C, Ascension of our Lord - Luke 24:49 "Clothed with Power from on High"

Luke 24:49 (ESV) “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Forty days after the Resurrection, the Apostles see Jesus ascend.  One minute he is seen, the next he is hidden. 

It might be easy to picture that Jesus is gone.  But he was not gone, just hidden.

The Apostles’ minds had been opened so they understood the Old Testament Scriptures, they would go on to preach and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And it would be written down for all generations to hear and see that Jesus is still present in faith but hidden from sight.

Today it’s hard to know what the Apostles would have felt seeing Jesus ascend.  They lived with the joy of his resurrection, but after the resurrection Jesus was present in a different way than when he walked and lived with them for three years on earth.  They knew all would be different.

We too face change.  Things are different today from yesterday, and tomorrow we can expect change too. 

Our environment changes constantly, as we also change.  Our knowledge changes with age, and so does our health.  People around us change, and expectations change too.

Keeping focus on God in the midst of change is challenging.  What can we learn from the disciples who witnessed the greatest change that God brought about since the beginning of creation?

Saint Paul speaks to the Ephesians about what they can expect from God in this change he has brought about, saying, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:11–13 ESV)

Paul includes himself with those who were the first to hope in Christ, proclaiming an inheritance and predestination having heard the Gospel and believed.

From this we can learn that the Apostles’ hope was complete trust in God, despite his ascension.  Paul goes on to pass on this hope, saying, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Ephesians 1:18 NIV84)

In our lives of change and aging we are easily distracted from the hope to which he has called you!  As death of routine, rituals, and perceived reality rolls on, the eye is drawn from faith, hope, and love to fear, death, and self-preservation of fleeting pleasures.

But the those who first witnessed Jesus ascend from their sight into heaven, went on to love many, live in faith, and be steadfast in hope despite being martyred for the Gospel.  How?

Their inheritance was the inheritance of the cross.  They knew what happened to Jesus would happen to them.  Faith would carry them to their death and hope would deliver them through it into the resurrection to eternal life.

And this inheritance was a seen destination prior to its reception.  They were pre-destined. They knew where they were going before they went there.  They knew Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life.  Finding the way had absolutely nothing to do with their knowledge of good or evil.

It was quite the opposite actually!  They did not find a way!  In fact, they were told to wait!  These weaklings who had deserted the cross, with minds opened to their weakness and God’s power at the cross, did as they were told by Jesus just before he ascended.

Jesus says, “behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49 ESV) 

And so, they waited and then they were clothed with power from on high, as the Holy Spirit led them from Pentecost to the ends of the earth.  And you too as the Holy Spirit leads us to the end of this earth!

As things seem to change for the worse in our world.  Be clothed with the Holy Spirit!

Let him clothe you with faith, hope and love.

Let him clothe you with Jesus Christ, granting you a continual climate change within, tempering the tempest of a tumultuous heart, that’s tempted to lose faith in God, and place it back in fleeting pleasures that lead to hopelessness and coldness of heart.

Let the Holy Spirit lead you and bind you to the cross of your salvation, knowing fear will be replaced with faith, death will be overcome in hope, and the death of selfish pleasures will be replaced with steadfast love.

Jesus will come the same way he left.  This is promised in his word.

In the blink of an eye all will be overcome.  Clothed with the Holy Spirit we will see the bridegroom arrive.  And finally, the clothes of faith, hope, and love that covered our unchangeable sinfulness, will be uncovered to reveal the unchanging, eternal, naked glory of Jesus Christ, recreated in all of us.  Amen.