Happy Ascension Day!
Some people think that Christ’s ascension into Heaven means that He is no longer with us. Not so. His ascension back into the Godhead means that now He can be with us, more so now than when He was in the flesh two millennia ago.
Because of His ascension, He can promise, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). The Ascended Lord is with us in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, where two or three are gathered in His Name, in the hearts of those who believe in Him, and in His Church.
Far from being gone, Christ now “fills all things”:
He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:10)
All things!
After the jump, read a profound passage from a sermon by Martin Luther on Ascension Day.
From Martin Luther, Ascension Day Sermon (1523):
We must, therefore, conceive of his ascension and Lordship as something active, energetic and continuous, and must not imagine that he sits above while we hold the reins of government down here. Nay, he ascended up thither for the reason that there he can best do his work and exercisedominion. Had he remained upon earth in visible form, before the people, he could not have wrought so effectually, for all the people could not have been with him and heard him. Therefore, he inaugurated an expedient which made it possible for him to be in touch with all and reign in all, to preach to all and be heard by all, and to be with all. Therefore, beware lest you imagine within yourself that he has gone, and now is, far away from us. The very opposite is true: While he was on earth, he was far away from us; now he is very near.
[Keep reading. . .]
Painting: Ascension of Christ cellar painting in the Grace Church (Church of St. Cross) of Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg) by Qasinka – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7914272
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