Ascension of our Lord - Devotion in Exile

Lection for The Ascension of our Lord
Numbers 11:1-23, 31-35     Luke 17:1-19

Today’s lection (Scripture lessons appointed as daily Bible reading guide) are wonderful, but I must admit I have a problem with them…today is Ascension!

As it is good to celebrate this special day, the Ascension of our Lord, we will meditate on the Gospel reading for this day.

Luke 24:44-53 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

44 Now He [Jesus] said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising God.

Just before He ascends into heaven, Jesus proclaims the to the disciples the purpose for which He descended from heaven and was incarnate.

They were to be witnesses of all that Scripture proclaimed would take place in Him – and which He has now fulfilled. It began when He tabernacled in the womb of the blessed virgin, Mary – as foretold in Scripture. It continued as He fulfilled the Law in His perfect, holy, innocent life. He then allowed His perfect life to be sacrificed unto death upon the cross, three days later rising from the dead to proclaim that indeed the victory is accomplished.

But why all this? Why endure all these things? In order that repentance for the forgiveness of sins might be proclaimed in His name to all nations.

He is now ascending, for as He accomplished it, He will now deliver it.

Here is where it becomes very important to be clear and distinct. What does it mean to repent? To repent is to “turn away from”! Repentance is turning away from sin.

Here is where it gets a bit tricky. When many people talk about turning away from sin, they talk about a change of life that they accomplish – turning from sin and living a better life, a life without sin.

Would you expect a dog to stop sniffing things? Would you expect a frog to stop croaking? I hope you get the picture.

Would you expect a sinner to stop sinning – sinful flesh to stop being sinful? Do I expect my flesh to turn away from being flesh? Of course not!

So, to repent is to turn from sin to what? That is why Christ came. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins! Repentance into/for the purpose of the forgiveness of sins. Repentance turns from sin to Christ.

That is what faith does. Faith does not say, “look at my faith,” or “I have faith” nor does it say, “Look at what I am doing by faith.”

Faith proclaims, “I trust in Christ Jesus! I believe that I am a poor, miserable, sinner saved by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. I am baptized into Christ and therefore a new creature, not of my own works, but by the work of God.”

Now do not misunderstand me. To repent is to have every desire to amend our sinful life – I know that what I am doing is unholy, an offense of God, I am not to be doing it and, by the grace of God, it is my intention not to do so any longer. This is why I trust in Christ for forgiveness, for only He can make me new. It is He who seeks and saves the lost, we do not seek Him – nor do we save ourselves.

So yes, we will walk differently in Christ. Just as an apple tree produces apples, so those in Christ will be Christ-like in their life – we will love God and our neighbor. It is in our love of our neighbor, those things we do for them, that the love of God is manifest in our lives.

How do you and I live new, different, holy lives? Living in repentance for the forgiveness of sins! Knowing who we are (sinners) and who we have been made to be in the forgiveness Christ purchase and delivers to us in Word and Sacrament (saints/holy ones). It is in lives of thankfulness for what God has done in Christ Jesus that we live lives that are different, lives upon which the Father smiles, but they are lives which Christ lives in us and through us.

It is exactly as God inspired Paul to proclaim in his letter to the Ephesians. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that (the Greek makes it clear “that” refers to faith) not of yourselves, it (that Greek makes it clear “it” refers to faith) is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

It is clear that faith is not our work, nor is any good work which we do. We will do them though, for that is what we are created in Christ Jesus to do, and which God, though Christ Jesus, does in and through us.

This is why He ascended, in order to send the promised Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to do in us the works of Christ. To lead us to repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, that we might live in faith – trusting solely in Jesus Christ.

Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death. Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 7:24-25a)

Let us pray:      Grant we pray, almighty God, that even as we believe Your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind ascend and continually dwell there with Him Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and forever.  Amen.