sick, gave
sight to the blind, raised the dead; He performed miracles of grace. Although
His Godly powers were always at His disposal, He intentionally limited them and
never used them to His own advantage.
The Apostle Paul described this very
well when the Holy Spirit inspired him to write: [Philippians 2:5–8] “Have this mind among yourselves, which
is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled
himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
Since
Paul states that Christ humbled Himself, we refer to this self-imposed
limitation as Christ in His state of humiliation.
Ever since Jesus took on His human
nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, He has been and will always be both God
and man in one person. During His state
of humiliation, He hid His divine powers so that He could take our place under
the law. He suffered the temptations of
Satan in the exact same way that we did, but, unlike us, He never sinned. In His state of humiliation, He still lived
the perfect life with the exact same resources that we have – that any human
being has. In His state of humiliation,
He allowed the Roman soldiers to nail Him to a cross and He died. While He was on that cross, He suffered the
full punishment of our sin in our place.
In His state of humiliation, every torment He endured tortured Him just
as much as it would have tortured us. He
endured all that in our place so that our sin would not be charged against us –
so that we would have the righteousness of His holy life.
When Jesus finished paying for our
sin, the state of humiliation came to an end.
That happened once Jesus died and His friends laid Him in the tomb. At that time His state of exaltation
began. At that time He began to fully
use the Godly power that had always been at His disposal.
The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle
Peter to tell us that [1 Peter
3:18–19] [Christ] being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the
spirit … went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. This is Peter’s way of saying that Jesus held
a victory parade in the depths of hell in order to proclaim His victory over
sin, death, and the power of the devil.
After Jesus proclaimed His victory to the people in hell, He began to
show Himself to His disciples. He began
to teach them that He was with them even when they could not see Him.
That brings us to the Bible text for
this day. In this reading we learn that
after Jesus showed Himself to the disciples for forty days, He ascended. Our reading says that He was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. The disciples saw Him ascend in His state of
exaltation.
Now, if this were the only place in
the Bible that talked about the Ascension, we might think that Jesus, having
finished His task of salvation, simply left on a long and well deserved cosmic
holiday – that He was simply gone – gone at least until the day that He
returned as the angels 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.”
Fortunately, Jesus Himself made some
promises before He ascended. He said, [Matthew 28:20] “Behold, I am
with you always, to the end of the age.” In addition to the words of Jesus Himself, the
Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell us something about what it means that Jesus
ascended. When He wrote to the
Ephesians, He said, [Ephesians 4:10]
“He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that
he might fill all things.” From
these Scriptures we learn that Jesus did not go away when He ascended, but that
He fills all things. That means that you
can’t get away from Him even if you wanted to.
It means that when you are in your car, in your home, at work, shopping,
or whatever, Jesus is right there with you.
Now, when I say that Jesus is with
you, I don’t mean in some sort of abstract spiritual presence. When Jesus is with you, all of Jesus is with
you. Because Jesus is now in His state
of exaltation, even His human body is able to fill all things. The whole person of Jesus – both God and Man
– is always with us.
As marvellous as this news is, there
is even more. Jesus was always with His
disciples during those forty days between His resurrection and His ascension,
but, for most of that time, they could not see Him. There were special times when Jesus showed
Himself to them – He called Mary by name – He appeared in the locked room on
Easter evening and a week later to Thomas – He showed Himself in the Breaking
of Bread to the Emmaus disciples – and so forth. Although He was always with them, they only
saw Him at the time of His choosing.
Jesus has promised us that we too
will have special times when He shows Himself to us. One of those times Jesus [Luke 24:45–47] opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should
suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and
forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” This verse teaches us that Jesus gives His
gifts when His church proclaims repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His
name. The mission of the Christian
Church on earth in all that it does – worship services - preaching – teaching –
singing – administration of the Holy Sacraments and so forth, should always
centre on the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in the
name of Christ.
At another time Jesus said, [Matthew 28:19–20] “Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have
commanded you.” These words teach
us that Jesus gives His gifts when His church baptizes and teaches. Notice that Jesus instructs His church to
teach all, not some, of the things He has commanded. That means that we have the joy of learning
His teachings our entire life because Jesus always has more to teach us.
Then there is the special meal that
He gives. He has promised that He will
deliver His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins in the bread and
wine of that meal. He has promised that
as we receive Him in our mouths, He will deliver forgiveness, life, and
salvation to us. In this way He has
promised to bring heaven itself into our presence – into our very mouths.
There can be no doubt that Jesus
distributes His promised gifts at His Divine Service; that time when His church
gathers together to receive His gifts in Word and Sacrament. When He reveals
Himself to serve us, He gives us the righteousness of His holy, sinless
life. He also gives us the forgiveness
of sins that He earned with His suffering and death on the cross. These gifts mean that the day will come when
we shall rise from death just as He did, and we shall then live with Him
forever.
The worship service is not an
exclusive experience with Christ however. The Ascension of Jesus Christ means
that He is always with us – at home – at work – at school – on vacation – on
our sick bed – in times of trouble – His presence knows no bounds.
The gifts of forgiveness, salvation,
and eternal life with Him, the confidence to face the challenges of each day
knowing we are in His divine presence are gracefully offered to us in unconditional
love; Jesus calls us to the alter of worship to receive them that we may live
in joy with Him eternally. Amen
The peace and love of our Great
Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. Amen
