"EXALTATION”
The Ascension of Our Lord (transferred)
May 8, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
[God] raised [Jesus] 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. 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.
Ephesians 1:20-23 (ESV)
The ascension of Jesus has been looked at by many Christians as a
coronation of sorts--the celebration of Jesus’ divine glory and
majesty as the Lord, Savior, and King of all, revealed when He
returned to His heavenly throne after completing His mission of the
redeeming the world. This is certainly in keeping with a particular
passage of Scripture that describes what this festival is all about:
“After making purification for sins,” says the writer to the Hebrews,
“He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
From this point on, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is no
longer the humble and meek suffering Servant of the Lord; He is and
ever shall remain the Exalted One whose “name . . . is above every
name,” before whom “every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and
under the earth" (Philippians 2:9, 10).
As we mark the Lord’s ascension today, we give thanks especially that
He is our exalted Head--our King. This is part of His threefold
Office of Prophet, Priest, and King that most of us learned about in
confirmation class. Jesus’ Kingly Office means three things, touching
on all three of His kingdoms (His kingdom of power, His kingdom of
grace, and His kingdom of glory): It means that He rules over the
kingdom of power, exercising His almighty power as He presides over
the laws of nature; that He rules over the kingdom of grace, governing
and protecting His Church on earth; and that He rules over the kingdom
of glory, leading His Church to the heaven that He prepares even now
for all who trust in Him. This morning as we celebrate the Savior’s
ascension and coronation and exaltation, we will examine this glorious
event especially in terms of what it means to Him and what it means to
us.
The text before us says of Jesus that God has “put all things under
His feet.” This obviously has to do with power and authority. The
Man who seemed to be so powerless when He was betrayed, tried, mocked,
beaten, and crucified now possess and uses all of the absolute power
over everything that was His from the very beginning--the power that
He willingly set aside for a time for our sake when He came into this
world as the humble and suffering Servant of the Lord. But all of
that is completed now. His mission has been accomplished perfectly.
Our salvation has been won. His humiliation for our sake has ended.
He is now exalted and glorified. There is no longer any reason for
Him to hold back on using any of His divine power. In His glorified
state everything that was always true of Him as God is now true of Him
also as Man. That’s why He was able to appear to His frightened
disciples in a locked room without using a door or a window. And that
is why even today He is able to be present bodily in many different
places at the same time in the Sacrament of His Supper.
The text also tells us that the glorified Christ is “Head over all
things.” Everyone and everything must exalt Him and submit to Him.
Those who bowed down in front of Him in order to mock Him will one day
find themselves bowing down again before Him, whether they want to or
not, to exalt Him and acknowledge His Lordship. The High Priest who
stood in judgment over Him and accused Him of blasphemy will, as Jesus
Himself predicted, “see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of
Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). And lest
we become too puffed up with pride about this, let us bear in mind
that the King who comes to judge the world will come to judge
everyone--including us. He who loves us so much that He suffered and
died to redeem us also hates our sin so much that He suffered and died
to wipe it away. And we who know what He went through in order to
overcome our sin cannot afford to take our sin lightly before the
Judge, because taking our sin lightly is, in reality, no different
than taking His suffering and death lightly.
The exaltation and kingship of Jesus not only bring glory to Him;
they are also a comfort to us because, as the text before us points
out, Jesus is not merely the “Head over all things,” but God “gave Him
as Head over all things to the Church.” It is for our benefit that He
is “King of kings and Lord of lords” Revelation 19:16 KJV). It is for
our benefit that “He shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15
KJV). But when we say that these things are for our benefit, we have
to be honest enough to recognize that these things promote what
actually benefits us, not necessarily everything that we think might
benefit us. God knows better than we do what is best for us, and
that’s what He promotes for us and in us and through us. We know from
His own revelation that what He promotes is our spiritual growth and
the spread of His kingdom through the preaching of the Gospel. No
matter how dismal and hopeless things may appear to us in our limited
vision, He rules over all things in such a way as to bring about these
blessings for us.
Another comfort for us in the exaltation and kingship of Jesus is the
knowledge that we--the Church--are “His body, the fullness of Him who
fills all in all.” King Jesus does His work in this world through
us--His people--those who bear His name and make use of the means of
grace that He has given for the purpose of spreading His kingdom, with
the promise that His Holy Spirit is present in these means and works
His good and gracious will through them. These means of grace are the
Word of God (particularly the Gospel of Christ) and the Sacraments (in
which the Word is joined with visible elements and is communicated to
us in action). His promise is that when we share His Gospel with
others in any way, He is there, working, and that when we use His
Sacraments in accordance with His institution, He is there,
working--all for the purpose of strengthening our faith and advancing
His kingdom of grace.
What a great comfort it is for us to know that the One who took all
of our sins and all of their consequences upon Himself and put them to
death in His own body on the cross is also our exalted Head--the One
who rules over us for our own good and rules over all things in our
best interest. He has returned to His place of glory at the right
hand of the Father but at the same time He remains present with us in
the power of His Holy Spirit, especially making His presence and power
known in Word and Sacrament. The Spirit who imparts this knowledge to
us encourages us and strengthens us so that we might be about the
business of our King as we live in this world, sharing with everyone
we meet the Good News of His grace and forgiveness, preparing for His
final return and the full manifestation of His divine glory. It is an
awesome task, to be sure, but one that is possible--in fact,
certain--because it is not really we who do but our exalted Head who
does it through us.
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great
Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting
covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work
in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you
is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.