2 Kings 2:5-15; Acts 1:1-11; St Luke 24:44-53
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He departed from them and was carried up into heaven. He lifted up His hands. He showed them His scars. As it was on the night of Easter in the locked upper room, the Crucified One showing to them His hands and His side, revealing the scars of His love for them, the cost of their redemption, so it is at His ascension to the Father. He goes as the Victor over death and the grave. He ascends, to be sure, as the Resurrected One.
But the fullness of His identity, the revelation of the Christ as presented in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, is not in the majesty of His Ascension, but it is made known in the glory of His Cross and Passion. His Resurrection unpacks the meaning of His crucifixion. His Ascension is the coronation of the Crucified One.
For He who stretched out His hands for you upon the Cross, offering up Himself to the Father as the Sacrifice of Atonement for all your sins, is the One who lifts His hands in blessing upon His disciples and upon you; justifying you with His own righteousness, raising you from death to life with Himself, and anointing you with His Spirit by His Word.
Thus He gives Himself to God as the true Man and He gives Himself to you as the one true God. And in Him, both God and Man, heaven and earth are bound together in perfect harmony. He who descended from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man; who was crucified, dead, and buried, who rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, is the self-same One who ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. He is your Lord and your God, your Savior, your Brother, your Advocate and only Mediator; Jesus the Christ, the Crucified One.
This is His Word spoken to you, that everything written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. He opens your minds to understand the Scriptures by the preaching of His Word through those whom He sent as witnesses, His apostles, upon whom His Spirit was poured out. But not only them, then also the men who have followed after them in His Office of the Holy Gospel, who unfold the Scriptures in your midst for your hearing and faith and forgiveness and life.
His Word has gone forth from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, to Rome, to the New World, the Third World, to Africa and Asia, and to all the world. As His Word goes out it does not return to Him void, but accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it. Thus does it gather disciples of Jesus together into one Body, the Church, into the Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem, where the Lamb who was slain yet lives is not only the Priest and the King, but He is also the Temple of God among men, the Light that illumines the New Creation, and both the Bridegroom and the Wedding Feast of the finest Wine and richest Meat.
This then is your home, your place of rest, here in the heart of this city. This is where you live because this is where Christ is, both with you and for you, bestowing the promise of His Father upon you, His Spirit, through His Word. As Luther preached on this day in 1523, “Christ is here by us and therefore is seated in heaven, so that He can be close by us; we are thus by Him up there and He is by us down here: through the sermon and the Supper He comes down, and thus, by faith, we come up” (Peters, Creed, p196).
Beloved, you are baptized into Christ. And that means not only His Cross and Resurrection are yours, but also His Ascension, too; His Spirit and His Father, and His place within the Holy of Holies. So when you eat His Body and drink His Blood here, within His Church on earth, you live and abide with Him in the Bosom of the Father in heaven. You already live in the true divine Life for which you have been created by the Holy Trinity. For you are in Christ, your Temple, continually praising God with great joy.
It is not as though your life on earth now, lived under the Cross, is pleasant or easy. But you know that! For you wait, with all creation the consummation of all things: the resurrection of the body and the revealing of the sons of God. When He who was taken into heaven shall return from heaven. You long for that and pray for that! Saying, Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Continue, dear ones, to do so, in the bold confidence that Christ our Lord has borne the Cross for you and conquered in the fight, and that His resurrected and glorified Body is already the Firstfruits of your own sure and certain resurrection and ascension.
In Him it is already finished. And it is for you, as the Sacrament declares.
The fact that He ascends as the Crucified One, and that He serves you by the ways and means of His Cross, means that all the seasons of hurt and heartache and hard things shall not be able to destroy you, nor separate you from Him, from His Life and His Love. But, by grace, actually help to heal you and save you and bring you to heaven. For He works repentance in you, and disciplines your mortal flesh, in order to bring you through suffering and death into faith and life with God. These are times and seasons fixed by your dear Father in heaven, who loves you for the sake of His Son, and has given you His Spirit.
Thus you are His witnesses in whatever station He has placed you. Remain there. In your own skin, in your life and occupations on earth. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, workers, friends. You are already clothed with the mantle of His righteousness come down from heaven by way of water and His Word. You have the full and free forgiveness of sins proclaimed to you in His Name.
Thus do you testify to what you have heard and seen - the crucified, risen, ascended Lord and Christ, come to you by way of His Word and Supper, blessing you with His life and salvation, forgiveness and love, here in this poor life of labor.
For life in this fallen world is one of constant separations, which cut you off from family and friends. Whether by death or disease, by accident or atrocity, by adventure or adversity, ailment or age, your relationships and connections are constantly being changed and eventually they are ended.
But the Ascension of your crucified and risen Lord Jesus proclaims a permanent place for you, and perfect peace with God. It does not change. It cannot be taken away from you. Nor is it far away from you now, but up close and personal, a very present help at all times, in every trouble, and a source of genuine great joy in the face of everything that confronts you. It is here for you in the Temple of God, given and poured out for you to eat and drink. It is here for you in the hands of Christ Jesus, with which He blesses you, feeds you, absolves you, signs and seals you as a Christian, a child of God.
It is His hand that shall raise you up at the Last.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father and of + the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He departed from them and was carried up into heaven. He lifted up His hands. He showed them His scars. As it was on the night of Easter in the locked upper room, the Crucified One showing to them His hands and His side, revealing the scars of His love for them, the cost of their redemption, so it is at His ascension to the Father. He goes as the Victor over death and the grave. He ascends, to be sure, as the Resurrected One.
But the fullness of His identity, the revelation of the Christ as presented in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, is not in the majesty of His Ascension, but it is made known in the glory of His Cross and Passion. His Resurrection unpacks the meaning of His crucifixion. His Ascension is the coronation of the Crucified One.
For He who stretched out His hands for you upon the Cross, offering up Himself to the Father as the Sacrifice of Atonement for all your sins, is the One who lifts His hands in blessing upon His disciples and upon you; justifying you with His own righteousness, raising you from death to life with Himself, and anointing you with His Spirit by His Word.
Thus He gives Himself to God as the true Man and He gives Himself to you as the one true God. And in Him, both God and Man, heaven and earth are bound together in perfect harmony. He who descended from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man; who was crucified, dead, and buried, who rose on the third day according to the Scriptures, is the self-same One who ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. He is your Lord and your God, your Savior, your Brother, your Advocate and only Mediator; Jesus the Christ, the Crucified One.
This is His Word spoken to you, that everything written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. He opens your minds to understand the Scriptures by the preaching of His Word through those whom He sent as witnesses, His apostles, upon whom His Spirit was poured out. But not only them, then also the men who have followed after them in His Office of the Holy Gospel, who unfold the Scriptures in your midst for your hearing and faith and forgiveness and life.
His Word has gone forth from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, to Rome, to the New World, the Third World, to Africa and Asia, and to all the world. As His Word goes out it does not return to Him void, but accomplishes the purpose for which He sends it. Thus does it gather disciples of Jesus together into one Body, the Church, into the Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem, where the Lamb who was slain yet lives is not only the Priest and the King, but He is also the Temple of God among men, the Light that illumines the New Creation, and both the Bridegroom and the Wedding Feast of the finest Wine and richest Meat.
This then is your home, your place of rest, here in the heart of this city. This is where you live because this is where Christ is, both with you and for you, bestowing the promise of His Father upon you, His Spirit, through His Word. As Luther preached on this day in 1523, “Christ is here by us and therefore is seated in heaven, so that He can be close by us; we are thus by Him up there and He is by us down here: through the sermon and the Supper He comes down, and thus, by faith, we come up” (Peters, Creed, p196).
Beloved, you are baptized into Christ. And that means not only His Cross and Resurrection are yours, but also His Ascension, too; His Spirit and His Father, and His place within the Holy of Holies. So when you eat His Body and drink His Blood here, within His Church on earth, you live and abide with Him in the Bosom of the Father in heaven. You already live in the true divine Life for which you have been created by the Holy Trinity. For you are in Christ, your Temple, continually praising God with great joy.
It is not as though your life on earth now, lived under the Cross, is pleasant or easy. But you know that! For you wait, with all creation the consummation of all things: the resurrection of the body and the revealing of the sons of God. When He who was taken into heaven shall return from heaven. You long for that and pray for that! Saying, Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Continue, dear ones, to do so, in the bold confidence that Christ our Lord has borne the Cross for you and conquered in the fight, and that His resurrected and glorified Body is already the Firstfruits of your own sure and certain resurrection and ascension.
In Him it is already finished. And it is for you, as the Sacrament declares.
The fact that He ascends as the Crucified One, and that He serves you by the ways and means of His Cross, means that all the seasons of hurt and heartache and hard things shall not be able to destroy you, nor separate you from Him, from His Life and His Love. But, by grace, actually help to heal you and save you and bring you to heaven. For He works repentance in you, and disciplines your mortal flesh, in order to bring you through suffering and death into faith and life with God. These are times and seasons fixed by your dear Father in heaven, who loves you for the sake of His Son, and has given you His Spirit.
Thus you are His witnesses in whatever station He has placed you. Remain there. In your own skin, in your life and occupations on earth. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, workers, friends. You are already clothed with the mantle of His righteousness come down from heaven by way of water and His Word. You have the full and free forgiveness of sins proclaimed to you in His Name.
Thus do you testify to what you have heard and seen - the crucified, risen, ascended Lord and Christ, come to you by way of His Word and Supper, blessing you with His life and salvation, forgiveness and love, here in this poor life of labor.
For life in this fallen world is one of constant separations, which cut you off from family and friends. Whether by death or disease, by accident or atrocity, by adventure or adversity, ailment or age, your relationships and connections are constantly being changed and eventually they are ended.
But the Ascension of your crucified and risen Lord Jesus proclaims a permanent place for you, and perfect peace with God. It does not change. It cannot be taken away from you. Nor is it far away from you now, but up close and personal, a very present help at all times, in every trouble, and a source of genuine great joy in the face of everything that confronts you. It is here for you in the Temple of God, given and poured out for you to eat and drink. It is here for you in the hands of Christ Jesus, with which He blesses you, feeds you, absolves you, signs and seals you as a Christian, a child of God.
It is His hand that shall raise you up at the Last.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the Name of the Father and of + the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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