Mark 16:14–20

May 25 2017 Sermon Ascension

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

¹⁴Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. ¹⁵And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." ¹⁹So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. ²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out a preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message. So, which is it? Our Gospel reading tells us the he was carried up into heaven. Our sermon text says he was taken up into heaven, but, the Lord worked with them and confirmed their message. Was he in heaven or was he working here with the disciples?

For four days in October 1529, the reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli met at Castle Marburg in order to bring theological unity to a fledgling Protestantism. They seemingly agreed on almost everything, except on what we call the "real presence" of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Zwingli, employing human reason, insisted that the Lord's Supper was only a symbolic remembrance. Luther, holding fast to God's Word, maintained that Christ gives his body and blood for us Christians to eat and to drink and thereby receive forgiveness. At the heart of this dispute—a dispute that remains today—is the understanding of who Christ is and what his ascension into heaven means for us.

For forty days after the resurrection, the risen Lord Jesus met with his disciples—that is, the eleven and those who were gathered together with them—in order to bring unity of witness to a fledgling New Testament church. He speaks his peace upon them. He displays his pierced hands and feet, allowing them to touch him and see he is really present and not a spirit. He eats a piece of broiled fish before them. And he teaches them, showing how everything in the Scriptures, in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, was written of him and his fulfillment of them in his death and resurrection.

Jesus taught them nothing new. Indeed, Jesus says, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you" (v 4). Wait. Isn't Jesus with them during these moments as he calms their fears, eats with them, and teaches them? He indeed is with them, but in a new way. Before, Jesus walked among them in humility, his divine nature hidden. Now he is exalted, having been raised by the Father. No longer does he refer to himself as the Son of Man. Now Jesus openly calls himself Christ.

As the exalted Christ, his visible presence becomes an exceptional presence. Just as he kindly spoke to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning, Jesus must ascend to the Father (Jn 20:17). And so that's what he now does: "Then he led [the disciples] out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (vv 50–51).

But now, doesn't that make him far away? In our First Reading, Acts 1, it says the disciples stood gazing up into heaven as they saw Jesus go. We can picture them straining yet to see him, wanting yet to see him, wondering what they're going to do now that they can't see him. Aren't the disciples being left alone, at least until Jesus comes back at the end of the world? Aren't we being left alone now that Jesus has become this distant God, way far away up there in heaven?

Don't we have plenty of times we wish Jesus wasn't so far away? Well, that's what our reason, our understanding, tells us. If we can't see Jesus, he must be far away, a God who isn't here for us when we need him.

Back to Luther and Zwingli for a moment. Zwingli saw the ascension as Christ's escape from the earth to be seated at the Father's right hand—God's right hand being a place at the edge of the created universe. For Zwingli, Jesus went far away and he'll come back only on the Last Day. On the other hand, Luther trusted in Christ's words, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20). He understood that Jesus has established a new way in which he visits his people and redeems them.

During the course of the Marburg debate, Luther came to realize that Zwingli was of a different spirit than the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures can only be spiritually understood, and this is something that only God can do for us. Zwingli rejected this working of God's Spirit and leaned on his own understanding. Luther received the proper understanding, blessed by God to have his "mind and heart [opened] to understand the Scriptures and to listen to the Word" (FC SD II 26).

Listen to the Word and have your minds and hearts opened by God's Spirit to understand the Scriptures today. Jesus doesn't abandon us in his ascension. Rather, he continues to be truly present with his people by new means. He's still with us, for

Christ Is Truly Present in His Gifts,

what the Church calls the Means of Grace.

By his ascension, Jesus is put "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion" and is "head over all things to the church" (Eph 1:21–22). In his ascension, the Crucified and Risen One has risen ever higher! Christ sits on his holy throne as a great King over all the earth (Psalm 47), reigning his death and resurrection over us, distributing his sacrificial gifts to his people.

These gifts are no mere symbols or simple remembrances of what he's accomplished on our behalf. Rather, they are the means by which Christ gives himself, his Word, and his work to us. These means rest upon Christ's own name; that is, on the basis of everything that the name of Christ represents: his revelation, chiefly in the cross and resurrection! Resting upon Christ's name, these gifts have both authority and power, right and might to accomplish that for which God has purposed them.

Repentance and forgiveness of sins is accomplished first through the Gospel's preaching: "that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead." The Gospel creates faith where there is none and strengthens the believer.

We are joined to this very same crucifixion and resurrection in the waters of Holy Baptism. It is a Baptism in which we live as God's holy people.

The cross is placed upon us in Holy Absolution, wherein repentant hearts receive forgiveness.

Christ feeds us his very body and blood, given to us Christians to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of our sins, in the Sacrament of the Altar.

Being thus forgiven, we mutually forgive one another, as we pray, "And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." And our brother receives Christ through that word.

While Christ parted from the disciples' sight, being carried up into heaven, he raised his hands in blessing. His hands remain lifted to bless us, to bless our witness and worship. Just as he blessed Luther, granting him a bold confession at Marburg in his day, Christ opens our minds to understand and our hearts to believe he is truly present with us today. And so we are made bold to witness that "the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead" (v 46) and to worship him with great joy. Amen.