The Ascension of Christ for our Benefit

Ascension of Christ for our Benefit

All Texts T The Ascension of our Lord

INI

We have no memories of the physical Jesus. No face to touch, no conversations had over dinner, no body to embrace or cheek to kiss. And so, it’s easy for us to struggle with the significance of His Ascension — with Jesus now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

We’re materialists by nature. We assume the world would be better if Jesus were still here in the flesh, walking among us as He did 2,000 years ago. If we had a problem too great for human help, we could go straight to Jesus and beg for mercy, just like the crowds did in the Gospels. If we had questions about God, we could just ask. If someone doubted, we could say, ‘Come and see.’ Touch His wounds. Hear His voice. Watch Him heal.

Wouldn’t that make faith easier? Wouldn’t that settle it once and for all? Wouldn’t that solve all unbelief and make walking the Christian life all that much easier? Maybe then, my cousin struggling with addiction would finally get clean. Maybe then, my daughter might take my faith seriously. Maybe then, my progressive Christian coworker could ask Jesus directly what He meant when He told us to love our neighbor. It would solve all the problems, wouldn’t it?

Isn’t this a similar sentiment to what we pray for when we pray for miraculous healings? Or when we pray for the converted hearts of our loved ones? When there are things too big for us to move on our own, and so we pray for God to work and get done what we want accomplished?

This is all to say, life is hard. And we want it to be easy. We want faith to be easy. We want suffering to be as short as possible. We want hardships to have quick solutions. All that would be so much easier if a flesh and blood Jesus were here – that’s at least what the crowds in John 6 thought. After benefiting from the feeding of the 5,000, many of them followed Jesus to keep living by His miraculous deeds that would allow them to live an easy life. But when it came to the hard sayings – like when Jesus talked about eating His flesh for eternal life – the saying became too hard to follow. They didn’t want to follow things they couldn’t understand. They wanted to follow whatever would make life easier for them.

And that’s how the evil one tempts us. He wants us to crave that which is easy, filled with comforts and pleasures – because living that way seeks to take God’s stewarded gifts and uses those gifts to fill oneself instead of serving another.

An example of this is in Luke’s parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich man feasted sumptuously every day. He was a glutton. He threw extravagant parties for himself and his rich friends. He never once considered the needs of Lazarus who was covered in sores outside his gates. He was selfish, not self-less. He used His daily bread only for himself, not for others. He didn’t hear God’s Word about loving His neighbor, which would include giving aid to the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed.

As a result of rejecting God’s Word and not living his life according to it, the Rich Man went to hell. It was filled with such torment and suffering. The life of suffering and hardship he avoided in his earthly life, was now coming back to Him sevenfold as eternal punishment. In this place of torment, he requested for Father Abraham to allow him to warn his brothers on earth about the punishment they’d endure for rejecting God’s Word. But Abraham said something beautiful for us to take in and consider as we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

The point is, they have the Word of God. Do we have anything more sure, trustworthy, and true than the Scriptures themselves? The Word is not lacking. The problem is that we don’t treasure it.

So, let me ask you – what is the worst thing in life to live without? I’m afraid many people would answer that by saying a family member, a spouse, or even worse, some material thing that brings them temporary happiness – sort of like the Rich man who valued his parties more than anything else. But the Holy Scriptures reveal something far more tragic: the worst thing to live without is the Word of God. To live without the Word of God is to live without hope, without truth, without deliverance from evil, and without life. Just ask the Rich Man – he had everything money could buy. But one thing he lacked: the Word of God. He rejected God’s Word which invited repentance and commanded love to neighbor. And when he died, he found himself in agony – not because he lacked any material comfort, but because he was eternally separated from the love of the Father.

And yet, this is where the joy of the Ascension comes in. Jesus glorifies all humanity through His own flesh and blood. He shows His perfection through our weaknesses, sufferings, and hardships. He washes us clean with His holy blood, that one day, we may stand in the presence of the Father, where the angels and archangels continually sing the praises of the Lamb in heaven. Humanity belongs there, in this place, where the Word of God dwells richly for all eternity. Not because our flesh and blood has merited such a wonderful gift – but because the Word made flesh, who now reigns in glory, is the guarantee that those who receive Him in faith have a place in the Father’s house. His Ascension is our assurance.

So no, we don’t have memories of the physical Jesus—but we have something better: His living Word, His saving blood, and His promise that where He is, we shall be also. The Ascension doesn’t mean Jesus is absent; it means He now fills all things, reigning for our good. He is not limited to one time or place but is present through His Word and Sacraments, interceding for us even now at the right hand of the Father. And because He is there, so too is our hope, our future, and our true home—secure in Him forever.

INI

Pastor Joshua Ralston