CHRIST OPENS THE WAY OF RETURN
Mark 16:14-20
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Mark 16:19 – So, then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Tonight we celebrate one of the chief events that define our Faith: the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. At first glance the Ascension may seem a little anticlimactic. Our Lord has already won salvation in His death and resurrection, so why make a big deal out of the ascension? What does it matter? Well, the ascension of our Lord is important because it is shows us the outcome of His work.
There is much to speak of when considering the ascension of our Lord, but tonight we will deal with only a couple of aspects of this glorious event both of which have to do with our now having access to the heavens through Christ’s ascension. It is what we might call our “right of return.”
In the ongoing conflict between the nation of Israel and the Palestinians, the phrase “right of return” is something you may have heard about along the way. For more than 50 years the Palestinians who were displaced from their homeland during the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967 have been arguing that they should be allowed to return to the lands and homes in Israel and the territories now occupied by Israel.
I do not intend here to get into the politics of the Middle East; but the Geneva Conventions do lay out such a “right” for refugees of warfare, and at one time the United Nations demanded Israel to let the Palestinians return. But it never happened. The reality is that once a nation is conquered and exiled in warfare, it is almost impossible for them to return to the place from which they were driven.
The same is true for all people, for all mankind was at one time exiled from its homeland of Eden. And mankind brought this exile on himself. Consider Adam and Eve, how they sinned and were condemned by God for it. This sin brought the curse of death, and in the meantime exile from the Garden. On account of their sinfulness Adam and Eve and their offspring had neither the ability nor the right to re-enter the Garden. And no matter how much they longed to return, they never could; it was simply impossible. Paradise was lost to them.
But our Lord Jesus Christ has now come and atoned for the sins of all mankind. In His death and resurrection, the penalty of sin is paid and the offense of man before God is removed. As the new and better Adam, Christ Himself dies the death intended for Adam and all his offspring. And in this dying, He takes all sin upon Himself and does away with it.
And then He proves that the deed is done, that death has been rendered powerless, that sins have been paid for. He who died also rose again, a fact we have been celebrating these past 40 days. Christ’s glorious resurrection from the dead shows that He has undone the power of death, that He has conquered sin, for He rises in power and glory.
St. Mark reports: “He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” Christ’s ascension restores the way into the Paradise of God. A Man enters into heaven. And this Man does so of His own authority, not like Elijah who was simply caught up into heaven. Christ claims the right of return, doing what was impossible for other men. He goes up of His own accord and takes His rightful place at God’s right hand. The flaming sword that guarded the way to the Tree of Life is removed, for it has no power over Him who conquered sin, overcame death, and is the source of all Life. In the person of Jesus, Adam enters Paradise again.
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What does this mean for us? Well, it means that we who are joined to Christ by baptism and faith also have access to the heavenly places. Christ leads His people out of the bonds of sin and death. He breaks open the way to heaven and leads them through the gate of heaven. And thus, Paradise is restored to us. We who cling to Jesus by faith now have a “right of return.”
And this right is two-fold. We have a spiritual access to the heavenly places now, and we will be given physical access to those places after Christ’s return on the Last Day. St. Paul tells us: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Col 3:1-4)
There, right there, is the two-fold access. We are to set our minds on the things of heaven and we are to look forward to the day of Christ’s appearance with certainty.
So what does this access entail? Well, think back to the Garden. What was the Lord God keeping sinful man from when He drove him out? It was the Tree of Life – that blessed Tree whose fruit gave eternal life to whoever ate of it. And what does Christ promise to those who persist in the Faith? He says to St. John in Revelation 2:7, “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” And again in Revelation 22:14, speaking of those who keep the Faith, He says: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”
So when Paul instructs us to set our minds on the things above, He is calling for us to first of all set our minds on the fruit of the Tree of Life, which gives us our eternal life, that is, the heavenly gifts of Christ. And these gifts are nothing less than the Gospel and the Sacraments, the fruits of the tree of the cross: Christ’s body sacrificed and given, Baptismal water and Communion blood flowing out of His pierced side, the Word of absolution and life upon His lips even as He is dying. Through these gifts heaven comes down to us and we are, as it were, lifted up.
Further, the writer to the Hebrews tells us that when we have Christ’s flesh and blood, we enter into the Holy of holies; we enter again into the Presence of God. This is why, during the Communion liturgy, tonight, I call upon you to “Lift up your hearts”. I am calling upon you to look up to the gift of Christ which you are about to receive, to consider this heavenly blessing, and to rejoice!
St. Paul also indicates that in looking toward the heavenly, we are to shun the earthly, that is, the sinful things of this world: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry…” (Col 3:5). And a little later he says: “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; etc… (Col 3:12). And let the peace of God rule in your hearts… (Col 3:15). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Col 3:16). Here is the result of the heavenly gifts in us now: the putting off of the sinful and dying and the putting on of Christ and the things of Christ – all of which happens through the peace of God ruling in us and the Word of Christ dwelling in us. This is the life of those who have risen and ascended spiritually with Christ.
And what is more, we have the promise that our resurrection and ascension will be not just spiritual, but physical and complete in the end. For Christ our Lord did not just ascend spiritually, but bodily. And so He remains to this very day and for all eternity: true God and true Man with a human body, soul and spirit.
That is what we also shall be at the end. For as the Angel proclaimed this night, “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
He will come again bodily to raise us up in the flesh and bring us through those heavenly gates. At last we who have been given the right of return will come home to Paradise, where we shall ever be with our ascended Lord.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
