Readings: Ezekiel 36:22-28 | 1 Peter 4:7-14 | John 15:26-16:4
Text: Luke 24:44-53; John 15:26–16:4
Times of uncertainty, fear, and disappointment leave us grasping for something sure. One of the effects of the pandemic five years ago was that it left people vulnerable to clinging to any confident sounding voice, or anyone who has a radical interpretation to offer. Regardless of the perspective we now have looking back, at the time, many of us just wanted something to cut through the chaos and speak authoritatively.
That’s because as human beings we need something sure and certain. We’re not able to maintain a constant state of flux, not knowing what to expect the next day. So if someone comes along saying they’ve got it all figured out, that’s what we want (and in a way, need) to hear.
The Ascension of Jesus was a turning point in the life of the fledgling Church. He had spoken about it many times in His upper room discourse. He said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:18-19) And, “I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer” (John 16:10) And finally praying to His Father, “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name…now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” (John 17:11, 13) Now here it was, 40 days after His resurrection and time for Him to depart from their sight.
How would His followers know what to expect in the future? With such a fundamental change in their belonging to Jesus, how would their Lord continue His work among them and in the world? They would need a sure and certain word from the One to whom “all authority in heaven and on earth” had been given (Matt. 28:18). So, hear what Jesus says before He leaves their sight:
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things.”
Everything that had happened thus far was the unfolding of God’s eternal purpose, right down into the grave in which Christ laid, and from which God had raised Him. Now going forward, the Scripture with the preaching of His death and resurrection will effect repentance and forgiveness of sins in its hearers. Yes, His Ascension means “a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9), but it did not leave them alone and without clarity. His words which He spoke to them would continue His ministry, not only for those who stood on the Mount of Olives that day, but for generations to come.
Thus, the words that Jesus has for His disciples in today’s Gospel, are for the Church after the Ascension:
26“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
1“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
Great uncertainty would be coming their way. Even still, the Lord would be using these Apostles to establish His Church as it grew from Jerusalem, Judea, and into all the world. It would not come easily, as we sometimes wish the Gospel would just be received by those still in darkness. These Apostles, with the exception of John, would all lose their lives in cause of witnessing about Jesus. Despite what the enemies of God wished, the Gospel would not be stopped by the death of these men. It was not a human idea, a trend, or movement. The same Spirit who upheld them to bear witness would continue to bear witness through the Word they preached.
That’s why we still confess to this day, “I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church” The Holy Spirit spoke by the prophets and the apostles, and so established this death-defying, borderless communion of God’s holy people (saints). Thus, St. Paul, the latest appointed Apostle, describes the ongoing work of the Lord building His Church:
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)
Jesus gave many proofs of His resurrection, and continued to teach His disciples, and that witness was to be recorded and handed down, from the Apostles and Evangelists [those who wrote the Gospels], so that we would have an authoritative Word in ever more uncertain times. It’s no wonder that the Church has suffered false teachers through the centuries, who came claiming to have some special certainty previously unknown. But what has rescued the Lord’s flock from these wolves has always been the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures.
It is that foundation, built on the cornerstone of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we still have in times where our grasp on stability ebbs and flows. Our lives and livelihoods are fragile (even though we often don’t want to admit it). Yet, even when reminders of this come, our Lord has given us something more sure.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling...The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (Psalm 46:1-3, 7)
He is very present even if unseen, strengthening His disciples with His Word, using the calamities of this life to awaken the call for repentance, and continuing the forgive all of our sins—the ones which come ordinarily and the ones which flare up under pressure. His word of “Peace be with you” continues to sound in our ears throughout the Church this day. He is with us in that word of the Absolution, and in His Body and Blood given and shed for you.
Unseen for now, Christ sits at God’s right hand, ruling over this creation and all that happens in it. He has the power to keep us through whatever comes in the future, because He has built a foundation for our life that nothing in this creation can overturn (Romans 8:38-39). But most of all, He is ruling there from God’s right hand for His people. He is present with us to forgive our sins, help us bear the cross, and navigate through the this age and bring us to share in the Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. Christ, the Almighty and ascended Lord will guard you always!
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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