Ruling for the Church’s Sake
Text: Luke 24:44-53, Acts 1:1-11, Eph. 1:15-23
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s a little tongue in cheek, but there’s truth to the old joke, “Everyone wants to work for the Lord, but they all want a job as adviser.” It’s not uncommon for us to think that we can tell God what would be the best move, how to best resolve a situation. So when it comes to Jesus’ ascension, many of us might be left scratching our heads. Wouldn’t it have been better if Jesus stayed? Just think of it: If Jesus had remained, having conquered death, never to die again, He could have chosen a place, remained there, and that way everyone could just go and see the Son of God. There would be no unbelievers because everyone could just go to where He is, see His works of power, bask in His glory, and know that He truly is the Lord of all. We could bring Him all the tough cases, we could have Him say who was right and who was wrong. People with any and every disease could be brought to Him for healing. So, wouldn’t it have been better if Jesus had just stayed?
The short answer is no. We often like to think that we can tell the Lord what would be best, as if we had insights that He doesn’t, or as if our wisdom could at any moment outweigh His. The problem of thinking that we know what would be best for God to do stems from our own shortsightedness. We can’t see around all the corners, whether it’s for short periods of time like a month or two, a year, or anything in between. We certainly can’t know all that will come to pass, all that will need to be done or addressed in longer periods of time, like centuries or millennia, let alone eternity. We have only the smallest sliver before our minds, the tiniest fraction of time and space. It’s hard—if it’s possible at all—for us to rise above this and take in a bigger picture. But only when we take the big view, the biggest view—God’s view—can we see all that Jesus’ ascension unlocks for us.
St. Paul pulls back the curtain for us to understand what Jesus ascending to the right hand of the Father means. “What is the greatness of his power toward us who believe…when he raised [Christ] 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.” Now Paul hammers it home: “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.” Notice who it is that benefits from Jesus’ rising and ascension into heaven to rule all things from God the Father’s right hand. It’s not Jesus who benefits. All these things were already His from before the foundation of the world. It’s not for the benefit of God the Father either. Rather, Jesus is given as the ruler over all things in this universe to the Church. We, those who believe in Him, who trust in Him to save us, we’re the ones who benefit from His ascension, His heavenly coronation. All things are under His feet. He rules over everything, from the tiniest electron to the largest black hole. Nothing happens outside of His dominion. Nothing can challenge His almighty rule.
Jesus’ reign is now eternal and complete. So why can we not always see it? When we look around at the state of things, why is it that we see sin and death, violence and warfare, pain and suffering? Is it because Jesus wants these things in His rule? Is it because evil might actually be as strong as Him? Of course not. If we’ve learned anything from these past weeks of Easter, it’s that life has triumphed over death, Jesus has utterly broken the powers of sin, death, and hell. They’re beaten. So then, why do we still see them in this almighty rule of Christ?
It’s because of two reasons. The first is mankind’s ongoing rebellion. Yes, Jesus still reigns and always will reign. But in any kingdom, rebels can cause lots of damage and chaos while the ruler is still in place. And mankind certainly does more than its fair share of rebelling. Every time we think we know better than our Lord, every time we try to seize what we think should be ours, every time we think less of another person created by God and are willing to take advantage of them, hurt them, hate them, or step over them, we’re in rebellion. We’re causing the damage. We’re opening the door for those defeated enemies of sin and death to come back in and do some harm.
The second reason is that same shortsightedness that we talked about earlier. Too often we look at this world, or at the cosmos, and we think we can see more than we can. We think we can see how these things are governed and ruled, the laws and theories that dictate what this universe is. But I’ll ask you this: how many times have we, as a human race, been wrong about the way the world works in the past? And when new information was discovered, how many stumbling theories have we worked through, only to have those also disproven? How often have we been wrong, nearsighted? Why do we think that this time we have it all perfectly figured out?
Often it may feel as if we’ve been left alone to sort things out and take care of matters ourselves. We may feel like we’ve been left standing, looking up at the sky for a Lord who’s left, just like the eleven Apostles were left standing, gazing into heaven, long after their Master was taken from their sight. Can you imagine what must have been going through their minds? The wonder, the awe, followed immediately by the fear of what to do now, what would come next, how they would go on without their Teacher and Lord with them.
But what does our Lord do? He sends messengers. “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 as you saw him go into heaven.’” Our Lord sends us messengers to reassure us that, in spite of what we might be feeling at any given moment, in spite of what our eyes might see, that He is ruling and that He will return.
Even further, Jesus has not left us alone, in spite of what our eyes may see. Look at what He does for His disciples—and for us—just before He leaves. “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—and ours—to understand the Scriptures, to understand that He is with us in His Word; that even when we can’t see Him, He’s still there, with all His forgiveness, with all His life and grace, with all His gifts, right there in His Word, in the Scriptures.
And because Jesus never runs out of gifts to give, He also gives His Church the gift of Baptism before He ascends. “John baptized with water,” He told His disciples just before He departed, “but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” He pours out the sacrament of Baptism, bringing it to all the fullness that had been foreshadowed throughout the Scriptures, promising that through it we receive the Holy Spirit, who brings us all of God’s gifts, so that we’re never alone.
As if that were not enough, our Lord also knows that because we’re creatures of flesh and blood, that we need Him with us in flesh and blood. So He remains with us in His body and blood in His Holy Supper. He stays with His Church, just as present as He was with His disciples when He walked with them on the hills of Galilee, just as real as He will be when He returns to give eternal life to all believers.
In spite of what our eyes see and our minds can fathom, Jesus rules all things and remains with His Church, reigning for our benefit, through His Word and Sacrament. And because He is with us in these holy, mysterious, almighty ways, He can be with His entire Church in heaven and on earth all at once, just as real a way as before, but now unbounded, without limits. So like the Apostles, we return to His temple, the place where He has promised to be found for our forgiveness and good, where His Word is unlocked and read and prayed and preached, where He baptizes with water and the Holy Spirit, where He arrives every service in His body and blood. We return to this temple continually, praising the One who rules all things for your good and the good of all who believe in Him, the Lord of the Church. In the name of Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father. Amen.
