[AI translation] The part of our faith in Jesus that this feast reminds us of has been expressed by the Christian Church since time immemorial in these words: 'He ascended into heaven; the Father Almighty is seated at the right hand of God'. In explaining this next part of the Apostles' Creed, I am not saying anything new, but rather summarising some of the teachings of the fact of Jesus' ascension which have been discussed here before. Let us see, then, what blessings we may receive from the fact that Jesus "is at the right hand of God, ascending into heaven; to whom are subject angels, and mighty men, and authorities."First of all, everything that happened on this feast, and that narrates the events of this feast, directs our gaze heavenward. So it directs our thoughts, our hearts, from this world to that other world, it draws us from the visible to the invisible, it focuses our attention on the invisible heavenly world of God. So the ascension of Jesus is not only a historical fact, not only a miracle that happened once upon a time, that someone passed from this world into the other, invisible world before the eyes of men, but that miraculous event of long ago is a great pointing upwards, a great warning: men, that is where you belong! Don't forget that your final dwelling is in heaven, that's where you are going! And we all need this warning too! For although in our devotional moments we talk about things like "we have no permanent city here, but we are looking for the future" (Heb 13,14), and that we are "strangers and sojourners" (Heb 11,13) on this earth, we really feel very much at home on this earth, even if it is always a thorn and thistle patch for us! So much so that we despair and consider it the ultimate tragedy if we ourselves or someone close to us has to pass from this visible world into the invisible... We have pitched the tent of our lives so deeply into this earthly world that it is as if we wanted to dwell here forever. So then heaven is completely out of our sight, our whole outlook on life. In fact, let us be quite honest: heaven, or heavenly heaven, has become a bit of an old-fashioned concept in modern thinking. In the midst of all the earthly worries, rushes and noises, we forget that we are all heading for heaven, that every passing minute and hour brings us closer to it.
I know that even among church-goers there are those who do not want to know anything about heaven, the afterlife, life beyond the grave. It's good for them here, they think, and when they die it's all over. Life is over! Well, Brothers and Sisters, I am convinced that no one dies in such disbelief. For, even if one has been an unbeliever all his life and has not believed in God and His invisible world, on the threshold of that invisible divine world he is convinced that he is wrong! There, at the threshold, where the visible and invisible worlds meet, there the unbeliever will be forced to know that God, Saviour, eternal life, judgment - everything he has denied - does exist! When his bodily eyes are closed to the vision of this world, and his spiritual eyes are opened to the vision of that other world, then he will be forced - not to believe, but to see, to know all that he has refused to believe in his life! I have already told you, and I will tell you now, that I once read about a university professor who was a great scholar, but an unbeliever. He devoted his whole life to science and wanted to serve it even in death. He invited scientists to his bedside to observe the process of death. For a time he himself reported on the natural processes he observed in himself, and then suddenly went silent. After a long silence, he suddenly sat up in bed and exclaimed, "Yet there is eternity!" ...and died. It must be a mysterious moment, there, on the border between the visible and the invisible world! What happens in that moment between the human soul and the Spirit of God is a mystery that each one of us will only experience for himself. I believe that the Spirit of God is able, even in this last moment, to lead a lost soul to faith and salvation. There is also a belated search for God! But no one can expect that if he has despised God's grace all his life on earth, he will find it at the moment of death. The time to grasp God's saving grace is now! "Today, when you hear His word, do not harden your hearts," is the warning in the Bible (Heb 4:7b).
Do you see? That's why it's good that today's feast focuses our attention on that invisible world, heaven. After all, even if we don't think about it much, we all want to get there one day, don't we? Well, let's remember that if we want to get there, we have to take the path that really leads there! And that path is none other than Jesus himself! He said, "I am the way" (John 14:6b) Well, then, we read in our foundation verse that Jesus is "at the right hand of God, ascending into heaven". But we know from His own words why He is there in heaven. It is precisely to prepare a place for us, to prepare and maintain a place for those who have come to know Him as their Saviour, who already belong to Him here on earth. Without true love for God, without fellowship with Jesus, what would you be doing in heaven, what would you be doing there? For that will be the fullness of communion with Him! Believers in Him can already have the joy of knowing that our Lord is preparing a place for them in heaven! How good it was as a child to have a good time and then go home exhausted to a laid table and a made bed. Someone had prepared everything in advance, and we were ready to go. There is an even happier prospect, a happier hope, for a child of God. When he comes home, perhaps tired, hungry, wounded, with the wounds of the world and sin on his soul: a happy home is waiting for him. A furnished home for ever. For Jesus went ahead to prepare a place there in heaven for those who belong to him.
Knowing that Jesus is there, preparing a place for us in heaven, is a very encouraging light to shine on the often dark roads of life on earth. For it means that all the difficulties, all the burdens and pains of life have a purpose and a meaning. For everything that happens to God's children here is to prepare them, to mature them, to make them fit for eternal life, for the heavenly existence. When one walks in the light of this blessed hope, the darkest, most unpromising path of life is illuminated for him. Complaints will be silenced, tears will dry up, one will gain new strength and courage, for one has great joy: one is on the way home!
But here let me emphasize very strongly what I have said so many times, that we do not have two lives - a temporary one here on earth and an eternal one in heaven - but one. So it is not that we have a 40-60-80 year life on earth and then our eternal life begins. It's not that there is time, and then at some point time ends, and there eternity begins. Eternity is not beyond time, it is above it.Heaven is not somewhere beyond the stars and the earth, it is above them. In such a way that the invisible world surrounds the visible. Heaven is equally close to every point on earth, every second of time is carried by eternity.
For this is why Jesus' ascension does not mean farewell, separation from earthly life, on the contrary, it is the full fulfilment of the promise he made: 'Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age' (Mt 28,20). I used to say: he could see into eternity, he returned to where he came from: the heavenly, spiritual world of God! So he is with us now just as really, actually and truly as he was when he walked this earth bodily. There are only two differences between then and now: then he was seen, now he is invisible; then he could only be present in a certain place within the limits of space and time, now he is present everywhere and at all times, because he is no longer limited by space and time, because heaven is above the earth. The same Jesus who speaks to you today, looks you in the eye, takes your hand, heals your sickness, cleanses your heart, as the one you know from the Bible, but not from somewhere on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, not from 2,000 years ago, but from a place of inhalable nearness: from heaven... You can count on Him, you can speak to Him, you can understand His influence, you can ask for His advice and help, but there is one thing you cannot do: you cannot see Him! But with your faith you can grasp it and feel it! Because in his living reality he is with you now!
And this invisible One who is there with you is a powerful One, "to whom are subject angels, mighty ones and authorities", says our Word. This statement used to be better appreciated, because in the ancient world the power of idol-gods, demonic powers, were thought to be behind every phenomenon of life. The imagination was infused with gods throughout life. There were deities that demanded human sacrifice. There was also one that was worshipped by its worshippers for the rabid gratification of sensual desires. There were many idol-gods, great and small, worshipped by millions and requiring many sacrifices. Today we know that all those images of gods and idols are the figments of human imagination, and yet they live on in the modern, enlightened age, ruling over millions, holding the world in almost spiritual slavery. The god of war, for example, is still a dreaded power, still demanding immeasurable sacrifices in money and human life. The god of sensuality, which feeds on broken marriages, rules over greater masses today than ever before! Nor is the money-ghost dead, demanding immense sweat and tears from its ever multiplying admirers. The little idols of petty passions are still alive and bind the wills of multitudes. In the time of the apostles Peter, these idol-gods, great and small, were called 'angels, potentates and powers'; today they are called 'drink, love, revenge, hate, time, machines'. Whatever we call them, the point is that they demand sacrifices today just as much as they did in antiquity. And for the little semblance of pleasure they give, they plunder the body and soul of poor humanity!
Well, then, on the day of the Ascension, God will once again proclaim the great victory. This means that those who belong to Jesus will no longer have to serve these "angels, authorities and powers"! How wonderful that we have a God who does not demand sacrifices from us, but the other way round: who Himself has made sacrifices for us and in return asks nothing but the confession of our sins! What a grace it is that we have only one Lord! And a Lord of whom the last image that men have seen of Him was that He "lifted up His hands and blessed them" (Lk 24:50b). As if to encourage us that, well, it is not just a god-idea we believe in, but the real living God, whose hands are still extended in blessing over the earth today! Serve not, then, other powers, other powers! No need! You don't have to! You have been delivered from all idolatrous gods by Him "to whom the angels, the mighty men, and the powers are subject!" says our hymn.
It is written, "At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those who are ascended, of those who are on earth, and of those who are under the earth. And every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:10-11) Let our knees bow now, while it is not too late, while that invisible hand is stretched out blessedly over us, extending grace to those who bow to Him!
Amen
Date: 26 May 1960, Holy Thursday.
Lesson
Lk 24,50-53