2 Kings 2:5-15; Acts 1:1-11; St Luke 24:44-53
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Our Lord gives, by His Spirit, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. More than that He gives, by His Spirit, light to read them. He opens them. More than that He opens, by His Spirit, your mind, your νουσ, your understanding, your imagination, even, to believe. He invigorates your study of His holy Word, that by due diligence and right discernment, you may establish yourselves and other in the holy faith.
What was the mind of Moses, the hope of Elijah, the sight of Isaiah? That the Christ, God’s own Messiah, the One anointed as the Savior must, that is, of divine necessity, suffer and die and on the third day rise again from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all Gentiles, beginning from Jerusalem.
The Gospel began, as it always does, with the preaching of repentance. St John stood in a wild place and exposed the dark hearts of men by the light of God’s Word, that they would turn from sins and through themselves upon God’s mercy. Literally, that they would μετανοια, they would change their mind. Or, more accurately, have it changed, by His Spirit, through the preaching of His Word for the forgiveness of sins.
Now the Gospel begun is complete. Christ has fulfilled it in His suffering. He has ended the Father’s wrath, hell’s demands, Satan’s accusations, and the cry of justice against us. There is good news for men because Jesus died; because Jesus became sin and a curse, a worm and no man. Our sins have been pushed into Him and He was pushed off the edge into Gehenna in our place. It is finished. It is fulfilled. It is over, done, complete and perfected. There is peace for the angels to announce to the shepherds.
Now that the sacrifice long foretold is complete, Christ Jesus solemnly and emphatically insists that repentance for the forgiveness of sins must, of divine necessity, be proclaimed in His Name as the great fact of New Testament preaching. St Luke writes in his second book that through such preaching, the Church is to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus (Ac 26:18).
Such preaching brings about a change of mind, a repentance which leads to saving faith by the forgiveness of sins. And in the forgiveness of sins men are made to see and hear and read the Holy Scriptures, to know God in Christ as the fulfillment and purpose of all creation. This is how the Scriptures were opened to the Apostles; how, by God’s grace and His Holy Spirit, they were given to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. This is how, by His grace and Holy Spirit, they are opened to us. And this is because of Christ’s Ascension on which you now build.
Our Lord’s will is constant. His Word endures forever. He has sworn and will not change His mind. He sends forth from Zion His mighty scepter. Which is to say, fallen men are in constant need of a preaching of repentance; an exposure of our complicity and selfishness, a warning of impending death, and an invitation to that which is better, nobler, true and good. You are not God. You do not make the rules. Just because you think something is so does not make it that way. Our minds deceive us and are deceived. We have not behaved in ways that are honorable or just or good. we have looked the other way. We have cheated. We are traitors to our own cause, in league with demons, perverts, deviants, sycophants, liars, braggarts, and hypocrites.
Repentance is needed. Now and always. Submission to His Word. Stop making excuses. Do not seek to have your sins justified. Seek instead to have them forgiven, removed, and counted against Him, that His good works, His righteous cloak may be placed upon and cover you.
Among other things, the Ascension of our Lord teaches us that He doesn’t justify sins. He doesn’t wink and nod. He doesn’t understand or simply realize that to be human is to be a sinner. This isn’t true. Christ Jesus is now and always will be fully human, true Man, but He did not sin. What He does, by ascending as a Man to the right hand of the Father, is declare sinner to be just for His sake, as beneficiaries of His sacrifice, recipients of His ransom and vicarious victors of His substation.
God has sent His Christ for you. He is historical. He lived in the time of Pontus Pilate. He is Incarnate, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, bone of our bones, one of us, flesh for hell’s roasting fires. He has suffered, been mocked by soldiers and priests, rejected by family and friends, betrayed by disciples, crucified, executed as the King of the Jews, and is risen from the dead.
All of this was divinely necessary and predicted. But what is always shocking and unexpected is in His mercy He is not angry. He does not hold a grudge. He appeared in the upper room and His disciples were afraid, but He comes speaking peace and breathing His Holy Spirit to change their minds and open up the Scriptures.
All this He has done for you. He was sent by His Father not only for sins, not only for the Father’s will, not only to defeat the devil and to show that He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, but He was also sent for you. To rescue you, to pull you out of the flames of judgment, to redeem you for Himself, to forgive your sins, to seat you with Himself in the heavenly places. He could be angry, but He isn’t. Nor does He indulge your sins. Rather, He is Victor over death, your Champion and Hero, your Ascended God-Man. And through His Word, by His Spirit, He invites you to a change of mind, to participate with Him in the life that has no end.
Forty-three days after it was finished, He lifted His nail pierced hands and blessed His disciples. And while He was blessing them, He rose into the air and was engulfed by a cloud so that they could no more behold Him with their eyes. St Luke says, He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. But this was distinct. He would come and go from them, suddenly from the invisible world into the visible, using now, after His humiliation, His divine attributes as true God even as He is true Man. But not this time. He did not simply vanish from their sight as though He was about to return. This time He withdrew in a different way. As they watched, He rose up into the air. He was indicating to them that He was no longer with them as before, that those occasional and supernatural appearances, given after the resurrection, were now at an end. The two angels in white testify to this.
Yet they were not sad, for we read, And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem wth great joy.
This is not the little while before the Cross. Nor the little while since the Resurrection. The disciples now knew that though their eyes did not see Him, they still enjoyed His blessed presence forever. He promised them, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). He is not absent. The Ascension of our Lord is not to be thought of so much as His going away from us into heaven, but bringing heaven down to earth.
For His humiliation is over. He now uses all of His divine rights and powers. He is still a Man, always and forever, but He fully exercises all His divine attributes. In this the angels have peace to announce to the shepherds. The flames of hell have lost all claim to us, so also they can no longer roast Him. He is Man, but now risen, ascended, glorified. He opens the kingdom of heaven to all humanity, especially to those who believe.
That is why the apostles and we have great joy. They and we have Christ in His sacramental presence. In this He is closer now than ever. The Scriptures are opened and the gift and promise of the Father in the Holy Spirit is given, to them and us. This is why we extinguish the Paschal Candle tonight and will move it to the Baptismal Font for Sunday. On Good Friday the extinguishing of candles symbolized Jesus’ departure. Not tonight. It represents His change of state. The ascended Christ is with us always, in the baptizing, the teaching, in the breaking of the bread. He is present to the end of time, as St Matthew says, in the apostolic ministry.
This is why the Apostles go to the Temple, to Church, to continue the work of Moses and the Prophets now completed in Jesus, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name in the shadow of the torn veil. There they point to the Mercy Seat, no longer hovering over the Ark but now in the risen and ascended Body and Blood of Christ, given to His children to eat and to drink.
Your Lord and Master is not taken away from you. Do not keep quiet. You have been raised with Christ. Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Lift up your hearts and set your minds on things that are above, and draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and grace in your time of need (Col 3:1-2; Heb 4:16).
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!) Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
Our Lord gives, by His Spirit, the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. More than that He gives, by His Spirit, light to read them. He opens them. More than that He opens, by His Spirit, your mind, your νουσ, your understanding, your imagination, even, to believe. He invigorates your study of His holy Word, that by due diligence and right discernment, you may establish yourselves and other in the holy faith.
What was the mind of Moses, the hope of Elijah, the sight of Isaiah? That the Christ, God’s own Messiah, the One anointed as the Savior must, that is, of divine necessity, suffer and die and on the third day rise again from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all Gentiles, beginning from Jerusalem.
The Gospel began, as it always does, with the preaching of repentance. St John stood in a wild place and exposed the dark hearts of men by the light of God’s Word, that they would turn from sins and through themselves upon God’s mercy. Literally, that they would μετανοια, they would change their mind. Or, more accurately, have it changed, by His Spirit, through the preaching of His Word for the forgiveness of sins.
Now the Gospel begun is complete. Christ has fulfilled it in His suffering. He has ended the Father’s wrath, hell’s demands, Satan’s accusations, and the cry of justice against us. There is good news for men because Jesus died; because Jesus became sin and a curse, a worm and no man. Our sins have been pushed into Him and He was pushed off the edge into Gehenna in our place. It is finished. It is fulfilled. It is over, done, complete and perfected. There is peace for the angels to announce to the shepherds.
Now that the sacrifice long foretold is complete, Christ Jesus solemnly and emphatically insists that repentance for the forgiveness of sins must, of divine necessity, be proclaimed in His Name as the great fact of New Testament preaching. St Luke writes in his second book that through such preaching, the Church is to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus (Ac 26:18).
Such preaching brings about a change of mind, a repentance which leads to saving faith by the forgiveness of sins. And in the forgiveness of sins men are made to see and hear and read the Holy Scriptures, to know God in Christ as the fulfillment and purpose of all creation. This is how the Scriptures were opened to the Apostles; how, by God’s grace and His Holy Spirit, they were given to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. This is how, by His grace and Holy Spirit, they are opened to us. And this is because of Christ’s Ascension on which you now build.
Our Lord’s will is constant. His Word endures forever. He has sworn and will not change His mind. He sends forth from Zion His mighty scepter. Which is to say, fallen men are in constant need of a preaching of repentance; an exposure of our complicity and selfishness, a warning of impending death, and an invitation to that which is better, nobler, true and good. You are not God. You do not make the rules. Just because you think something is so does not make it that way. Our minds deceive us and are deceived. We have not behaved in ways that are honorable or just or good. we have looked the other way. We have cheated. We are traitors to our own cause, in league with demons, perverts, deviants, sycophants, liars, braggarts, and hypocrites.
Repentance is needed. Now and always. Submission to His Word. Stop making excuses. Do not seek to have your sins justified. Seek instead to have them forgiven, removed, and counted against Him, that His good works, His righteous cloak may be placed upon and cover you.
Among other things, the Ascension of our Lord teaches us that He doesn’t justify sins. He doesn’t wink and nod. He doesn’t understand or simply realize that to be human is to be a sinner. This isn’t true. Christ Jesus is now and always will be fully human, true Man, but He did not sin. What He does, by ascending as a Man to the right hand of the Father, is declare sinner to be just for His sake, as beneficiaries of His sacrifice, recipients of His ransom and vicarious victors of His substation.
God has sent His Christ for you. He is historical. He lived in the time of Pontus Pilate. He is Incarnate, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, bone of our bones, one of us, flesh for hell’s roasting fires. He has suffered, been mocked by soldiers and priests, rejected by family and friends, betrayed by disciples, crucified, executed as the King of the Jews, and is risen from the dead.
All of this was divinely necessary and predicted. But what is always shocking and unexpected is in His mercy He is not angry. He does not hold a grudge. He appeared in the upper room and His disciples were afraid, but He comes speaking peace and breathing His Holy Spirit to change their minds and open up the Scriptures.
All this He has done for you. He was sent by His Father not only for sins, not only for the Father’s will, not only to defeat the devil and to show that He possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, but He was also sent for you. To rescue you, to pull you out of the flames of judgment, to redeem you for Himself, to forgive your sins, to seat you with Himself in the heavenly places. He could be angry, but He isn’t. Nor does He indulge your sins. Rather, He is Victor over death, your Champion and Hero, your Ascended God-Man. And through His Word, by His Spirit, He invites you to a change of mind, to participate with Him in the life that has no end.
Forty-three days after it was finished, He lifted His nail pierced hands and blessed His disciples. And while He was blessing them, He rose into the air and was engulfed by a cloud so that they could no more behold Him with their eyes. St Luke says, He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. But this was distinct. He would come and go from them, suddenly from the invisible world into the visible, using now, after His humiliation, His divine attributes as true God even as He is true Man. But not this time. He did not simply vanish from their sight as though He was about to return. This time He withdrew in a different way. As they watched, He rose up into the air. He was indicating to them that He was no longer with them as before, that those occasional and supernatural appearances, given after the resurrection, were now at an end. The two angels in white testify to this.
Yet they were not sad, for we read, And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem wth great joy.
This is not the little while before the Cross. Nor the little while since the Resurrection. The disciples now knew that though their eyes did not see Him, they still enjoyed His blessed presence forever. He promised them, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). He is not absent. The Ascension of our Lord is not to be thought of so much as His going away from us into heaven, but bringing heaven down to earth.
For His humiliation is over. He now uses all of His divine rights and powers. He is still a Man, always and forever, but He fully exercises all His divine attributes. In this the angels have peace to announce to the shepherds. The flames of hell have lost all claim to us, so also they can no longer roast Him. He is Man, but now risen, ascended, glorified. He opens the kingdom of heaven to all humanity, especially to those who believe.
That is why the apostles and we have great joy. They and we have Christ in His sacramental presence. In this He is closer now than ever. The Scriptures are opened and the gift and promise of the Father in the Holy Spirit is given, to them and us. This is why we extinguish the Paschal Candle tonight and will move it to the Baptismal Font for Sunday. On Good Friday the extinguishing of candles symbolized Jesus’ departure. Not tonight. It represents His change of state. The ascended Christ is with us always, in the baptizing, the teaching, in the breaking of the bread. He is present to the end of time, as St Matthew says, in the apostolic ministry.
This is why the Apostles go to the Temple, to Church, to continue the work of Moses and the Prophets now completed in Jesus, to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name in the shadow of the torn veil. There they point to the Mercy Seat, no longer hovering over the Ark but now in the risen and ascended Body and Blood of Christ, given to His children to eat and to drink.
Your Lord and Master is not taken away from you. Do not keep quiet. You have been raised with Christ. Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Lift up your hearts and set your minds on things that are above, and draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and grace in your time of need (Col 3:1-2; Heb 4:16).
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!) Amen.
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