Ascension of our Lord, 05/21/2009

Sermon on Luke 24:44-53, by Samuel Zumwalt

44Then He said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." 45Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." 50Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. 51While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple blessing God.

[This sermon was originally preached on 17 May 2007. A guest preacher will be preaching at our parish on this text on 21 May 2009. The title for this sermon comes from Dr. Harry Wendt, author of the Crossways Bible Study materials. See http://www.crossways.org/]

THE LORD IS DIFFERENTLY PRESENT

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We at St. Matthew's have had more than our share of grief experiences in the past year and one-half. For some of us, for family members and closest friends, that grief has taken new twists and turns as we have settled into what it means to live without those we love. Depression has grown deeper for some. Loneliness has intensified for some. The question "now what" has been on the lips of some. Grief does not go away. It changes.

How strange the Ascension Day texts sound in this context. As the Lord Jesus' closest friends and loved ones, the inner core of disciples had suffered emotionally over the death of Jesus. They were like any other relatives that got the word of a loved one's death. They were in the midst of the rituals surrounding a recent loss. And, then, a few saw Jesus again, and then a few more, and then a few more. Paul says in 1^st Corinthians that the Lord appeared to over 500 hundred disciples.

But this wasn't one of those cases of mistaken identity where the names of the dead and the living were mixed up. This wasn't one of those cases of resuscitating someone whose heart and breathing had stopped. This wasn't even one of those cases of seeing some kind of ghost or apparition. No, the Lord Jesus appeared in His body that still showed the marks of the nails in His hands and feet. The Crucified Jesus had been raised from the dead on the third day! He was convincingly dead, and then Christ arose!

When we read St. Luke's chronology of events through the text of Acts chapter 1, we hear that the Crucified and Resurrected Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples over the course of forty days until the Ascension. The disciples got what any mourner today can only dream about. They got to see their dead loved one and friend again several times over the course of forty days after Easter Sunday.

The point was, of course, that Christ Jesus, God's Son, was truly victorious over death and grave. The point was, of course, that Christ Jesus, God's Son, was indeed victorious Lord over sin, death, and evil.

The point was not that Christ Jesus, God's Son, was going to stay around bodily or that those that loved Him were themselves not going someday to die physically.

As ones who are intimate with the dynamics of grief, we might well imagine that the disciples would go even deeper into their grief having seen the Lord Jesus off and on for about forty more days after His death and resurrection. We might well wonder why they didn't ask why He couldn't stay around bodily or why they couldn't go with Him. We might well expect the disciples to be paralyzed by their grief over the loss of Jesus. We might well expect those disciples to wonder if they were the butt of some mean cosmic joke. How could they see Jesus again and then have to lose Him again?

Instead St. Luke tells us that after the Ascension of our Lord, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God (24:52-53).

I ask you: does that seem to be strange behavior from mourners? That despite knowing for certain they were never again going to see the Lord Jesus in His physical body, they could return to Jerusalem with great joy and be continually in the temple blessing God?

Or was it more the case that having seen the Crucified Jesus now as Risen Lord their minds had been opened in a profoundly new way to the eternal God? Indeed isn't that exactly what Luke is telling us when he writes: "Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45)? The Lord Jesus showed them how to read the Bible through His death and resurrection. The Lord Jesus gave the disciples not only understanding but purpose when He says: "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things" (24:46-48).

The Lord Jesus gave His dear ones the answer to the question "Now what?" They are to tell everyone that God's Son Jesus has suffered and died for the sins of the whole world. They are to tell everyone that God's Son Jesus has been raised from the dead, and they have actually seen Him. They are to tell everyone that God's Son Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins in His name and that everyone needs to repent, to believe, and to be baptized.

Having seen the Risen Lord Jesus several times over the course of forty days, you might expect that they were excited and joyful at first precisely because they had seen the Risen Jesus. You might also expect that after the newness of the joy wore off they would have lost energy and heart all over again. But for the promise of coming power! The disciples were going to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of power for their new mission, and so they were to wait in the city.

Of course, Luke tells us in Acts 2 that Pentecost came ten days later. We know that the Holy Spirit fell in a profound way upon the core of twelve that now included Judas' replacement Matthias. We know that because of the Spirit-filled preaching of the twelve the Church was born that day with 3,000 converts. The disciples did what they were sent to do. They preached the Hebrew Bible interpreting it through the death and resurrection of God's Son Jesus. They called people to repent, believe, and be baptized. They called people to receive the forgiveness of sins in the name of God's Son Jesus.

Because the Lord Jesus has commanded us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, show hospitality to the stranger, and visit the sick and imprisoned (see Matthew 25), it is an easy thing - a not very controversial thing - to do works of mercy and to contribute to worthy charities. That won't get anyone in to very much trouble in most places of the world.

The harder challenge which the Lord Jesus has set before us is to give our witness to His death and resurrection that all may repent and believe, that all may receive the forgiveness of sins and be baptized. It takes power to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ, and that power does not come from within us. It does not come from someone's own charisma or personality. The power for Christian witness comes from the Holy Spirit.

Those of us that have been weighed down with grief know how hard it is to find new purpose, when so much of how we defined ourselves is wrapped up with the life we used to have before the death of a loved one. To reframe one's life, to have a new vision for life seems impossible after someone we love has died. We love how it used to be!

The Lord Jesus calls us to look beyond our grief, to look beyond the past, yes, to look beyond the life we used to have before the death of someone we love. He lifts our eyes to eternity - not just to reunion with those we love but to union with God Himself!

This life is not all that there is. Death is no longer the end of things that leaves us shattered and, like Humpty Dumpty, beyond repair. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Because Christ is risen and because the Holy Spirit has been sent, we can be filled with joy over a new and certain future that, unlike the past, goes on forever!

The reason this space is not filled to overflowing even on a Thursday, the reason this space is not humming with intensity is that we have not waited for the Holy Spirit's power to move us beyond grief to witness. We have not been joyful and continually blessing God, because we have not believed that the Crucified Jesus truly has been raised.

The message of Ascension Day is that the Lord Jesus is differently present with His Church. He is present now in the bread and the wine of the Eucharist. He is present now in the Scriptures that are proclaimed in worship and that open us as we daily read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. The Lord Jesus is differently present, but He is still calling us out of ourselves and out of the paralyzing grief rooted in the past. Yes, the Lord Jesus is calling us to be opened by the Holy Spirit and empowered to tell the whole world the Good News of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name.

Let us repent, dear sisters and brothers, of our unbelief and our unwillingness to look forward to eternal life with God. Let us repent, dear ones, of our joyless lives and our failure to wait for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Long ago, God's Word given to the prophet Jeremiah lifted up the disobedient people of God that were grieving the loss of their past. God said: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile" (Jeremiah 29:11-14).

God has a future beyond grief for all of us. Paradise has been opened by the death and resurrection of God's Son Jesus. The repentant can know forgiveness in Jesus' name. The sad and weary can know the joy of continually blessing God.

Let us enter into a time of prayer for revival, dear ones, prayer for ourselves, for our church, our community, and God's world. Let us pray that we may repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ, that the burdens of unbelief and guilt may be lifted. Let us pray that we may know the joy of living in Christ's presence and the joy of witnessing to the plans God has for those that thank, praise, serve, and obey Him.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Samuel Zumwalt
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina

E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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