Easter 7A/Ascension Observed Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:44-53
“Powerful Witnesses of the Ascension”
5/4/2008 Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Audubon, Iowa
Ascension Day is one of the few remaining main festivals of the Christian church year that hasn’t really been touched by our secular American society. For example, take our two biggest festivals, Christmas and Easter. They’re the “big two” festivals of the Christian church year, and yet they also have secular ideas and traditions that have little, if anything, to do with the actual Christian festival itself. Ascension Day is a little different. I’m guessing none of you sent or received any “Happy Ascension Day” cards in the mail this week, or went out for dinner for Ascension Day. None of the stores had a big “Ascension Day Sale”, nor do we have some character like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny that’s associated with Ascension Day. In fact, I’m willing to guess that many of you here this morning don’t even know when it usually falls each year. Ascension Day is 40 days after the celebration of Easter, so it’s on a Thursday each year. The 40 days represent the 40 days that Jesus walked the earth after his resurrection before he ascended into heaven. This year, it would have been this past Thursday. Because it’s such a lesser known festival, not many churches have a special service to commemorate it. In fact, many Lutheran churches celebrate Ascension Day with a special evening service that day, but have it as a joint service with sister congregations, and even then, it’s hardly a big turnout. But because it’s a major event in the life of our Savior, I decided it was important enough to move the celebration of the Ascension of Our Lord to today, a Sunday, so we can learn a bit more about this “mystery” festival of the church year, and understand why it’s important that we celebrate it.
One of the things that makes this day unique is that it’s the last time recorded in Scripture that Jesus is seen on earth. Now St. Paul does encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus later in the book of Acts, but Paul doesn’t see the actual, physical, resurrected body of Jesus, he sees a bright light, and hears a voice. In the book of Revelation, St. John tells us he hears Jesus, but again, it’s not a physical body on earth that John sees, it’s a vision. So this account of Jesus’ ascension into heaven is rather unique, in that it is the last time that Jesus is physically seen in his resurrected body on earth.
Jesus has been resurrected from the dead and appeared to His disciples for 40 days now. It’s no big secret that he’s risen from the dead at this point. He had made many appearances in that time period, and they’re recorded in the Gospels. One of them, he appeared to over 500 people! So by this time, it’s no big secret. He’s restored his disciples, the 11 men who cowardly ran away and hid during his passion and death, even restoring Peter, who had denied him three times. No doubt, even though a little over a month had passed since that truly Holy Week in Jerusalem, it probably still seemed so amazing, unreal that Jesus was alive! No doubt, they had to wonder at some point how long Jesus would be with them. Perhaps they thought He was there to stay, to fix their problems, and protect them from what would happen next.
In our readings for this morning, however, we see that would not be the case. Jesus, as he’s done in the three years he spent with His disciples prior to His crucifixion, and in his appearances to them in the 40 days since his resurrection, is teaching His disciples. But the tone of this teaching sounds a bit different from anything they’ve heard. The topic is the same: the kingdom of God. In our Gospel reading from Luke, we’re told Jesus says “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.” At this point, Luke tells us that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”. If you’ll recall, quite often when Jesus was teaching about something that was going to happen to him, or what the Kingdom of God was like, he’d often have to interpret what He was saying to them. This time, He opens their minds, so that they can understand what everything was all about. We’re told he says “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, beginning from Jerusalem.” He calls them witnesses of these things, and promises them help from above. HE then tells them to stay in the city until they are clothed with power from on high.
Now what was all this about? Can you imagine the reaction the disciples must have had that day? They finally understand what all of these events they had witnessed were all about! Jesus was the Christ, He had to suffer, die, and rise again! It was all a part of God’s plan to save the world! Can you imagine the joy, or the “ah hah!” moment they had to have experienced at that point? You’ll notice that they don’t come to this conclusion on their own, but Jesus, through His Word, opens their mind through the preaching of His Word to the disciples. It’s the same way with you and me today. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t come to understand the things of God on our own, our eyes and minds are open through the Word of God. By hearing the Word, our minds are opened by the work of the Holy Spirit through that word, bringing us to faith, or strengthening us in faith. If it happened to the disciples, men who had been unfaithful to Christ during His passion, yet restored after His resurrection, and charged with the task of being witnesses, it can surely happen, and will happen, with you and me as well.
Along with having this joy of finally understanding what took place, the disciples probably had another feeling, wondering what was going on here? Why was Jesus telling us to stay in the city? Wasn’t he coming with us? He’s always been there with us, why would he leave us now? These had to have been some of the thoughts of those disciples that day.
So Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifts up his nail-pierced hands to bless them. All of a sudden, Jesus ascends up into heaven. Our reading in Acts tells us that a cloud took him out of their sight. What kind of questions do you think they were asking? Probably questions like “Where did you go, Jesus? Are we left to do this work alone? Why did you have to leave?” And maybe, as we hear the Ascension accounts, we wonder, why did Jesus have to go back to heaven? Why didn’t he stay here on earth?
Well, let’s think about that point for a moment. During his earthly life, Jesus was in what we call his state of humiliation. That is, while Jesus was true God and true Man, he chose not to use some of his divine qualities during his earthly life. Just imagine, being the all powerful God, creator of heaven and earth, and willingly choosing to limit yourself to a human body. One of those limitations is that a human body can only be in one place at one time. I know some of you might try to be in several places at once, but is it possible? No, it’s not. So if Jesus had not ascended back into heaven, he’d only be in one place. And if Jesus is only in one place at a time, well, he’d be limited in how he could be with us. We’d either have to go to where he was, or he’d have to come to us. So if you’re in a time of trouble, where you need to call out to your Savior for help, you’d better hope he’s not somewhere else doing something else, or you’d be out of luck. I read a statistic this week that helped to illustrate one of the reasons for the Ascension. If Jesus were still on earth today, as he was prior to the Ascension, and we were given just 20 seconds to be with him, and he was with people for 20 seconds at a time, 24/7, he’d only be able to be present with 4,320 people in a day. That means a very small percentage of Christians would be able to be in Christ’s presence on any given day. But now that He is in heaven, he can indeed be with us always, to the end of the age. He’s present with us right now, in this very church as we are gathered here in Word and Sacrament, just as He is present in other churches who are gathered around those same means throughout the world. Likewise, when you pray to Him on your own, and someone in Denmark, or Germany, or New Zealand is praying to Him at the same time you are, He’s present with each one of these people, listening intently to their prayers, something He couldn’t do if he remained confined to a specific place and time here on earth. When you think about it, the presence of your Ascended Lord is sure a lot better than hoping you’re one of those lucky 4,320 people that get 20 seconds to be with Jesus in any given day had he not ascended into heaven, isn’t it?
So, the disciples are there, watching Jesus ascend, and who appears next? Two men in white robes appear and say “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” They heard that although Jesus had left them physically, not only would be still be with them spiritually, he’d return one day. They knew that they were not left as orphans, but as people with hope, hope of being with their Savior again one day.
So, the Disciples on that first Ascension Day had Jesus open their minds to the Scriptures, he Ascends into heaven to be with them always, and he left them with a charge to be his witnesses. So what did they do? Luke’s gospel tells us that “they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” They were filled with great joy! Not only did Jesus promise them His Holy Spirit, and charge them with the task of spreading His Word, and promise that He would return again, He gave them something else very important. He gave them a fellowship to belong to. He gave them the presence of each other. By staying together, by worshipping together, they could encourage each other to be the kind of witnesses that Jesus had prepared them to be. No doubt, they talked about the things that they had seen, heard, and learned while they were with Jesus. They studied His Word that he had revealed to them. And they did so with Great Joy!
What does that sound like? It sounds like what Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church exists for. When we gather together as a congregation, it is to encourage each other by our presence here, to be together with fellow believers in Jesus Christ who share our faith. When we gather together, our Lord Jesus Christ is present in our worship service, feeding us with His Word and in a few moments, his sacrament of Holy Communion. While He’s hidden, we know, just as those early disciples knew, that Jesus was still present, though hidden, from them. That’s why we’re here first of all. But we’re also here to prepare ourselves to be powerful witnesses. Notice that Jesus says He will give them what they need to be powerful witnesses. He will provide the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will come to them on Pentecost. Likewise, in our gathering this morning, through hearing the Word, by receiving the Sacrament, you’re being strengthened and equipped to go out into your daily lives, and share that very message with the world. Whether you realize it or not, each one of you are witnesses of the same things the disciples were. While you haven’t seen them with your physical eyes, with your spiritual eyes, the eyes of faith, through hearing the Word, you have had your minds open to who Jesus is, what He did for us, and that “repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
For us, that work begins not in Jerusalem, but right here in Audubon, Iowa. We’re charged with sharing the message that Jesus Christ is “The Way, The Truth, and The Life.” We’re to tell others the word of God’s law, that none of us can live up to what God expects from us, and that we sin daily. Sometimes, that means we have to get specific about certain sins. But, then, we can announce to them that Jesus Christ has gone to the cross to die for that sin, and then left that sin in the grave when He rose again from the dead. We can tell them that because He’s now ascended into heaven, He’s with us always, even to the end of the age. That’s what proclaiming in Christ’s name the message of repentance and forgiveness of sins is all about. Some will try to use Jesus as a psychological crutch, as something to make you feel better now, others will try to tell you “if you follow these 12 steps, Jesus will bless you with material wealth beyond your wildest dreams.” Some will even simply say “Jesus, Buddah, Allah, it’s all the same. Believe what you want, be good, and you go to heaven.” But that’s not what we have witnessed in the Word. When Christ calls us to be His witnesses, we’re only to share what we have learned from the Scriptures as truth, not what the world wants us to say.
You see, Ascension Day is a very important day in the life of the Christian Church. For one, it’s the day when Jesus goes from being limited to being present in one place at one time, to being everywhere, for us. It’s also the day that He opens the minds of His disciples, and encourages them to be His witnesses. Today, we experience the same thing. Our minds are opened through the preaching of the Word to the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. And we’re told we are to be His witnesses, starting right here in Audubon. As I’ve said the last two weeks, mission work doesn’t start overseas, it starts right here, right now. It happens in your conversations at the store, on main street, at coffee, with friends, in our everyday lives. You don’t have to be a powerful speaker, or feel a call to a foreign country to be a powerful witness of the love of Christ. It’s simply about sharing the Gospel you hear in this place with those you come into contact with. May God make us His powerful witnesses in this community for Jesus’s sake. Amen.
