Eastertide #7

He who Descended is the same One who Ascended

(Ephesians 4:10)

Today, Ascension Thursday, the church celebrates how the One who “descended into the lower parts of the earth”—as low as you can go; is the same one who forty days later, “ascended far above all the heavens”—as high as one can go. The New Testament church put it to a hymn (Phil 2): God the eternal Son…

            Humbled himself and became obedient to death

                        --even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

                        and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

                       in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

                        to the glory of God the Father.

This “descent” and “ascent” is preserved in our earliest creeds:

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord:

        …who was crucified, died, and was buried;

        he descended to the dead.

        On the third day he rose again;

        he ascended into heaven,

                        he is seated at the right hand of the Father…

The full name of this day is “The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ.” It’s a festal day—a day for eating and drinking and rejoicing. It’s gospel—good news. The feast points to that feast that awaits us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rv 19). It’s a celebration of the whole of Christ who is always and already both lion and lamb (Rv 5):

Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda,

        the Root of David, hath prevailed…

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,

        to receive power and wealth and wisdom

        and strength and honor and glory and praise!"

It’s not as if God the Son once humbled himself, but is now triumphant—once a lamb, but now a lion. Our triumphant Lord will always be our humble Lord. That’s just who he is.

Eastertide #6

The One Who Ascended

(Ephesians 4:10)

 This Thursday is Ascension Day when the church celebrates how our resurrected Lord “ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill the whole universe” (Eph 4:10). There “far above the heavens” Christ receives gifts for his church which anticipates the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out in ten more days at Pentecost. From Christ’s ascension we receive…

            1.  Our heavenly Advocate, Christ Jesus, who “speaks to the Father in our behalf” (1Jn 2:1). Jesus knows us—he knows what it means to be human. And, it seems he has carried his humanity back into the Godhead, so that we speak of Jesus today as “the man Christ Jesus” who mediates in our behalf (1Tm 2:5). Or, to put it another way: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. So let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hb 4:15-16).

            2.  The Holy Spirit to keep us close to Jesus even when Jesus can no longer be seen going before us (Jn 14-16).

            3.  Meanwhile, Jesus is preparing a place for us in Glory so that where he is we will soon be (Jn 14).

In the early part of the eighteenth century, Charles Wesley gave the church the following ascension hymn:

Hail the day that sees Him rise,

To His throne above the skies,

 Christ, awhile to mortals given,

 Reascends His native heaven.

Him though highest Heav’n receives,

Still He loves the earth He leaves,

Though returning to His throne,

Still He calls mankind His own.

See! He lifts His hands above,

See! He shows the prints of love,

Hark! His gracious lips bestow,

Blessings on His church below.

The Christian calendar reminds us that Christ’s saving work continues after Easter Morning—there’s still more: “Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Ro 8). There’s more—there is always more.

Eastertide #5

Behold Your Mother

(John 19:27)

It was a wonderful Mother’s Day Sunday—baby dedications and all. It just bothers me some that Mother’s Day Sunday intrudes into Eastertide. Wouldn’t it be better if Mother’s Day Sunday, like most civic holidays, could be celebrated after Pentecost when the calendar celebrates our “Ordinary Days”? After we celebrate the outpouring of Holy Spirit (Pentecost Sunday), we’re ready for our “Ordinary Days” that take up the rest of the year all the way to Advent.

But that’s not going to happen. You can’t mess with Mother’s Day Sunday. So let’s see if we can celebrate Mother’s Day Sunday within the sphere of Eastertide and the events of Holy Week? We do find motherhood there—on Mount Calvary of all places. While Jesus suffers on that Cross; Mary, along with those other Galilean women who followed Jesus all the way to Calvary, linger at the Cross watching and grieving. From the Cross, Jesus speaks to his mother: “Woman, behold your son!” It’s not a derogatory “woman”, for in the next breath Jesus calls her “mother.” Maybe it’s an upper case “Woman” as in “The Woman"—the mother of our Lord. While still speaking to his mother, Jesus turns to “the disciple whom he loved”, and says, “‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour on the disciple took Mary into his own household” (Jn 19:25-27). From the Cross, Jesus makes sure his mother is cared for. Tradition has it that John took care of Mary while pastoring the Ephesian church. I’m told you can find Mary’s tomb there to this day.

Eastertide #4

Peace be with you

(John 20:26)

That’s what our resurrected Lord said when he appeared: “Peace be with you” to the ten assembled in the upper room. Or again, eight days later, when doubting Thomas finally gathered with the gathered: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19&26).

That’s how the Gospel Story begins: “Peace on earth…” (Lk 2:14). At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of this peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (Jn 14:27).

This peace that Jesus gives has to do with Calvary: “Jesus is our peace; breaking down hostility between us through the cross” (Eph 2:14-18). Strange juxtaposition… The Roman Cross, the instrument of PAX ROMANA, “Roman Peace”; and, Calvary’s Cross where violence spent itself leaving a different, not of this world, kind of peace. Calvary’s peace is “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7). That’s why the gospel we preach is called “the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15).

Much Eastertide lingering could go on here. Is there ever a time a Christian should take to violence? The Apostle says there remains a place, in this fallen world, for Caesar’s Sword (Ro 13). If we do take up the sword, it’s always Caesar’s sword, not Christ’s. No one enters the kingdom of God by the sword. We enter through “the gospel of peace.”

Eastertide #3

It is I myself

(Luke 24:39)

“Peace be with you!” said our resurrected Lord to the ten disciples huddled in the upper room. But they figured it must be a ghost. Jesus assures them, he’s no ghost: “Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.” And then for a little show and tell, Jesus asks if they have anything to eat. The disciples come up with “a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence” (Luke 24:36-43). Ghosts can’t do that. They’re not real enough to eat.

Something similar happened to a couple making their way back home from Jerusalem where they had witnessed the events of Calvary. Jesus doesn’t let on who he is—he has some fun with them. When they sit down and break bread together, they recognize that it’s Jesus.

Sometime later, back up on the Sea of Galilee, the fisherman disciples go back to work. Things aren’t going well. Jesus appears on shore. He notices they are discouraged and yells out to them, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find fish.” Sure enough, all sorts of fish—153 large fish gathered in the net. As the disciples pull the heavy load of fish to shore where Jesus was, “the net did not tear (schizō)” (Jn 21:11). Jesus barbequed some fish and said, “Come and have breakfast with me.” John concludes the story by telling us “this was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciple after he was raised form the dead” (Jn 21:14).

The church has seen in this a picture of how the gospel will bring a net full of all different kinds of people “from every tribe and language and people and nation” to Jesus. And, the net will hold them all—it does not break into various schisms.”

When Peter retells the stories of Easter, he wants us to know that they “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Ac 10:41). That’s the first thing on the agenda when we all get to heaven: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rv 19:9). Ghosts can’t do that. They are not real enough to hold down a meal. When we arrive at that heavenly table, it will be “I myself”—you yourself—us as us—as real as Jesus.

Eastertide #2

God raised Jesus up and allowed him to appear

(Acts 10:40)

Let’s stick with the Christian Calendar through Pentecost. After Easter Morning. Our resurrected Lord lingers among us for a spell. How our resurrected Lord departs and what he leaves behind are the next big events on the Christian Calendar—events that, without the Calendar, we might miss; or, in other ways, overlook. So let’s see it through till Pentecost.

On Easter Morning, Jesus’ tomb is found empty. No one questions that. It’s a historical fact that no one disputes. What is disputed, is how Jesus’ tomb became empty. Soldiers guarding the tomb say, “Jesus’ disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.” Then Matthew adds: “And this story is still told to this day.” We live “to this day,” with two stories about how the tomb was found empty: 1) someone must have taken away his body; or, 2) he rose from the dead—or, as is most often said, “God raised him from the dead” (Ac 3:15); or more fully, “God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear” (Ac 10:40).

One can provided good arguments for why ours is the true story—like why would the disciples give their lives for a hoax? There can be no doubt they really believed it; and, that this belief came from the appearance of the risen Christ among them. “We are witnesses,” as Peter testifies, of how “God raised Jesus on the third day and allowed him to appear …to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Ac 10:40-41).

Easter can’t be contained in a one day celebration. It overflows. There’s a tide to it that floods ashore—that floods over us. Eastertide is a season of fifty days, between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday, when we contemplate what happened when the tomb was found empty and our risen Lord appeared to God’s chosen witnesses. During Eastertide we linger, as our resurrected Lord lingered among us, and contemplate how it can be that Jesus “was put to death for our trespasses and raised to grant us… peace” (Ro 4:25-5:1). As the hymn goes, “Can it be?”

Eastertide #1:

Man of Sorrows

(Isaiah 53:3)

We began our Easter Service singing “Man of Sorrows What a Name.” I cried. Others thought it an odd, even depressing hymn to kickoff Easter Sunday. Why didn’t we sing “Up From the Grave He Arose”? Something more triumphant. Maybe so, but “Man of Sorrows,” a 19^th century hymn, worked for me.

During these first few days of Eastertide, I’ve spent my morning fire time with Isaiah’s Servant Songs. I figured that’s where “Man of Sorrows” must be found. Sure enough, there it was in the fourth Servant Songs: “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. …Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”

I’ll have to tell our new worship minister that I like his Easter hymn choice. I have a feeling he may need some encouragement. Easter Morning is not Easter Morning without Good Friday, and Good Friday is not good without Easter Morning. As the third Servant Songs puts it, “He who vindicates me is near.” The Resurrection is God’s vindication of his Good Friday Suffering Servant.