Luke 24:44-53 / Ascension 2021

The Ascension of Our Lord (transferred, 16/05/2021) | Sermon on Luke 24:44-53 | by Paul Bieber |

Luke 24:44-53 Revised Standard Version

⁴⁴ Jesus said to his disciples, “These are my words which 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.” ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.”

⁵⁰ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. ⁵¹ While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple blessing God.

I send the promise of my Father

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Two accounts of the Ascension are given today: the conclusion of St. Luke’s Gospel and the beginning of its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles. Acts tells us that the risen Jesus appeared to the apostles for forty days, speaking about the kingdom and instructing them to wait for the promise of the Father, an imminent baptism with the Holy Spirit. And the Ascension is celebrated forty days after Easter Day, only ten days before the descent of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, in accord with this timeline.

Curiously, though, hearing today’s Gospel we are returned to the disciples’ gathering on Easter evening. Jesus’ final teaching in St. Luke, the first part of today’s Gospel, was the conclusion of the Easter III Gospel’s account of Jesus’ appearance on that evening, as he interrupts the Emmaus disciples’ account to the eleven and those with them of how Jesus revealed himself to them on the road and at the table. Today we go straight on to Jesus’ speaking of the promise of the Father, and of the disciples being clothed with power from on high; then Jesus leads them out to Bethany and is carried up into heaven.

St. Luke didn’t nod off and lose continuity. There are no further time references in St. Luke’s Gospel after 24.33, which tells us that the “same hour” in which the risen Jesus had revealed himself in the breaking of the bread, the Emmaus disciples returned to Jerusalem, only to be told that the risen Jesus had also appeared to Simon Peter. Jesus’ forty days’ teaching is telescoped into five verses. The resurrection has changed everything; there is a sense in which the “eighth day of the week,” the day of new creation, is a timeless “eternal now.”

In his final teaching, the risen Jesus is not “with them” as he was before; he speaks of the fulfillment of the words he spoke when he was “still with them.” The events of his passion and resurrection are the fulfillment of the law, the prophets, and the psalms. It was necessary that all be fulfilled. Jesus opens the disciples’ minds to understand this: the opened scriptures say that the Christ is to suffer, rise, and be preached. Preaching repentance and forgiveness is Jesus’ own work carried on through the Church.

This preaching of repentance and forgiveness in the name of Christ is to go out to all nations. Although all Israel’s hopes, expressed in Israel’s scriptures, point to Christ, the messianic son of David the king, this is not the time to restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus’ final teaching and commission fulfill the promise to Abraham that through him all the families of the world would be blessed. As the disciples return to Jerusalem in great joy, the gospel of great joy to all people announced by angels to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth is also fulfilled.

In the incarnation, the Son of God comes down from heaven to earth. In the passion, crucifixion, and burial he is driven further down, into the ground, by the forces that want to rule in place of God. In the resurrection he springs up from the grave. In the ascension he continues to rise, to the right hand of the Father. This is the exodus he discussed with Moses and Elijah at his transfiguration. The ascension, then, marks the end of one stage in God’s saving act: Jesus’ physical presence ends. But just as the coming of the Son was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise to David and his posterity forever, there comes now a new stage in God’s saving act: the coming of the promise of the Father, sent by Jesus as prophesied by John the Baptist: the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit. Not land, temple, king, offspring, or prosperity, but the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ followers are not left as orphans but clothed with power from on high, as at the Annunciation, when the angel said to the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The new creation that begins with the resurrection will grow, clothed with power.

And the newness of the resurrection is not restricted to this world. The ascension is not just a return to the glory Jesus had with the Father from before the foundation of the world. In the incarnation God comes into our humanity. In the ascension, Jesus carries our humanity into the Godhead. The passion and resurrection are events in God. The ascension is not so much the absence of the crucified and risen one, but a new and more powerful presence, accessible to all through the Spirit.

The two men in white robes in the Acts account offer Jesus’ promise to come again. Icons of the Ascension show Christ in such a way that we cannot tell whether he is going to heaven or coming again to earth. Living in the time between the ascension and the return, we are balanced between them, as it were. Our task, with the eyes of our hearts enlightened by the Spirit, is to bear witness to the power of repentance and forgiveness here and now. Eyes and hearts must be opened and faith created by the Spirit to enable this turning from all that would reign in God’s stead, metanoia, repentance. Preaching repentance and forgiveness is Jesus’ own work carried on through the Church. Jesus’ entire earthly ministry was one of forgiveness, aphesis, release of all in any captivity or bondage. And so is ours.

Jesus’ departure to the Father is the Church’s send-off for our mission to all the world as the eighth day of new creation continues until the returning Lord tells us that our work is done. We are witnesses of what repentance, metanoia, and forgiveness, aphesis, can do. We are not to worry about time references, dates, or deadlines. The Holy Spirit equips the Church, the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills all in all. The promise of the Father is the Holy Spirit. Jesus sends this promise today. Now we are to let the world know the destiny to which God calls all of us.

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

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net