Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now technically it was Thursday. And you know, we have a few holidays for the church that fall on Thursday, but as you also know, people don’t come to church on Thursdays anymore. So some of us that want to keep Ascension Day, we kick it to Sunday, and that’s this morning — the Ascension celebration.
Whether the day or the Sunday, it celebrates the fact — the day that our Lord, our resurrected Lord, ascended into the heavenly realm in order to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Now as I grew up, it always struck me a little strange that we celebrated Jesus’s departure. He was leaving this earth; he was going up into heaven. And for some reason that was supposed to be a great celebration.
Right — it’s Jesus’s Ascension, though. You see, it’s not like having an unpleasant relative stay with you, where you can’t just sort of wait until the relative goes home, and the relative leaves and goes home, and there’s great celebration in the house because peace has come again to the home. That’s not how we ought to think about Jesus’s Ascension, though I did think of it that way when I was a kid.
It’s Jesus, our compassionate, forgiving, gracious, and serving Lord, who has departed from this realm into the heavenly one as the ruler.
The departure — or the Ascension in this case — of a beloved family member or a leader is rarely celebrated with great joy and celebration. Someone who is beloved, when they leave, and they are leaving for quite a long time, their departure produces mixed feelings — feelings of a little happiness but also of great sorrow.
And when great leaders depart, for one reason or another, their followers tend to get a little depressed. Before Socrates drank the hemlock in 399 BC, he tried to banish sorrow and despair from the hearts of his students by assuring them that he was moving on to become the greatest philosopher ever, and he no longer had to worry about bodily, temporal needs; then he could devote all of his eternal time to the mind — and to studying and learning and thinking and questioning and answering. But that didn’t help. The students were still quite depressed when Socrates died.
Alexander the Great accomplished a great deal more than about anybody else — an enormous united empire. His death, though — his departure from this world — produced great sadness among the people, even some of the people that he had conquered previously. For when he died, his empire disintegrated into divided kingdoms ruled by generals who tried to kill one another off.
In our time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inspired a nation with his “I Have a Dream” speech, wherein he expressed hope that his four little children would one day live in a nation that would judge them not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. And here we are, 50, 60 years later. And that dream’s been pushed aside by the progressive activist elite, who not only see color — black and white and brown — and if your skin is the wrong color, then you ought to forfeit your stuff and it goes to somebody else. And there we are, right back to the very beginning of racism. By the way, taking people’s stuff — see the seventh commandment in the Small Catechism — it is a religious, not a political, statement.
When a Christian considers the Ascension of Jesus, he or she should be happy. And the preachers and teachers of the church ought to preach and teach accordingly — that it’s a great celebration, a wonderful thing, that our Lord has ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God.
As the disciples watched Jesus go into heaven, Saint Luke tells us that the disciples worshiped him and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they went back to church to celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. The disciples weren’t just happy; they had great joy, according to the biblical text. The church is supposed to convey Ascension Day with the same kind of enthusiasm.
In Jesus’s Ascension the disciples saw reasons for a celebration and worship. After three years of not getting it — of not understanding who Jesus was, what he came to do, how he would go about doing it, and their place in the economy of salvation — they now finally get it. Jesus opened their minds to understanding Scripture, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Finally they understood that their work — and the new work in the New Testament of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — was the beginning, not the end, of the New Testament church’s mission of salvation to the whole world.
By the way, Jesus didn’t have to ascend. He didn’t have to leave a particular place, did he? Couldn’t he have just stayed around and worked with the disciples like he had done for three and a half years in the New Testament? Couldn’t he have simply continued to operate in his state of humiliation? After all, look at everything that he had done, all that he had started, all that he had taught. And now Jesus, as he’s at the top of his game, is going away.
Maybe the question crossed your mind at some point: why did Jesus ascend into heaven, and why did he just leave us with just his words and his sacraments and the church and a whole bunch of Bible passages? Wouldn’t things be better if he actually stayed here on earth, walking around, preaching and teaching and healing like he did in the gospel lessons of the New Testament?
I mean, after all, if he were here in physical, bodily form — where we could touch him and see him and speak with him directly — he could answer all of our questions, solve all of our problems, settle all disputes, even heal and prevent divisions in the church. He could convince the doubting, comfort the weak, bring back the stray — all those people that have wandered away from church after being baptized and confirmed — and much, much more. So why did he have to go in the first place?
The Bible tells us that Jesus went away into heaven to reclaim his rightful place as King of kings and Lord of lords. He came from the Father, as the Father’s only-begotten Son, to die for the sins of the world, to be resurrected, and ultimately to ascend. But the Son of God was always meant to ascend back to his heavenly Father.
John 16:28: Jesus said, “I came forth from the Father, and I have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and I am going to the Father.” You see, heaven was and is Jesus’s home. It’s where he belongs, as the Son of God.
In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul wrote: “God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church.” That’s Jesus’s rightful place.
And in his infinite wisdom, and the advancement of the cause of salvation for you and for the entire world, God the Father put Jesus, the Son of God, in his rightful and best place. He could bring about the end of sin, death, and the power of the devil as he reigns in the heavenly realm. To this end, God the Father placed all of human history under Christ’s feet. He also placed your entire life under Christ’s feet. That which is meant by others for evil, God uses for good. We have that promise in Romans 8:28.
The best thing for us and for the world was to have Jesus right where he’s at — enthroned in all majesty, honor, and power, and seated at the right hand of God the Father.
By the way, the phrase “seated at the right hand of God the Father” doesn’t mean that Jesus is literally always sitting in a particular spot in heaven on a literal throne — although I won’t be surprised to see him sitting on a throne in the middle of heaven. The phrase “seated at the right hand of God” is a reference to divine, kingly authority.
He’s in complete control of all things in this world. He’s in complete control of all the things going on in the visible and invisible church. And he’s in complete control — redeeming, sanctifying — all things in your life.
Ascension Day also serves as a reminder that even though it appears to us that things are going from bad to worse — that our families, our churches, our country, our civilization, the world itself is starting to spin out of control — Jesus is in fact in control.
In the gospel of Saint Matthew chapter 28, just before ascending, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” And then he entrusts them with that very authority to administer his grace — the forgiveness of sins, light and salvation — in this world. That’s the rightful function of New Testament pastors.
Jesus was leaving — that is, he was going from this realm into the heavenly realm to rule on high. He would no longer be with them — and with his church — in a visible, localized way. But he made it equally clear that he wasn’t leaving them; he wasn’t leaving the church, and he wasn’t leaving the world. And he also made it clear that he was leaving power and authority to the church to do something unique that no other institution or person could do in the world.
Matthew 16:19: “I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth — that is, set free on earth — shall be loosed in heaven.”
He also promised to be where two or three are gathered in his name — that is, in the Word, in the law and the gospel, and in worship. There he would be with them.
So when things look like they’re coming apart — in the world and the church and in your own life — remember: Jesus ascended to the heavenly throne and has been entrusted with all power and principalities, and he reigns eternally for your well-being.
Jesus also went away so that he could be with us always. That’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it? Sounds contradictory. I’ll say it again: Jesus also went away so that he could be with us always. It’s a paradox, really. Jesus went away from us so he could be with us to the end of the age. Just before he went away, that’s what he said. He commanded his disciples to spend the rest of their lives preaching and teaching and baptizing. And he said to them, “And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus ascended into heaven to be with you always. Now imagine, if you will, what it would look like if Jesus never, ever ascended into heaven — that if he kept the modus operandi of his three-and-a-half-year ministry going past his resurrection. What would his base of operation look like? Where would it be? During his three and a half years it was in the town of Capernaum, his adopted hometown. He continued to go out from Capernaum to the hillside, all the way into Jerusalem. And thousands of people came and followed him wherever he went. Right? Maybe he’d just keep traveling around, all over the planet.
When he did that during his three-and-a-half-year ministry, people came to see him town after town, country hillside after country hillside, face to face. When Jesus went into town to preach, and in the countryside, hundreds then thousands came and touched him, and he healed them and he fed them.
If you think the waves of illegal immigrants coming across our southern border creates a chaotic problem, imagine the hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of people who would come pouring into wherever Jesus happened to be at the time, so he could answer their questions, get help in solving their problems, big and small, heal them from all their ailments, restore all the brokenness in their lives.
Imagine — you know, some of those illegal immigrants that are coming across now, they’ve got to go see an administrative judge, an asylum judge, to see if they’ve got a real claim. You know, some of those are now waiting until 2031 to see the judge. Imagine how long you’d have to wait to see Jesus.
Also remember what Jesus said to his disciples in John 16:7: “I tell you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus went into heaven to live and reign from there and to send us here the Holy Spirit — to you and to his church. In conjunction and alongside of his preached and taught and sacramental Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the written, spoken, and living Word, Jesus does answer some — but not all — of our questions. He does sometimes solve some of our problems. But he always comforts us, always warns us, always encourages us, always forgives us, and is always purifying our faith, moving us ever closer to our heavenly mansion.
The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us in the sacrament of baptism — not just the day that we’re baptized, but as we live in our baptismal faith day after day, and express it in repentance, in confession of sin, and as we receive God’s gracious forgiveness.
Jesus is with us in a very special and personal way in the Lord’s Supper: “This is my body, this is my blood, given and shed for you, for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Jesus is with us in his promises. Jesus, his legions of heavenly hosts, and God-ordained temporal powers in this world protect us against sin and death and the power of the devil, for as much as they can provide for us, enable us physically and spiritually through the Word of the Spirit. And he empowers us to confess the faith once delivered to the saints. And when this night of sin is over, he’ll guide us safely to our heavenly home.
Remember John 14:1 from the Gospel of John: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.”
Jesus talks about preparing a place for us in John 14. He might be using the imagery of the Jewish customs surrounding engagement and marriage. In Jesus’s day, the engagement was almost the same thing as marriage, legally speaking. But several things had to happen before the couple could actually move in and live together. The bridegroom had to make sure he had a house — a home — for his new wife to live in. So he had to go and prepare a place for her, his bride. Sound familiar?
But often the case would be that preparing a home for a new bride was left to the bridegroom’s father. Think about that: would you trust your teenager to build a house? No. So frequently the father stepped in and became the designer and general contractor for the building of the house. He was the architect, the contractor, the tradesman. So the father was put in charge to get the job done and to get it done safely and right.
It’s also the case that the groom wasn’t allowed to move in with his bride until the father signed off on the project — until he gave, in fact, the permit, so to speak, that the house was safe and ready to be occupied.
Without Jesus’s work, heaven would not be our place. There would be no place for us. We could not have entered heaven, much less spent eternity there. And what work did Jesus do in order to prepare the bride — you — for the place he’s preparing for you?
That would be the part when he said Christ had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.
By Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, by his resurrection, and by his Ascension, Jesus is making us — and has made us — ready for our heavenly mansion. And he has made the heavenly mansion ready for us.
It’s enough to know that our Bridegroom will come back. The times and the days are not set by us — they were not even set by Jesus at the time he spoke, but by the Father, who alone knew the times and the seasons. And he has prepared a place in his heavenly home.
On Ascension Day, Jesus went away to take his rightful place in power and majesty at the right hand of God — to send the Holy Spirit to bring his saving gifts through the Word and sacrament ministry to those who have ears to hear, and to make a reservation and prepare the place, our heavenly mansion.
All in the resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ: he has ascended for your sake — and so will you, for your sins are forgiven, and there’s a mansion waiting. Amen.
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.