Forty
days. That’s how long Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection.
And they needed every one of them. The horror and grief of those three days,
when Jesus was crucified and sealed in the tomb left a mark in their heads and
in their hearts. And then to see Him resurrected! It’s not so easy to believe.
And
so Jesus comes to them. He appears to not only the twelve, but also to James,
His brother, to Paul, and to more than 500 brothers at one time (1 Cor 15:5-8). And they not only see Him and hear His voice,
they touch His body and watch Him eat with them. This is no ghost. Jesus is with
them. He is risen, just as He said. These
are the eye witnesses - over 514 of them! And they would give their eye witness
testimony to the truth of the resurrection. And as any attorney would tell you,
if you have 514 eye witnesses testifying to the truth of something, you pretty
much have a slam dunk case. But now the forty days are up, and it is time for
Jesus to ascend to the right hand of His Father.
Forty
days: the same number of days it rained on Noah’s ark. Forty days: the same
number of days Moses spent on Mt. Sinai. Forty days: the same number of days
Jesus fasted in the wilderness being tempted by satan. Forty days: God’s number
of days. So Jesus is taken up from them. A cloud hides Him from their sight.
They will not see Him again until He returns in glory.
They
lingered a moment, though. They stood there, staring up into the sky, taking it
all in. Two men in white robes - angels - ask them why. We’re not told what
their answer was - or maybe we were. For Luke tells us that they worshiped him
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple
blessing God.
They
were not sad that Jesus had left. They were filled with great joy. Do you
remember the only other time Luke used that phrase "great joy?" He
speaks of joy many times, but of great joy only one other time - when the angel
told the shepherds that Jesus was born. When Jesus came down from heaven in His
incarnation. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for all the people (Luke 2:10). Now Luke uses it again, for now those words
have been fulfilled. Now there is great joy for all people. For Jesus’ victory
is for all people. Jesus has triumphed over sin, death, and condemnation for
all people. Jesus has paved the way to heaven for all people. For you. So how
could the twelve not be filled with great joy?
Jesus
came down from His throne as the Son of God, but now He returns as both God and
man. It is not only His divinity that
ascends but also our humanity. And with
that, the honor and dominion of man, forfeited by Adam, has been restored by
Jesus. Man is back where he belongs. With God. No longer divided from God by
sin and death. For now sin is forgiven and death is defeated. And as Jesus
ascended, so will we ascend. We will not be reincarnated to another life on
earth, as some would have us believe. No,
as Jesus is risen from the dead and ascends into heaven,
so will we. In Him. By our mighty Lord’s ascension We by faith behold our own.
And
so filled with that great joy, the disciples are continually in the temple
blessing God. No private, mumbled prayers are these! They are proclaiming for
all to hear. These are trumpeted prayers. That there is forgiveness in Jesus.
That there is hope in Jesus. That we have a Savior in Jesus. And when the Holy
Spirit came upon them on that first New Testament Pentecost, ten days later,
this was the message they carried, they shouted out loud into all the world, to
the end
of the earth. The message that has now come to us. The message that now gives
us great joy. Which
we need!! For how often does the toil, tribulation, and tumult of this world
rob us of our joy? This pandemic has taken its toll on everyone – on top of everything
else going on! This world seems to be
coming apart at the seams, it seems to be plunging deeper and deeper into sin.
And
the sin that we can’t seem to shake, that keeps erupting out of us no matter
how we try to stop it. Where is our Lord’s great joy for us? It is still in our Lord’s ascension. That’s
what Paul explains
to the Ephesians. Seated at the right hand of the Father, Jesus is far above
all rule and authority
and power and dominion. Our Jesus is in control. The rulers of this world may think they are,
but our Lord has been setting up and taking down rulers and kingdoms, powers and
dominions, longer than any of us have been alive. And all for the sake of His
Church. For all things are under Jesus’ feet for the sake of His Bride.
And
you can be sure Jesus is still taking care of His Bride, His Church, you, that
the Gospel may be proclaimed to the ends of the earth and to the end of the
earth. From our limited point of view it may not always seem like it, but we
believe it. We confess it. Just as
Jesus’ Cross did not seem good at the time, but evil, yet turned out to be the
greatest good of all, so it is with the crosses we must bear in our day. For
while a cloud hid Jesus from the disciples’ sight, it has not hid us from His
sight. In fact, Jesus’ ascension means
that He is more present with us now than He was before. Jesus is not ruling
from some far away and unknown place named heaven, but is the one
who now as both God and man fills all in all.
He is no longer present only in Zacchaeus’ house, or at the table of
Simon, or in the home of Mary and Martha, but now is present in fonts, pulpits,
and altars all over the world. Speaking
to us, washing us, feeding us, sustaining us, and forgiving
us. The disciples go out to the ends of the earth not only to speak Jesus but
to bring Jesus, to give Jesus. To bring that message of great joy that is for
all people: that God is here for you.
Yet
even here and with us still, so too has Jesus gone to prepare a place for you,
and will come back to take you to be there too (John 14:2-3). When that day
will come when Jesus returns, all flesh is raised, and we will be taken - body
and soul - to that kingdom, is not for us to know. But to know that He will is
enough.
