The Ascension of our Lord

 The Ascension of our Lord – May 29, 2025

Psalm 47; 2 Kings 2:5-15; Acts 1:1-11

St. Luke 24:44-53

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Ascension of our Lord is one of the chief feasts of the Christian Church and ought to be considered as standing right beside Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. Every time we confess the Apostles and Nicene creeds; we confess that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. It is the capstone of Christ’s activities for your salvation. Tonight, we seek to answer two questions regarding Christ’s ascension: 1) to where did He ascend; and 2) why did He ascend.

The Ascension of Christ took place in an actual upward motion, a gradual rising up of Christ, until a cloud received Him and He passed from human sight.[1] We can’t say much about His motions after being received into the cloud because Scripture doesn’t reveal any details on this point. As for where Christ ascended, we can give two answers. The first answer is to the paradise of the redeemed, that place where those who are His dwell with Him forever. St. Paul speaks of this place in Philippians 1 when he says, I have a “desire to depart and be with Christ.”[2] Christ also speaks of this place when He tells the thief on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”[3] This is the place we usually call “heaven,” though it is also called the “intermediate state” since it is somewhat temporary, being replaced by the new heavens and the new earth in the Resurrection on the Last Day.[4]

Of all that could be said about this intermediate state, the part that overlaps with the Ascension is that Christ dwells with those in glory as both God and Man. He ascends to the Father in His flesh and so dwells with His beloved in that same flesh. He still bears the marks in His hands, feet, and side as a testament to the saints in glory that their victory over sin has been won in His risen flesh. His flesh in glory is also a promise of the resurrection in that those who are His will follow in His train. “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”[5]

The second answer to the question of where Christ is going is the right hand of the Father, but this is not so much a place as it is an office. Christ “ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.”[6] “The right hand of the Majesty on High”[7] is that office of Christ as Lord and Messiah over all creation. In a sense, Christ’s ascension is His coronation into the full use of His authority over all heaven and earth as both God and Man. Christ is King. He is the ruling Monarch of the universe, seated on His throne of power, as He reigns over all. On Pentecost, St. Peter preaches from Psalm 110, “the Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool,” applying these words not to David but Christ, saying “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” [8]

This leads us directly into our second question for this evening, why did Christ ascend? In the first place, it was to assume His seat on the throne of God’s power at the right hand of the Father, that is, to assume His office as King of the heavens and earth.

In the second place, it was to transition from His local presence to His illocal presence. That is, He is no longer in one place at a time such that we can draw a line around His body, but is present in all places. If Christ had not ascended to the Father, even if He was present in all places at all times, which is His divine right, our human minds would find it incomprehensible. Imagine, for a moment, that Christ was still present, in His local body, sitting in every pew. There would still be space in between each of these bodies and would lead our minds to wonder, ‘Is Christ in those spaces, too?’ Or our imaginations would run wild, beginning to think that there were multiple Christs, some better than others. And when we recede into our own minds, because we could see Christ standing next to us, we would begin to wonder if He could really know our hearts and minds, if He really understood the depth of sin hiding in my heart or the pain and sorrow I feel deep in my soul.

By removing His local presence, Christ is, in fact, demonstrating His glorious final words of promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”[9] As He becomes hidden to our eyes of flesh, He becomes abundantly clear to our eyes of faith.

He is especially present for us sacramentally in His Word and Sacraments. The flesh of Christ cannot be separated from His Word and the Word cannot be separated from His flesh. He is the Word that was in the beginning, was with God, and is God.[10] So, too, are His Body and Blood given from this altar and the altars of every faithful congregation throughout the world. We needn’t be deceived by our eyes because His Body is not visibly present in other places. We can firmly believe His Words because He has said, “This is My Body,” and where His Word is, there is His flesh.

In the third place, Christ told His disciples that He would go before them to prepare a place for them in the house of His Father.[11] This promise is fulfilled in the Ascension. Christ ascends to the Father in His flesh, meaning that a man sits on the right hand of the Father. He ascended in His flesh to make way for the flesh of all His beloved in the heavenly mansions of His Father. His flesh paved the way for your flesh to dwell eternally with Him. Through His ascension, He is elevating the flesh of man.

Finally, Christ ascends to the Father to prepare His Church for His return. Now ‘return’ is not the most accurate way to describe what Christ will do on the Last Day because it implies that He has been absent throughout the time between the Ascension and the Last Day. A better word is His ‘revealing’ or ‘revelation’ on the Last Day. I hope by now you understand that Christ is not absent after His ascension, rather His mode of presence has simply changed. And He has promised to reveal Himself on the Last Day just as He was removed from the sight of the disciples at the ascension. He ascended into a cloud and will reveal Himself descending on a cloud. By ascending in this manner, He has given the world the very sign by which we will know His return. He will not be born again, lowly and in a cattle stall, but will descend on a cloud to the sound of heavenly trumpets. All eyes (those of flesh and those of faith) will see Him descend and every knee will bow before the King of all Creation.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Acts 1:9.

[2] Philippians 1:23.

[3] St. Luke 23:43.

[4] Isaiah 65:17; 66:22; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1.

[5] 1 John 3:3.

[6] Ephesians 4:10.

[7] Hebrews 1:3.

[8] Acts 2:34-36; Psalm 110:1.

[9] St. Matthew 28:20.

[10] St. John 1:1.

[11] St. John 14:2-3.

Quasimodo Geniti (Easter 1)

 Quasimodo Geniti (Easter 1) – April 27, 2025

Psalm 8; Ezekiel 37:1-14; 1 John 5:4-10

St. John 20:19-31

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

On Easter evening, the 10 apostles were assembled behind a locked door for fear of the Jews. The 10 apostles are the 12 minus Judas, who killed himself, and Thomas, who is conspicuously absent. Christ our Lord has already appeared to Mary and the other women, to Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus. Peter and John have seen the burial clothes folded and laid in the tomb and yet the apostles gathered in fear. They did not fully comprehend the resurrection of Christ.

Then Christ appears in their midst and judges their sin. He judges their sin to be atoned for. He proclaims peace to the apostles. The judgment is innocence – innocence won in the crucified hands and pierced side of Jesus. There is a theme throughout St. John’s gospel – seeing is believing. St. John wants to emphasize the physicality of Christ and His presence with His people.

We sometimes mistake John as being the “spiritual” or “other-worldly” gospel and yet right from the beginning, “and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld” we saw, “His glory.”^[1] “No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”^[2] It is in the presence of the flesh of Jesus that God the Father is made known. In the presence of the crucified flesh of Jesus our salvation is made known.

There is a doctrinal point in this account which we must address. Jesus Christ came to stand in the midst of the apostles according to both His human and divine natures. In the resurrection, the attributes of the divine nature are fully communicated to the human nature. This means that He makes full use of His divine attributes in and with His human nature. He is all knowing, all present, and all powerful according to both natures, now that He is exalted. During the time of His humiliation, Christ denied Himself the full use of His divine attributes. Now that He is exalted, He makes full use of them.

Why is this important? John Calvin, the father of the reformed churches, and many other modern evangelical teachers, will deny that Christ communicates His divine attributes to His human nature. They will claim that Jesus climbed through a window because it would be impossible for His human nature to pass through a locked door. At the same time, do not think that Jesus passed through the door as a ghost in a Hollywood movie. The text says He appeared in their midst. Christ is present in all places, at all times, in His human flesh. Thus, He revealed Himself to be in their midst even as He is already in all places at all times.

Christ’s ability to be present with the apostles according to His human nature, despite the locked door, is directly related to the ability of Christ’s flesh to be present on altars all over the world. His humanity is not chained up in heaven, awaiting a divinely appointed appearance. He is physically present with His people, even if He has not revealed Himself in His full glory to us. He is reserving the revelation of His fullness for the last day, when He will return just as He departed at the ascension.

It is precisely because our Lord knows He must ascend to the right hand of the Father that He desires to institute the Office of the Holy Ministry. No one can forgive his own sins. He must hear the words of absolution from outside himself. Thus, in the crucified flesh which won our salvation, Jesus breathes on the apostles, gives the Holy Spirit to the church, and sends them to preach this word of forgiveness to the church. As He was sent into the flesh to atone for our sins, now pastors are sent to deliver this forgiveness to the world.

Which brings us to Thomas. Thomas is portrayed in St. John’s Gospel as being zealous for the Lord. He demonstrates his faith in encouraging the disciples to follow Christ, even when he went into Jerusalem to die. In John 11, Thomas boldly proclaims “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”^[3] Why then was this bold disciple not with the other ten?

Scripture is not clear on this point, but the words of Jesus tell us that Thomas was unbelieving. What did he not believe? The evidence of St. John tells us that Thomas was zealous for the Lord and believed in His word. It could be that Thomas was ashamed of his actions on Good Friday and so he also had hidden himself. This seems like a poor choice, since he soon rejoins the apostles but refuses to believe their words about the resurrected Christ.

In fact, his confession that unless he touches the wounds in Christ’s hands and puts his hand into Christ’s side, he would never believe is quite profound. He is confessing that only in the wounds of Christ will he find salvation. He has taken the words of Jesus seriously and insists on seeing the wounds by which his salvation is won.

His denial to believe without visual proof is consistent with St. John’s Gospel. His absolute denial to believe is blasphemy. “I will NEVER believe unless I see the wounds.”[4] This is where Thomas begins to get into trouble. He is obstinate. He refuses to believe the words of those sent by Jesus to proclaim the forgiveness of sins. He refuses to believe his brother pastors.

Putting this evidence together, we can see that Thomas believed he could do it himself. He was not gathered with the others because he knew better than them. Thomas is the man who can recite the catechism from heart, so he doesn’t think he needs to come to church. He is the man who daily reads the portals of prayer so that he doesn’t need to read the bible. Thomas is the man who doesn’t like the personality of the pastor, so he chooses to disagree with his teaching, avoid Bible Study, and nod off during the sermon. Thomas willingly stays away from the church because he thinks he knows better than those who gather.

Christ promised the apostles, “Where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst.”[5] The apostles had gathered, albeit in fear, but they had gathered. They did not neglect the coming together of the saints, even if they did so with imperfect motives. Thomas refused. He believed he could make it on his own without the support of the brethren.

Eight days after Easter, the following Sunday, the apostles made sure Thomas was with them. Why eight days? Because it was the following Sunday. They were gathered to pray, read Scripture, sing hymns, worship Christ, and even to commune with Him. They knew Jesus would come back because He promised to be where His people are gathered to hear His word and receive His gifts. This is the definition of the church – the gathering of the saints to hears God’s word and receive His gifts. And the apostles made sure Thomas wouldn’t miss it this time.

Today is called “Quasimodo Geniti” after the antiphon of the introit, “As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word.”[6] It is eight days after Easter. The apostles recognize not only are all people as newborn babes, but Thomas especially is a newborn babe. He doesn’t know what is best for him. For all we know, Thomas was dragged kicking and screaming into the room that day. But because the other apostles love him, they do what is good for him. They are being good pastors by not giving him what he wants (solitude) but giving him what he needs – the pure spiritual milk, the pure doctrine of the of the Word.

Thanks be to God the apostles loved Thomas enough to do what was good for him. They brought him to church, where Jesus would be found. Then Jesus commands Thomas to touch His wounds and Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God!”[7] He is convicted by the word of Christ and his heart is converted. He repented of his sins against the First and Third commandments and his sins against his brothers.

It is in this context that Jesus proclaims a divine blessing upon all who have not seen and yet believe. He is speaking of you and me. Thomas blasphemed Christ by denying to believe anything without seeing. You are blessed for believing without sight. This marks the transition in St. John’s Gospel between Jesus’ earthly ministry, when He could be seen walking through the door, and His exalted ministry, when He is present without sight on every altar throughout the world.

Do not follow Thomas’s example of unbelief. Do not cut yourself off from the physical presence of Christ and the church. The other apostles knew to gather together, and Christ would be present. Thomas sought Jesus in his own heart and faith rather than in holy mother church.

Do follow Thomas’s example in zeal and confession. Repent of your sins and boldly cry out, “My Lord and my God!” Seek the Lord in His flesh, given for you. Seek Him in His blood, shed for you. Seek Him in the public proclamation of God’s word. Finally, seek Him in the words breathed out by His apostles: pastors. To them He has given the authority to preach and teach you concerning the Word of God. You may not always like what you hear, even as Thomas thought he knew better, but it is the duty of the Pastor, as a loving father, to guide you as a newborn babe to that which is good for you.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. John 1:14

[2] St. John 1:18

[3] St. John 11:16

[4] St. John 20:25.

[5] St. Matthew 18:20.

[6] St. Luke 24:5-6.

[7] St. John 20:28.