The Text: Luke 24:44-53

Saying farewell to loved ones is never easy. Imagine what it would be like to have some of your family live interstate or overseas. Saying farewell to those family members would be something you unfortunately would have to do often. Saying farewell is like you are being torn apart from those whom you love most. Sure, we trust that we shall see one another again; we just don’t want to be separated. To be apart seems against the nature of what it means to be family.

As Jesus ascends into heaven, He says His farewells to His disciples, He raises His hands in blessing while He disappears into the clouds, but His disciples are delighted. There is no sadness or tears. They don’t know when they would see Him again and that didn’t bother them. The disciples are filled with joy and celebration that Jesus ascended to heaven.

How different this is from when Jesus was last taken from them in the garden. When He was arrested they were more than grief stricken. They were lost. They scattered like sheep without a shepherd.  

Why the difference at Bethany? The answer is the power of the resurrection.

After rising from the dead Jesus appeared many times to the apostles and hundreds of His disciples, but He never stayed with them. He always went away. He always came again. Each time the truth of His resurrection from the grave was confirmed in their hearts and minds. Jesus had conquered our greatest enemies for us.

Before ascending at Bethany Jesus opened the Scriptures and they understood that everything written about [Him] in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Jesus’ ascension was part of God’s plan. He had to go to heaven because at the right hand of the Father Jesus can best do His work and rule His kingdom.

Had Jesus remained upon earth in visible form, He would still be in Palestine to this day. We would be able to go on a pilgrimage to see Him and hear Him preach, maybe shake His hand. Then we would return home and Jesus would stay in His place, and we would be apart. We could remember the great time we had with Him and look through the photos of the trip, but we would live separate lives.

But from the right hand of the Father, Jesus rules His kingdom in such a way that He can be with all His disciples and they can be with Him. Through the word we hear Him speak with us. He sent the Holy Spirit to preach truth in our hearts and be our Comforter. Do not think that Jesus has gone and is far away from us. The very opposite is true. While He was on earth, He was far away from us; now He is very near. He is in our hearts. He is in this place.

It is comforting to know that our Lord is near, in our heart and mind. It can also be confronting to know that Jesus is so near that He sees all our sins. We can feel guilty for treating the gift of life so poorly as to sin every day. The flesh thinks Jesus comes near to condemn us. Nothing could be further from the truth. He has done everything to earn our place in heaven and He grants us that inheritance as a gift.

Having gone ahead of us into heaven Jesus stands before the Father as our advocate. He displays the wounds in His hands and side as sufficient payment for our sins. He speaks to the Father on our behalf. His crucified body is the bloody sacrifice that bought us peace and His resurrected and glorified body is our hope of eternal life.  

Standing around out at Bethany, the disciples were beginning to understand all this. From the newly opened Scriptures they could see that Jesus, while reigning in heaven, would also be with them in a new and powerful way. He was not in a fixed place, but present in all places that His people gathered. He can be wherever He chooses, but He is always where He promises: in the Word, in the Holy Sacraments, with the baptised children of God. Since Christ’s ascension, God is with His people as He has never been before.

And this is why the disciples were filled with joy and worshipped Jesus as God. Their risen and ascended Lord was with them, and with all believers across time and space. Ruling from heaven He has unlimited power and authority. Jesus rules through His Word. Through the preaching of the Gospel Christ forgives sins and washes away guilt. Jesus expands His kingdom by speaking words of grace and mercy through both pastor and laity, so that the Church is built up in grace and the world comes to know the love of God. Through the Spirit working in our hearts Jesus grows His kingdom.

Speaking His Word, growing His kingdom, saving sinners, that is what Jesus does every Sunday. This is why we have come to worship today. To hear that Jesus died for us, was raised on the third day for us, ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us. His forgiveness and life are ours.

Christ has given us His Word to proclaim it to the world. He gives the Holy Spirit to all believers to make us aware when to speak the Gospel, when to show love in our actions, when to serve silently. 

Friends of Jesus, our Lord sends you as He sent the first disciples. He sends you out with power from on high, power to speak His name, power to suffer and endure it. That power is given through Word and Sacrament. That power is received and put in to action by faith.

And you don’t go alone. Jesus has promised to go with you. He sends you and walks the path with you. He sends you to your family and your friends, your neighbours and your enemies. He sends you to love not to fight, to speak not to argue, to suffer not to conquer. He sends you out as His lambs among wolves, but lambs marked with the sign of the Lamb of God and claimed by His love. You are witnesses of His saving love in this world.

At times you will be hated and persecuted. You will struggle in many ways. You will even hurt. But by the Word and the Spirit you have life that cannot be taken away, because Jesus can’t be taken from you. You will live out that Word and speak the Word and the Word will bear fruit. Many will hear and many will believe. We may never see the fruit but we trust Christ at His Word; we faithfully plant and we leave the harvest up to His timing. 

Jesus’ ascension to heaven was not His farewell. Ascending on high is how He comes to each one of us. He comes in the hearing of the Gospel. He comes in the water and the Word. He comes in bread and wine at the altar where He promises to meet with you; to forgive you and give you His life. He comes in the spoken absolution. He comes in the sharing of the Good News between believers. Jesus is present with us in a more powerful way than when He rubbed shoulders with the disciples in Palestine.

Jesus comes to us and He has gone before us. He has gone to prepare a place for you, a place of rest and peace away from this valley of tears. He promises, “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (Jn 14:2)

As we look forward to the day when we enter into our eternal home, we continue loving God by serving our neighbour. We love them with the love of the ascended Christ who is in us and working through us and alongside of us.

He is here, and we are there, because He has said that He is in us and we are in Him, and He is able to keep that promise because He lives and reigns at the right hand of the Almighty.

You can be certain that Jesus walks with you. You are free to live your life and free to share God’s love. Hold fast to the Gospel and let it change you. Keep coming to the Eucharist to receive Jesus into your body for your forgiveness and strength and life. We are not separated from Him, He is very near to us. He is with you now and always. Amen.

Let’s pray. Almighty Father, as Your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens to rule over the universe to the benefit of His Church, may He rule our hearts by the Gospel that we may strive to do all things according to Your will. In His name we pray.  Amen.