Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and
from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew
28:16-20)
Now the
eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed
them. And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus
came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of
the age.
Prayer: May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
It’s strange that there are two gospels that don’t mention
the birth of Jesus: Mark and John. If you want to read about Jesus’ birth, you
can only read about it in Matthew and Luke. But at the same time, there are
also two gospels that don’t mention the Ascension of Jesus: Matthew and John.
If you want to read about that, you either have to go to the end of the Gospels
of Mark and Luke or to the beginning of the book of Acts.
Tonight, I’ve chosen to preach on the last four verses of
Matthew’s gospel. These verses are very well known to many Christians.
Sometimes they are referred to as the Great Commission. And they are a kind of
farewell speech to his disciples, much like the words we read in Mark and Luke
before Jesus ascends into heaven. But if it’s not pointed out to you, sometimes
it can be forgotten that in Matthew’s gospel, the Ascension isn’t mentioned.
Jesus simply says: I am with you always
to the end of the age, and then it’s the end of the book. You turn the
page, and all you find is the Gospel of Mark.
But let’s leave this little puzzle for the moment, and
let’s take the words of Jesus piece by piece. The first thing Jesus says is: All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me.
This may strike us as a little strange. Didn’t we already
know this? Hasn’t Jesus already demonstrated this great authority when he
preached and taught and performed miraculous healings and such like? Why does
he say now that all authority has been given to him?
In John’s gospel, Jesus says: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man. We know that Jesus descended from heaven. He was conceived
by the Holy Spirit. And all authority already belonged to him. But also, Jesus
did not descend from heaven as a human being: he only descended from heaven as
God. He didn’t bring his flesh and blood from heaven with him. He only
descended from heaven as a spiritual being without flesh and blood. But then
when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb, he took
flesh. His body and blood and bones came from his mother’s womb, and he grew up
as a tiny baby just like the rest of us. The difference between Jesus and us is
that we all have a human father and a human mother. Jesus’ conception did come
about through sperm, but through the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes we might look at a new baby and say that they
look like the mother or the father. And the same goes for Jesus. Jesus doesn’t
look like Joseph. He looks like Mary. But Jesus also looks like his heavenly
Father. Colossians 1 says: He is the
image of the invisible God. So we say that Jesus has two natures, just as
we all have two parents. But one of Jesus parents was completely human, and the
other was completely God. Only Jesus himself is both. And he is both in such a
way that everything he does and says is both the work and speech of God and
man. Jesus the man speaks and only speaks the word of God. Jesus the man
touches and only touches with the touch of God.
We never say that our characteristics or features are only
from our mother’s side of the family, or are only from our father’s side. All
of us are a mixture of both of mother and our father. But not just that, we are
100% our mother’s child and 100% our father’s child. In a similar way, Jesus is
100% man and 100% God at the same time.
But we need to understand this very carefully if we want to
understand what’s going on at the Ascension. Jesus says: All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
All authority already belonged to him by right, because he
was truly God. But all authority is now given to him by his father according to
his human nature. This is what is so special about the ascension. Jesus has
descended to earth as true God, but when he ascends into heaven, there has been
a change in him since the time when he descended. He has taken on a human body.
He has lived a life. He has died and he has also risen from the dead. He has
done all this as a human being, as a real man. And now he is going to return to
heaven with his body, with this same body that has been wounded for our
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. This is the same body that has
descended into hell and raised from the dead on the third day.
So now all authority on heaven and on earth is given to
Jesus, in such a way that as a human being just like you, as a real man, he is
seated at the right hand of God, and is exalted and raised up and lifted up. He
received such wonderful majesty in such a way that God the Father delights to
see his own Son, His own image, at his right hand.
Do you what it means now that Jesus received all authority
in heaven and earth? This means that everything he was able to do as true God,
he is also able to do as true man. He is able to present with you in your
prayers in his human body, as your intercessor, just as he is present with you
as God. He is united to your human body just as he is human. He shares your
suffering, your sighs, your tears. He is able to come and be present in the
Lord’s Supper, for example, with his body and blood, because his human body now
has the same authority as his divine nature to be able to be present anywhere
he wills and desires.
But one more thing about the Ascension here. Jesus says: All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. This tells us the particular way in which Jesus ascended.
Jesus is not the first person to ascend into heaven. Every year in the church,
on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season, we celebrate the Transfiguration of
Jesus. Remember on this occasion that Jesus was standing there with Moses and
Elijah.
Now what happened to Moses when he died? We read in
Deuteronomy 34 that Moses died and that he was buried in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows
the place of his burial to this day.
Now, Jesus’ situation is quite different. There are those
in Jerusalem that claim to know where the place of Jesus’ burial is. There’s a
church there called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jesus simply didn’t go
missing after he was buried like Moses. But his body left the tomb, was raised
up and then he ascended into heaven.
But what about Elijah. We read in 2 Kings that he was
caught up in a chariot of fire with fiery horses. Jesus’ situation is also
different, because unlike Elijah, he actually died and came to life again.
Elijah didn’t die a normal death in such a way that we able to be buried. And
Elijah was not true God, and he didn’t receive all authority in heaven and on
earth. Only Jesus did. Only Jesus was true man and true God, who actually died,
and who actually rose, and who was given all authority.
And now that we’ve thought and meditated on Jesus having
been given all authority on heaven and earth, we might wonder what the point of
all this is. So what?
Well -- Jesus tells us. He says: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.
There’s old expression about bible interpretation which
says, “If you read the word “therefore”, you have ask what it’s there for”.
Jesus says: All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Now let me
show you what this authority of mine looks like. My authority is over the whole
heaven and over the whole earth, so I am going to gather for myself disciples
from the whole earth. This instruction “go” is not a direct command in Greek.
Jesus is not trying to burden every Christian who has ever lived as if they are
all required to go somewhere else that isn’t their home. God actually puts us
in a community and a neighbourhood in order to be the light to the world in
that place. But if Jesus is going to gather disciples from all nations, he
requires his church to be spread throughout all nations. In the book of Acts,
we see this happen, most often through persecution, where people are forced to
move into a different place. Many people here in our own parish have been
forced to move from their homelands to the other side of the world.
But what does Jesus’ church do all through the world? It
makes disciples. And how are
disciples made? Some people think disciples are made through the church
gathering assets and making money so that people will be attracted to be part
of a healthy-looking, multi-million dollar corporation. But this isn’t what
Jesus says. Instead he specifies two actions for disciple making. He says, make disciples of all nations. Doing
what? Baptising them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
Jesus commands his word to be taught. And he commands his
sacrament of Holy Baptism to be performed. Baptising and teaching are the
expression of Jesus’ authority. Baptising and teaching are possible because of
Jesus’ ascension. Because of Jesus’ ascension, Jesus actually visits his church
and baptises people himself with his own hands and with his own mouth through
the pastors. Jesus is the one who actually comes at each baptism and he is the
one who breathes out his Holy Spirit. The pastors simply baptise with water,
but it is Jesus – true man and true God – who baptises with the Holy Spirit and
with the purifying fire and with the fire of his love.
Because of Jesus’ ascension, Jesus actually visits his
church and speaks his own word in the church through preaching and teaching of
his word. It isn’t a pastor that we come to listen to on a Sunday, it is Jesus
we come and listen to. And Jesus himself takes his own words and applies it to
each one of us in our own circumstances, and sends the Holy Spirit out to each
of us to comfort us in our different needs.
But then at the end of our reading, Jesus says: Behold, I am with you always to the end of
the age. Right at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel we read that the birth
of Jesus fulfils the prophecy: And he
shall be called Immanuel which means “God with us”. And here at the end of
Matthew’s gospel, he says: I am with you
always to the end of the age.
Jesus is with his church always to the end of the age. He
never abandons us. As long as there is a baptised people gathered around his
word, he will be with them. His body is hidden from our eyes, but Jesus calls
us to see him with out ears, to listen to his word and believe the promise.
This presence is possible because Jesus has been given all authority in heaven.
This is the authority that goes outside of time. It is the authority that says:
always. It is the authority that
says: to the end of the age. But
because Jesus has been given all authority not just in heaven but also on
earth, he says: I am with you.
In fact, he says: Behold!
I am with you. Behold! Look! See with your eyes this invisible mystery and
let the mystery sink deep into your heart and into your bones. What a wonderful
mystery it is that Jesus is ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of
the Father!
Behold! I am with you –
always – to the end of the age.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, come and be with us today as you have
promised through your holy, precious and clear words. Let this mystery which
passes all understanding fill us with great joy and reverence as we gather in
your presence, hear your word from the other side of the grace, and receive
your transfigured and glorious body and blood in the Lord’s Supper for our
strength and comfort. Amen.
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