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INJ
“That He Might Fill All Things”
Acts 1:1-11
Matins
Ascension Day (transferred), 28 May 2006
Dear Mark (newly baptized), and all the Baptized Saints of God,
After the Lord Jesus' resurrection He appeared to the woman at the grave and then to His disciples and to others. For more than five weeks He was here and there, comforting and speaking peace to His followers, showing them His resurrected body, the holes in His hands and feet and side, eating with them and in many other undeniable truths showing them that He was no ghost, but the same Jesus who suffered and died on the cross, and that He had taken back up His flesh and blood, His human nature.
So it is that Jesus is comforting His disciples with His resurrection, and giving them His final teachings, and then, forty days after Easter, Jesus ascends into heaven. Forty days after Easter was this past Thursday, and that is when the church officially celebrates the Ascension, but so the we would enjoy the celebration we have transferred the feast to today.
We heard about Jesus ascension in the Gospel reading from Mark, “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God.” [St Mark 16:19]
We also heard of this in the Epistle reading from Acts, “[Jesus] said to them, 'It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' After He had said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.'” [Acts 1:7-11]
The Ascension, by the way, is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. We've read together on of them, from Psalm 110, “The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand, Till I make You enemies Your footstool.” [Psalm 110:1]
This verse is quoted a number of times in the New Testament, [See Mt 22:44; 26:64; Mk 12:36; 14:62; Lk 20:42-43; 22:69; Ac 2:34-35, and Heb 1:13] and is behind the thought of this mention of the ascension in Hebrews 1, “God, who at various time and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better that the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” [Hebrews 1:1-4]
Another prophecy of the Ascension is Psalm 68:18. It is no wonder that we confess such an important event in Jesus' life week after week in the creed: “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Psalm 68 has this promise: “You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even among the rebellious, That the Lord God might dwell there.” St Paul quotes this verse in His Epistle to the Saints in Ephesus, and this is where we're headed, the verse that I would like to draw your attention to, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men. Now this, “He ascended”- what does it mean but that He also first descended in the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” [Ephesians 4:8,9]
Notice how in all of these passages, Psalm 68 and 110, and Ephesians 4 and Hebrews 1, the Ascension has great significance, great theological significance. Jesus' Ascension is not just a relocation, like a job transfer from earth to heaven. In fact, it's not about Jesus leaving us at all.
What, then, is Jesus' Ascension? What does it mean? What happens when He ascends into heaven? And what does it have to do with us, the Lord's church and His dear Christians? To answer this question we will delve into great mysteries that are wonderful, and well beyond our understanding.
The answer begins with Christmas, even earlier, when Jesus was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary. Then the eternal Son of God took upon Himself flesh and blood, a human nature. So the two natures of Christ, divine and human, are perfectly and eternally united in the person of Jesus. What marvelous love that God has toward us, that He would unite Himself, God and man together, in the person of Jesus. And He does all of this for us, that He would be our Brother, that He would be tempted and suffer like us so that He could sympathize with us in our weakness, and so that He could die in our place and suffer the punishment for our sins.
This personal union of the natures means that all of the attributes of the divine nature are communicated to Jesus' human nature. The ancient church fathers used the example of fire and iron. The iron is like the human nature and the fire like the divine nature. While the iron remains iron and does not change, the fire shines and burns through the iron. The iron remains iron and the fire remains fire, but they are united in one union.
Now what does this mean? It means that all the things that we can say about God we can say about Jesus as a man, according to His flesh, His humanity. According to His human nature He knows everything, is all powerful, eternal, full of life and is in every place.
Now, in Jesus' life, from His birth to His crucifixion, we see glimpses of this union. In Jesus' miracles, His walking on water, His knowledge of the thoughts of men's hearts, His transfiguration, and at other times, we see the man Jesus doing things that only God can do, and yet, in His state of humiliation, we see that Jesus does not fully use all of the divine attributes that are His by the personal union. For example, Jesus is tired and hungry and does not know certain things. He limits Himself to one location. In this way He does not make full use of His divine nature.
But this is the significance of the Ascension, when the Lord Jesus sits down at the right hand of God's majesty, He is permanently and fully taking up the use of all the divine attributes through His human nature.
That is what Paul means when he says, “He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.” [Ephesians 4:9] Jesus fills all things, that is, He is present absolutely everywhere. And this is where the celebration of the Ascension brings us comfort.
For we often seem lost and alone, lonely, as if God is far away or that He has turned His back on us. We live in a sinful world and we ourselves are sinful, and have lives that are full of trouble, on the outside, and on the inside. Sin pushes us away from God and the devil loves this, that we think that we have to do it on our own, make it on our own, fix it on our own without God.
But we are not alone. Jesus, our Brother, our Friend, our Savior and Crucified Lord, this Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, so that He might be near us, in the midst of us, with us. His ascension is not His leaving us, but His drawing near to us. And so it is He, He the man who has spoken with the disciples, who has endured all tribulations in His assumed human nature, and who can therefore has sympathy with us, as with men and His brothers and sisters, - He will be with us in all our troubles also according to the nature according to which He is our Brother and we are flesh of His flesh. [See the Formula of Concord, Solid Dec. VIII]
You are never alone. You might feel alone, abandoned by God and the world, but you have the promise, On Jesus' Ascension, you are never without help and aid, never apart from your Jesus. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [Hebrews 13:5] He has promised it, just as He said to His disciples, in the very last words in the Gospel of Matthew, just before He ascends into heaven, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” [St Matthew 28:20] He is not with us to destroy us or crush us, but to forgive us and baptize us and comfort us and keep us in His tender care.
May God grant us His Holy Spirit, that we would rejoice in the Ascension of our Jesus, and have the confidence that He is with us always with His gifts of life and salvation. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO