Psalm 119:30-37, Luke 24:44-53
This morning’s passage from the
Gospel of Luke is all about where to look for Jesus Christ and moving ahead in
our daily journeys as his disciples. It
tells of our Risen Lord blessing and instructing us to be Easter
witnesses. Counting our blessings and
feeling sent to carry on is hopefully something we all can relate to. But what about that strange, seemingly
incomprehensible part of this scene? The
part traditionally called the Ascension?
It’s
not something we’ve seen before. We’ve seen
hot air balloons and space ships rising to the horizon. We’ve seen fireworks rocket into the
sky. We’ve seen dandelion seeds and
soap bubbles ascending. Yet we won’t
ever see what Luke reports happened in Bethany.
We weren’t there when the
historical Jesus withdrew from everyone and was carried up into heaven.
This
bit of biblical history boldly defies our logic and our desire for physical
proof. So does the resurrection, of course, but we
know how to celebrate Easter. Declaring
today Ascension Sunday doesn’t quite have the same clarity. Yet it does have an important lesson to
teach us. It’s a lesson in higher
learning about where to look for Jesus and about faithfully moving ahead with
our daily lives as disciples. Bethany,
by the way, is where Lazarus learned how to move ahead in the resurrection
power of our Lord.
Verse
51 of this morning’s Gospel text talks about Jesus being “carried up” into
heaven. For this passage to have
relevant meaning to your life when you go back home today, I think it’s really
important to come to some conclusion about what this means. Do you believe the body of Jesus was literally
lifted off the ground? And if so, was
he being launched into a vast and distant realm where he came from? Or does his being carried up into heaven
have a more symbolic, metaphoric meaning?
Where might we all faithfully
conclude Christ’s body is right now at this very moment? These are questions I spend time pondering
and studying as I prepare these Sunday morning messages.
Some
of you have heard me say a few times that every translation of the Bible is an
interpretation. In our Presbyterian tradition,
we place a big emphasis on trying our best to understand what the biblical
writer had in mind when the original words of witness were written down. We
then try to figure out how this may apply to our lives today. So the bigger question is -- what did Luke
mean when he reported this holy event?
The
word we translate into English as “carried” is a verb that Luke understood to
mean “to stand by or set up.” More
specifically, it means “to make firm, to establish, to keep intact a family or
an entire kingdom, to uphold or sustain the force of something.”[i] Elsewhere in the Bible it’s used to
describe someone standing before judgment.
It’s not so much about “carrying” something in the sense of luggage. It’s more about “carrying” on a message and
a plan. Luke is saying to us that something
happened to Jesus that further set up, kept intact and sustained his followers
and kingdom. This something was Jesus
returning to Heaven.
It’s common enough for folks to locate heaven beyond
the universe as we know it. Coming to a
firm conclusion about heaven can therefore be literally over our heads! We’ve inherited this vertical view from
ages past. The first disciples very much
understood heaven in this literal this way.
So when the tomb conquering Jesus
was suddenly nowhere to be physically seen, they automatically concluded Christ
been carried up into the cosmos. They needed to explain why on earth he wasn’t
around anymore. Wouldn’t we have as
well? This worldview is how they coped with the
reality of having to move ahead as his disciples without his physically resurrected
presence there to continue walking and talking and teaching and healing them.
But
Luke didn’t seem to only understand heaven in this way. The word he wrote down that we translate as
“heaven” has a deeper meaning. It means
the perfect seat of order for eternal things. [ii]
I
think it’s safe to say that the bottom line here is that this ascension scene,
like the resurrection scene before it, won’t ever be exactly explained
scientifically or historically. We
therefore just need to focus best we can on the faithful, empowering truth for
our lives that emerges from the story. Regarding
Luke’s higher learning lesson for us today, we can understand this truth as
follows – Jesus lifted up his hands and gave a benediction to his disciples out
in Bethany, he then withdrew from them in order to further establish his eternal
seat of order and further set up, keep intact, and sustain his followers and
his holy kingdom.
This
is so important to understand. We all sometimes
get to feeling like Jesus has left the building. That our Lord is over us but really not
among us. But Luke’s witness to Jesus
being in heaven has no sense of abandonment about it. Jesus
didn’t take off and leave those who loved him and whom he loved to his grave
and back. His ascension was about his
rising higher in the eternal realm that can’t be physically located but that we
are blessed from and invited to faithfully enter into. It’s about our moving ahead while our Lord sustains
us, holds us intact as his family and as citizen saints of his holy kingdom.
However
it exactly happened that the person of Jesus departed this planet, it was for
the holy purpose of strengthening and sustaining his new body on earth, we who
are the Church. It was for making clear
to every disciple that they would have to move ahead and firmly stand by the
divine plan of salvation as it is further established.
It’s
now six weeks after our Easter celebration.
Where are you looking for Jesus so as to keep following him and carrying
on his Good News message? So you, as
the Psalmist once sung, can keep choosing the way of faithfulness and turning your
heart toward holy decrees? Should you look
for Jesus walking up upon the clouds? Peering
down on you from a shining constellation?
Saturating you with holy energy as we stare at the sun?
In
addition to giving us a fuller perspective on heaven, Luke also reports where
Jesus told his disciples to keep looking for him and heavenly life. No surprise, really. Right there in verse 45 we are told to look
for him in the Bible. Every day and
time we do so, our Risen Lord opens our minds to understand these ancient,
divinely inspired words so we can confidently bear witness to his
life-redeeming truth. Though his
resurrected body is no longer walking among us, he is very much alive within
our hearts and minds in this way. It’s
happening right here and now for all of us. Our Lord isn’t just up and out there waiting
for us to arrive someday in our inevitable future, but among us in the here and
now, empowering and equipping us for ministry in his name.
Next
week, when we celebrate Pentecost, I’ll talk more about how this higher
learning flows to us. For today let’s
celebrate that when we get together to joyfully worship as we are here today, the
knowledge blessedly bestowed upon us from our Lord’s exceptionally perfect and
eternal seat of order comes together so we can go forth and embody it in this
world to his glory. Contemporary
Christian singer Phil Wickham captures this perspective on the ascension well
in an energizing praise song called “The Ascension.” It opens with these lyrics – “This is the
start of something amazing, a moment when heaven touches earth. Here in our hearts, Lord, we are
waiting. For something that’s far
beyond what we’ve seen or heard.”
Let’s
also celebrate that each of us is a vital part of the entire Church. And to
say that the Church is the physical Body of Christ is to commit to being
mindful of how we are regarding it. A pastoral colleague whose sermon I read reminds
us of this with the words, “We say that the church is the body of Christ
without thinking about what that might actually mean. If the church is the body
of Christ, then we are called to give to the church the devotion and respect
that Christ deserves. To honor the
church as we honor Christ is also to remember that in a powerful way, we are
each a part of this body of Christ.”[iii]
A
man named Matthew Eldridge has an awesome way of reminding us of what it looks
like when we as a church consistently look to our Risen Lord through the
Scriptures in order to help move His ministry ahead. Mr. Eldridge has appeared in many Hollywood
films yet is unknown to most everyone outside this industry. His physical presence is part of what makes
famous actors shine. You see, he’s a
professional body double. We never see
his face or hear his voice, but we do see his hands, feet and body as he stands
in for the stars in certain scenes.
People wonder why he’s more than happy to be in such roles. It’s because he and everyone else behind
the scenes just love being part of the creative process. “There's something magical about creating
something collectively larger than ourselves,” he explains. He then goes on to say, “That's how it is in
ministry. Ministries are built with the hands of capable individuals who may
never receive recognition for the work they do …. They do what they do for the
glory of God. Their satisfaction comes from knowing they help to build
something beautiful for God's kingdom … that they are being the hands of
Christ.”[iv]
Where
is our Lord carrying on his mission of hope, peace, justice, love and
forgiveness today? Faithful friends, don’t look up and don’t
wait to see him in a distant eternal future.
Look around you now. Look within
yourself. Look to the Scriptures. Journey on with Jesus. Amen.
[i] http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G2476&t=RSV
[ii] http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?strongs=G2476&t=RSV
[iii] http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/article/entry/5046/ascended-into-heaven
[iv] Matthew
Eldridge, "The Hands of Jason Bateman and the Hands of Christ,"
Christianity Today (3-18-13)
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