Everything Must Be Fulfilled

Text: Luke 24:44-53

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            When we look at the wide breadth of Scripture, we find that there are very few, but intriguing, accounts of people being taken up into heaven. There’s Enoch, of whom Moses writes in the book of Genesis, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Then where was Elijah, who was dramatically swept up into heaven by the chariots and horses of fire and the whirlwind while his successor Elisha looked on. St. Paul says that he was temporarily caught up to the third heaven and heard things that are not given to mortal men to utter. And other traditions, outside of Scripture, include Isaiah, Ezra, and others. But no matter who it is or the circumstances of their ascents, there’s always something missing—or perhaps better said, unfinished. These leave us with a sense of disorientation, perhaps even baffled. If we rely on our own reason and senses, we’ll be in the dark, as we so often are when it comes to spiritual matters.

            But today we come to the Ascension of our Lord and it’s like floodlights have been switched on. We can see clearly. All of it—the past events of Scripture, the events that are happening on that mountain outside Bethany with Jesus and His Apostles, what the life of the Church will look like from the moment of Jesus’ ascension on—it’s all illuminated. The final piece is given to us and all is fulfilled and completed. The eyes of our hearts are enlightened, as St. Paul says this morning, so that we may know the hope we’ve been called to, the riches of Jesus’ glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us to believe. And we see it as Jesus opens the Scriptures to His Church at the moment of His ascension.

            It’s no accident that St. Luke begins his description of Jesus’ ascent into heaven by talking about the Scriptures. “Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘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.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.’” Were you paying attention? You could almost miss it: the way that Jesus opened His disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures. He did not grant the disciples a special mystical, gnostic grasp of the writings of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. Rather, and this is important for us, He gave them the key to understanding all of it. “Everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” He was showing them that all those writings were about Him all along. All of the accounts of Moses and all the prophets who followed him, the rises and falls of Israel and the individuals within it, even those other ascensions—all of it was foreshadowing Jesus. They were not taken up into heaven because they were so good, or because they were better than others—that’s how our old flesh would want to decipher those accounts. No, these narratives of ascension were written to show people what Jesus would do. His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, would be the fullest form of it all, having completed all things, having fulfilled the Scriptures. The key: “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” That’s why all those other ascensions felt incomplete, even confusing—because they were—because they were waiting for Jesus to complete them.

            One of the ways Jesus completes all these foreshadowings is His destination. Unlike those before Him, Jesus is not ascending into heaven to come into retirement, resting now. No—His work for His people will continue; the only thing different now is that the nature of it will change. He won’t go from village to village one at a time. He will instead rule over all things from the right hand of the Father. St. Paul points this out to us: “[God the Father] seated [Christ] at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one 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.” Did you catch that detail about who benefits from Jesus’ ascension to rule over all things? “He gave Him as head over all things to the church.” That means that Jesus governs all things for the benefit of His Church. Jesus will still work for the good of His people, but it will be by exercising the rule of the universe for the sake of His beloved people, the believers gathered in the Church.

            Another way that Jesus completes and fulfills all the Scriptures is by the sending of the Holy Spirit after His ascension. That’s what He tells His disciples is going to happen. Just before He departs, He instructs them, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things,” which means that they will be the ones proclaiming it, “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Because of Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit will be sent in a fuller, clearer, and greater way than He has ever come to God’s people before. He will enable the Apostles to speak Jesus’ words, to preach repentance and forgiveness, at that time and continuing throughout the rest of the Church’s existence, speaking in Jesus’ name. The Spirit will open the eyes of all to see Jesus everywhere in the Scriptures, from the first sentences of Genesis to the last blessings in Revelation, so that we would constantly see our Lord and our God and believe in Him. But we’ll talk more about the Holy Spirit and His work next week on Pentecost.

            Finally, what makes Jesus’ ascension complete is the promise of it all coming full circle at the end. St. Luke gives us some more details when he begins the book of Acts where the gospel of Luke left off. “And when [Jesus] had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.’” He’s not on a one-way trip, like Enoch or Elijah. He’s coming back. It will be a full circle, a return. And, as we heard Jesus say in the last couple weeks, when He returns it will be to take us with Him, so that we can always be with Him where He is, in the presence of the eternal God.

            So we learn at Jesus’ ascension what it has all been about all along. Whether it was Old Testament or New, prophet or patriarch or apostle, it was always about revealing the work of God to save His people. His desire from the beginning has been to rule all things for the good of His beloved children. And so He does, even now, as we wait for Him to return to us the same way He went up to heaven. Now we know the way to where He is going, It was Him all along. In the name of Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father. Amen.