The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.

Easter 7 - Ascension Luke 24:44-53

Most of us like to get to the end of a book, especially a good book. Sometimes people cheat and read the last page before they finish, just so they know it’s going to be worth the effort or so they know who did it. Reading the end of the book can bring a lot of satisfaction as the story closes. In some cases there might be a sudden and unexpected twist at the end that will leave us marvelling at the story and we might think back through the story to see how it all came together.

Here in our text, at the end of the Gospel according to St Luke, we have a twist, an unexpected ending. Now, the unexpected ending isn’t just that Jesus went up into heaven, but that the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Isn’t this a strange ending?

After all, as we look back through the last chapters of Luke’s Gospel account, we’ve heard a lot about the fear of the disciples. For example, when the women went to the tomb on Easter morning, they were perplexed by the fact they didn’t find Jesus body, and then were terrified when two men appeared to them in dazzling white clothes. When Jesus suddenly appeared in Jerusalem to the eleven, they were startled and frightened. Here he leaves them in an unexpected way, and for some reason they’re filled with great joy!

Now, Luke isn’t trying to tell us the disciples were glad to be finally rid of Jesus. Even though he had turned their lives upside down, they weren’t celebrating his absence, yet somehow their joy came about because Jesus left them!

This is strange! Jesus leaves them and they prostrate themselves on the ground to worship him as if he’s still there. Jesus leaves them and they return to Jerusalem with joy as if he’s still with them. Jesus leaves them and they continually bless God in the temple.

Some could say that they worship the ‘God-who-isn’t-there’ and somehow they’re filled with joy. Do they know something we don’t?

But isn’t this a common misunderstanding of God? Don’t many people think we worship a God who isn’t here?

For example, when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, they entered the holy of holies, expecting to find the God of the Jews. They were surprised to find nothing in there. So they concluded that the Jews worshipped the ‘God-who-isn’t-there’. They thought the Jews worshipped the ‘God of the Book’.

For many people today, God is in heaven. Jesus is in heaven. After all, today’s text tells us that he ascended into heaven. God can’t possibly be at two places at once. God can’t be here because we don’t see him.

1 Many people argue that in the Lord’s Supper, we eat and drink a meal that only symbolises his presence, since they think he can’t possibly be present in this meal on earth because he’s in heaven. Some say we eat and drink spiritually, and not physically, for they say Jesus is now Spirit, not body.

They believe that since God is in heaven, God isn’t here. Yet, if God isn’t here, why were the disciples filled with joy?

Do they see something we don’t? Have their minds been unblocked so that they finally understand what really happens in worship?

Well, Yes!

Jesus opened their minds so that they could finally understand what all the Scriptures have been on about from the beginning of time.

All of Scripture points to a merciful God who was finally revealed in the man named Jesus. All Scripture points to Jesus, who is the Christ, the promised Messiah. The Scriptures point to the fact that Christ must suffer. Scripture points to the fact that Christ will rise from the dead on the third day. Scripture tells us that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

It was here, at the end of their time with Jesus, the slow-learning disciples finally understood! They finally got it! These humble, doubt-ridden and scared men had their minds unblocked so that they could perceive the truth God spoke in his written words.

If these slow-learning and doubt-ridden disciples could worship with joy, what would it take for us to worship with joy? What’s blocking our minds? Is it pride? Unbelief? Selfishness? Fear? Stubbornness? Sin? When we have no joy in worship, we may need to pray God will soften our hearts, unblock our ears, and unlock our minds to the truth.

In a similar way, do we think we worship the ‘God-who-is-not-here’ or do we truly come into the presence of the ‘God-who-is here’? Remember, as Jesus left them, the disciples celebrated because they understood Jesus was now more present than he could ever be. Thinking about it, if Jesus was still here on earth physically, we could prove that he could only physically be in one place at one time, but now he is present in a new and exciting way, and able to be in more places than one.

In John 4:23, Jesus says to a Samarian woman ‘the time has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks’. Here the disciples finally worship him in spirit and in truth. This is the reason for the joy of the disciples. They were filled with joy because they knew that even though Jesus left them, this was how it was meant to be, and that finally they could worship God the way he was meant to be worshipped.

We too do the same. We don’t come to worship because we’re a club of like-minded people who make each other feel good. We don’t come to worship a book, whether that book is the bible, our hymn books, or song books, or even the bulletin. We don’t come to worship a man dressed in

2 black and white. We don’t come to worship some distant memory of a man named Jesus. We don’t come to worship a God who isn’t here. We come to worship because God is here!

Here Jesus is more present than he could ever be if he hadn’t ascended into heaven! Here he truly speaks to us through the Scriptures as they witness to him. Here he truly speaks to us through the words of the sermon. Here he truly comes to us and adopts us as his own holy people through the cleansing waters of baptism. Here he truly comes to us dressed in bread and wine.

Now, of course, to the world this isn’t logical. This is hard to believe because it can’t be tested scientifically. But this is what the Scriptures tell us. This is what Jesus tells us. This is what the disciples tell us through their joyful worship.

We don’t believe God truly adopts us as his children because it’s a nice thing to say or a nice wish, but because Scripture reveals to us the truth about God’s gracious and undeserving gift of adoption, cleansing and forgiveness.

We don’t believe Jesus is truly present in the Lord’s Supper because it’s logical. We believe because Jesus said ‘This is my body, this is my blood’. And all Scripture points to this truth.

There are times in our life we may think Jesus has left us: for example in times of drought, in times of hardship, in times of broken relationships, in times of sickness, and in times of death. Yet Jesus promised ‘I am with you’. Remember, we don’t worship the ‘God-who-isn’t-here’, but the ‘God- who-is-here’.

Here in worship we see Jesus, not going up to heaven, but coming down out of heaven to bless us – coming down to our dreary, mixed up, troubled lives. This is the reason for our joy. We’re filled with joy because Jesus hasn’t left us, but is here with us. After all, he is our Immanuel, our ‘God- with-us’.

The last time the disciples saw Jesus, he was lifting up his arms to bless them. While he was blessing them, he was taken up to heaven. Therefore, according to this text, he still is in a posture of blessing. He still continues to bless his people.

Here as we gather in his name, he tells us to repent. Here he tells us we are forgiven. Here he opens our minds to understand and believe what Scripture says about him. Here he blesses us. Here, he is truly present here with us. To all this, the disciples responded with joyful worship. What might our response be?

And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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