Ascension
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
Acts 1:1-11; Mark 16:14-20
Ascension
May 26, 2022
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Ascension of Christ our Lord is not an end but a beginning. To be sure, it does mark the end of His earthly ministry but it is not the end of His presence among His people because He’s actually present now, among us, in a greater way in the Sacraments. Jesus is closer to us now than He was when He walked the earth with His disciples.
Christ’s Ascension was actually necessary and even to be expected. The Ascension marks the beginning of His glorious, heavenly reign. For His humiliation has come to an end. Now He uses His divine power and authority at all times. And He does so as a man. For His human nature is now exalted.
Though it may have been confusing and possibly even saddened the disciples, to me, it doesn’t seem as though they immediately understood what was taking place as Jesus was lifted up in front of them and a cloud covered Him. Their thoughts were too narrow. They expected too little of Him. Their faith was still young. For Jesus Christ is not the King of Israel only. He is the King of all creation. He will not restore the old kingdom of Israel to its former glory because He goes to claim His rightful throne—the throne that was promised to Him by His Father.
Much of the Old Testament, the Prophets and Psalms, describe the Christ’s glorious return to heaven, His coronation, and His sitting down at the right hand of the Father, to rule.
Isaiah speaks of the throne at the right hand of the Father as a reward because the Son perfectly obeyed His Father’s will, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. | Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. | He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. | Yet it pleased the Lord to crush Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge, My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
David speaks twice, explicitly, about the heavenly and everlasting reign about His descendant, who is also His Lord. First in Psalm 2, David writes, “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure, ‘Yet I have set My King on my holy hill of Zion.’ I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ Now, therefore, be wise, O Kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him.”
So also Psalm 110, in which we are allowed to hear part of the conversation happening between the Father and the Son. David writes as He is inspired by the Holy Spirit, “The Lord said to my Lord, that is, the Father speaks to the Son, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.’ The Lord is at your right hand; He will shatter kings on the day of His wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore, He will lift up His head.”
The Father speaks to the Son and says of Him, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” No longer are the offices of king and priest separated. Because in Jesus, the offices join together once again. Jesus is of the same order of Melchizedek, whose name means “The King of Righteousness,” who, long before the Law was given on Sinai, was the priest and king of the future site of Jerusalem. This seemingly obscure figure who blesses Abram in the book of Genesis is without beginning. No knowledge of how he came to be is recorded. He brings out bread and wine in the midst of the valley for Abram and blesses Him. So it is, that our Lord blesses us through bread and wine as well. For our Lord Jesus Christ is of the same order as Melchizedek, a priest and king forever, whose reign shall never end.
Consider also the prophet Daniel, who records seeing a vision of four beasts. These four beasts are manifestations of terrible earthly rulers who wage war against the Children of God. But Daniel is also granted a vision of the Son’s coronation in heaven, in which He is given dominion above all dominions and His reign is everlasting, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.”
Then Daniel writes, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days—that is the Father—took His seat; His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool; His throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before Him; a thousand thousands served Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.”
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
The beasts are then destroyed and the one like a Son of Man rules. What Daniel is seeing is the Christ after His death, after His Resurrection, and after His Ascension coming to claim is throne, which is granted to Him by His Father. All of this should bring us great comfort. The Lord Jesus reigns at the right hand of the Father, having placed all of His enemies under His feet and yet He does not reign simply as a spirit or as a God who doesn’t care about His subjects. He reigns even now as a man. The human nature, which He took upon Himself, given to Him from Mary, has been assumed into His Divine Nature, never to shed it or divest it from Himself. Jesus reigns now at the right hand of the Father as a man. One of us.
The Ascension of Jesus is the final thing, the final sign, because of which, we know, despite all the evil in this fallen world, we have a gracious and loving Lord whose reign is supreme and even the devil, even our fallen flesh will not be able to stop Him. The right hand of the Father is not a fixed place in heaven. The right hand of the Father is everywhere. This is how Jesus can make Himself present in places like lowly, earthly bread and wine. In fact, in the Sacrament of the Altar, He is present in a greater, more comforting way than He was when He was born of Mary, taught in the temple as a child, performed miracles, and even raised Lazarus.
This is profound. We cannot explain it but it is profound. Thus, it was necessary for Jesus to ascend to the right hand of the Father. It was necessary for Him to go away. Because now He sends the Holy Spirit to comfort us and He makes Himself present in the worship of the Church. Wherever two or three are gathered in His name, there He is among them. This is only possible because He sits upon His throne at the right hand of the Father, which is everywhere, ruling and governing all creation. So whenever two or three are gathered in His name, they come before the throne of God. They are not placed as enemies under His feet but as beloved siblings, trusted subjects, and even coheirs of the Kingdom. Let us now drawn near to His great presence.
In +Jesus’ name.
