Gone But Still Here

The Ascension of Jesus can be seen as him “leaving us behind” to go and take on the “big job” in the heaven. He’s moving on to bigger and better things, which means he’s leaving us behind. But if that’s what’s happening, why would Jesus also promise that he “will be with us always, even to the end of the age?” Can Jesus leave and yet not leave at the same time?

Transcript

Some of you know I’m a fan of the long running BBC show “Doctor Who”, about a time travelling alien who goes around the universe with his companions saving us from monsters. In the 25th anniversary special, the Doctor gets called back to his home planet to save them. After defeating his foes through trickery and wit, the council of his home world decides to proclaim him the Lord President. He thanks them, then shuffles his companions into their time machine, the Tardis. 

One of those companions, looking dejected, faces the Doctor and says: “It'll soon be goodbye, then. You're off to be President. I suppose your subjects will find a [time machine] that really works and get us both home?” “Who said anything about Gallifrey?” the Doctor responds. His friend insists. “You told Chancellor Flavia…” but the Doctor cuts him off. “I told her she had full deputy powers until I returned.” “You're not going back?” his companion responds? “You know, sometimes,” says the Doctor, “you take my breath away.”

The Ascension of Jesus can be seen as him “leaving us behind” to go and take on the “big job” in the heaven. He’s moving on to bigger and better things, which means he’s leaving us behind. But if that’s what’s happening, why would Jesus also promise that he “will be with us always, even to the end of the age?” Can Jesus leave and yet not leave at the same time?

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” We already know that “impossible” has a different meaning for God than for us. The Angel Gabriel told Mary that “nothing will be impossible with God.” Jesus himself said that many things with humans are impossible, but “with God all things are possible.” So with respect to Jesus, we don’t even need to eliminate the impossible. We just need to see what remains, what we’re left with.

What are we left with then? Disciples gathered with Jesus, when a cloud takes his from their sight. I know most of us picture a fluffy cloud in the sky. But heaven isn’t up. It’s above, below, and beside us, yet just out of reach because of sin. The heavens are not on the moon or Jupiter or the Andromeda galaxy. They are as near to us as God’s promises, just hidden. By a cloud or a fog if you will. As the Psalmist says, 

The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Psalm 97:1–2.

The Lord hid his full appearance from Moses on top of Mt. Sinai by a cloud. The Book of Exodus records that “Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the LORD dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.” Exodus 24:15–16

Jesus himself, after his resurrection, joined the disciples while they were gathered in rooms with locked doors and windows, coming out of heaven to be with his people. The sin that bars us from seeing and interacting with the heavens does not bar the Lord! Because with him, nothing is impossible.

At his Ascension, Jesus disappears into a cloud. He is returning to the heavens to reign over all creation, the heavens and the physical universe, with his Father. He has not left. But we can no longer see him. He is still, as Luke writes in the book of Acts, working and teaching on earth. 

The uncreated Father, the eternally begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit now reign together in heaven. With one change. One of those persons of the godhead is now also a human being. You might say the Lord brought a souvenir home: his body, wounds and all. 

That’s how Paul, the apostle, urges us to think about the Lord of Israel. If heaven is above, below and beside but just out of reach, the Lord is also above us, and beside us, but also now within us, because of Jesus’ atoning work. God isn’t out there. He is up and beside and in. Paul writes to us in the power of the Spirit that:

The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him… according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1. 

“The God of our Lord Jesus Christ” – in other words, Paul is about to speak of God as he has now been fully revealed in Jesus his Son. The Father of Glory is the Father of salvation, because God’s glory is in saving his people. He is over all and above all, the fountainhead of all that is seen and unseen. The Spirit of wisdom and of revelation that’s God in us to create new minds that discern God’s will and can live his ways. The Christ who was raised from the dead and seated in the heavenly places above all rule and dominion and authority – that same Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified now shares again in the divine throne and in the divine rule.

…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

You and I have been called in hope. Faith, love and hope are the great drivers of human action. You believe and so you act. If you believe you need to eat, you buy food. If you believe that car is going to hit you, you jump out of the way. If you believe you need a home, you rent an apartment. If you believe your country holds no prospects for the future, you leave and try and build a new life in a new land. Every step we take and each decision we make is based on our faith in something.

But if we have no hope, we lose faith. Hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, often a positive one.” The opposite of hope is despair. Despair leads us to seek death rather than life. Death in addiction to sex and drugs, death in petty tribalism, death in power over others, death in suicide. There is no leading a Christian life if we do not have hope. 

Therefore, Paul wants your eyes to be open. He wants you to know the hope to which he has called you. You have an inheritance to look forward to that you share with all Christ’s people. Heaven is opened to you, even if you can’t see into it. You have eternal life, even if it’s hidden from sight right now. You live your life in the expectation that this life in a sinful, fallen world is a preparation for a better life yet to come. 

... And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Jesus’ physical, visible presence is gone. But he has left signs, so that we can know where to find him. He still speaks to us when we open the Scriptures. It may be my voice reading the readings, but it’s Jesus’ words, through the prophets and apostles, given to them by the Spirit of the Father. 

He comes to us when someone is baptized and brought into the kingdom. Forever and ever, whether you feel close to the Lord or have strayed, your baptism is the magnet that attaches you to the Lord’s fridge. Sometimes the magnet falls off the door. But the Lord has the power to pick it up and stick it on again. You don’t need a new magnet. You just need the Lord to pick you up again. 

The Lord feeds us in the Sacrament. The veil between the heavens and creation is breached by the Lord Jesus who gives us his body and blood and forgives our sins. We don’t see Jesus’ body anymore. But we can taste and see that his body is good!

For a little while you will not see me. Like Jesus, I will be seeking out a quiet place to pray. Week and week out, for twenty-two years, Jesus has been working through me to feed you. For a little while this summer, Deb and I will be letting Jesus feeds us first so we can continue the work. Just because you can’t see me does not mean that the Lord is not still here. For wherever his word is shared, where there is fellowship in his name, where you his people are praying together, there he is among you. 

I don’t want to return on August 17 finding you gazing into heaven. I want to find you in his Temple praising God who has done such great things for you. So I can join you in that praise.

Amen.