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The Ascension of Our Lord, 05/29/2014
Sermon on Luke 24:44-53, by Carl A. Voges
"May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him." [Ephesians 1.17]
In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord
Apart from the Life given at Baptism, power is what drives many people. Wrapped in our own lives, we will work to gain power over the world's life, including the people around us. Thankfully, the Lord rescues us from such power when he baptizes us and draws us into his own power!
The power of the Lord God is partially hidden in the Son's three-year ministry through his attitude, serving and crucifixion. That power, though, is openly displayed in the Son's teaching, healing, forgiving and resurrection.
That power, hidden and open, is fully displayed today as the Son ascends to the Father, competing his rescue of the world's people from the drivers of its life - sin, Satan and death. Thus the Lord's people gather to worship the Father, Son and Spirit today in deep satisfaction and with over-flowing joy.
Luke's twenty-fourth chapter opens with the stunning reality of Jesus' resurrection breaking in on his followers early that morning. That reality is reinforced later in the day when two of them, who unknowingly are walking with their Lord and discussing matters with him, suddenly recognize him in the breaking of the bread. This recognition spills over when the two followers report to the others what has occurred on their journey to Emmaus. Suddenly Jesus stands in the gathering, startling and frightening them, but he calmly notes that he is the Lord they knew before his dying and rising, and he eats a piece of fish they give him.
Then we come to today's Gospel. In the opening verses (44-48) Jesus reminds his followers of the words he spoke to them in his three years of ministry. He had been pointing out that everything written about him in the law of Moses, the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled.
He then opens their minds to understand the Scriptures and plunges into the events that occurred in his life. He notes that he was to suffer and rise from the dead. He further notes that repentance and forgiveness is to be proclaimed in his Name to all the world's people.
This fulfilling of the Scriptures, this understanding of them, this suffering and rising of the Son, this calling for repentance and proclaiming his forgiveness - it is to all of this that we witness as the baptized people of Lord God!
Now let's look at the closing verses in this passage (49-53). Jesus orders us to see that he is sending what his Father promised. Such seeing is not a casual glance we throw his way if we are not busy glimpsing something else. Instead, it is an intense looking that sees the Son's Life making its way into this world.
The Father is not going to back off from what he said he would do, namely, baptize us so we can receive the Son's Spirit. Jesus also tells his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they have been clothed with power from on high. They are not to charge out on their own, doing what they think needs to be done. They are to wait until they are flooded with the power of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This is the same power that freed Jesus from the grasp of death and triggered his resurrection. For the disciples this flood occurred on the Day of Pentecost. For us the flood occurs at our Baptisms.
Jesus then leads his disciples out to Bethany. It is intriguing that this is the place where Lazarus lived and died and lived again. There our Lord lifts up his hands and blesses the disciples. This blessing is the pouring out of his Life on his followers. While this is going on, Jesus withdraws from the disciples and is carried up to heaven.
The pouring out of his Life surrounds his people as he returns to his Father and the Spirit, completing the work he had been given to do, namely, rescuing the world's people from sin, Satan and death. Because of that blessing, there is no moaning or complaining by the disciples. Knowing that their rescue from the unholy trio has been completed dominates their thinking and understanding and doing.
So they worship him, literally bending, kneeling and falling down at the realization of what Jesus has done for them and the world. Because of such knowing, they return to Jerusalem with great joy, a word describing the reality of eternal Life that waits for all the people baptized into the Son. They are continually in the temple blessing the Lord God (the same word as used before), thus returning his blessing of them. It is striking that they are following the days and times for worship that they learned as faithful Jews.
This passage details the reason for our quiet confidence today in the celebration of our Lord's Ascension. Having had our own lives clawed and ripped by the presence of sin, Satan and death, we are deeply thankful for the Son's rescue from those awful realities (realities that surface again and again in dangerous viruses or harsh cruelties or frightening disasters). We are humbly grateful for the Ascension because it signals that the Son's redemption of us is now complete.
We are also aware of how his Life continues to press in on us through his Scriptures and Sacraments today, even when our lives are distracted or heavy. For what we witness to is that redemption and such witness begins with our worship of him. It is strange that we live in a culture where such worship is considered an option rather than a necessity.
But it isn't so strange if we think that our primary witness is to ourselves, to our failures
(the source of all our complaints) as well as to our accomplishments (the source of all our boasts). We're born into this world to witness to ourselves, but we have been re-born in Baptism to witness to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Such witnessing begins, continues and ends in our worship of him.
To knowingly and willingly absent ourselves from the Lord's sacred presence is extremely dangerous. That's why the call to repentance needs to be heard clearly and steadily. When we are witnessing to ourselves, we are not witnessing to what our Lord has done, doing redemption not only for us, but also for every person in this world.
But when the call to repentance is answered, then we begin to understand how the worship of our Lord is the natural and necessary response of those who have been baptized. Such worshiping quietly builds up the confidence we have in our Lord. We know what it's like to have our lives hurled to ground, but now we also know what it's like to have them picked up. It is our Lord's suffering and dying, his rising and ascending that makes it possible for us to be drawn into the Life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This festival marks the brilliant conclusion of Easter's Great Fifty Days! Jesus' ascension to the Father today means that he has completed the redemptive work the Father had given him prior to the Incarnation! So we gather today with over-flowing joy, deep satisfaction and quiet confidence, celebrating not only the world's rescue from sin, Satan and death but also our continual participation in that rescue!
Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord