In 1901, if you needed to send a message, you had only a couple of options. You could write a letter. If that letter was going a long way it might travel by train or ship. Hopefully that letter makes it safely to its destination. When the Titanic went down it took with it between six and nine million pieces of mail. Or, you could send a telegraph. The only problem was that you needed a wire that was connected to each end. Albert Einstein once explained it by saying that “the ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles.” It worked pretty good if you had a connection. It wasn’t very helpful otherwise.
But at the very end of 1901 all of that began to change thanks to the work of an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi. On December 12 he successfully transmitted the first transatlantic wireless telegraph. It was the beginning of a revolution in communication. The inventor Nikola Tesla predicted “It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages around the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own apparatus.” Can you imagine such a thing? Messages going out from anyone to anyone, all around the world!
Today is the day that we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord. And though the world may not see it the same, Jesus’ Ascension marks an even bigger revolution than the invention of wireless communication. Rather than a way of communicating, it’s the message that communication might carry. It’s something divine, that no human inventor would ever think up. Whether wireless or wired or written or spoken, Jesus’ ascension means that the Gospel is now going out. Jesus ascended to broadcast the Gospel.
Mark’s account of Jesus’ ascension in Mark 16 is quite short. Our reading was only a few verses, and if you narrow it down to what Mark writes specifically about Jesus’ ascension, it’s only one verse: “Then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”
This one verse is certainly an important verse. It tells us what happened and where Jesus went. Otherwise today we might wonder where Jesus is. Jesus rose from the dead. We believe that this is no legend or fairy tale, but a real, historic fact. And unlike the people Jesus raised, like, say Lazarus, Jesus did not rise from the dead only to die again at some later date. He rose eternally. His resurrection was the one that defeated death. He promised, “Because I live, you also will live.”
So then, if Jesus rose to live forever and ever, where is he? Why can’t we go to see him? Well, of course, it’s because he ascended into heaven. And what’s he doing there? He sat down at the right hand of God. Sitting at the right hand of God isn’t really a description of where he is. It’s a job description. And it’s a relationship description. See, God the Father is too holy for us human beings to approach. Paul wrote in his first letter to Timothy that God “alone has immortality,” that he “lives in unapproachable light,” and that “no one has seen or is able to see [him].” But then here’s Jesus, and of course Jesus is the holy Son of God, so we’re not surprised that he would ascend to heaven to sit beside the Father. But remember that Jesus is also true man. He became one of us. He was made man, and that’s a true man ascending with his hands outstretched in blessing. That’s a true man who approaches the Father in his unapproachable light. That’s a true man sitting down at God’s right hand.
The only way a man could do this is if that man has made atonement and brought about reconciliation between God and man. And who could do that but our Lord Jesus, who is true God and true man. Sitting at God’s right hand means that he has the Father’s ear on our behalf. It means that everything he did and taught is approved by the Father. It means that he has authority over all things. It means that we will one day be brought with him into that glorious light.
But none of that is the main focus for Mark. It’s there in Mark’s Gospel, but it’s explained more in other places. What Mark really focuses on is how Jesus’ ascension is inextricably tied to the Gospel going out into all the world.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he set his disciples up with their mission. This actually started with rebuking them. Mark says, “He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen.” This goes back to Jesus’ first appearance to them on Easter. It’s kind of sad when you think about it that the Pharisees remembered that Jesus said he would rise on the third day but his own disciples didn’t believe it. And not only that, but when people began to report that they had seen him alive on that third day they still didn’t believe it.
This is a good lesson to us that we need both Law and Gospel. Just because Jesus lives it doesn’t mean that I don’t have a stubborn dullard of a sinful heart. On Easter I was practically jumping for joy to hear once again those cheerful greetings, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” Now it’s been a whole 40 days. Easter was a long time ago. Objects in the rearview mirror may be closer than they seem, but the thrill of Jesus’ resurrection seems pretty far behind us. And the crosses of this life do make it so that we can’t always have a smile on our face, but it would be a lie to say that I bear every cross with my eyes focused on the cross of Jesus. No, far to often the joy of Easter is squelched because of unbelief and hardness of heart.
Jesus’ rebuke of his disciples came from his love though. How many times had he done this before? “Oh you of little faith,” he’d say. And then he’d point them in the right direction, to the God of grace who forgives their sins and strengthens their faith, the God who always rejoices to receive them back in repentance just like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son.
But this time, with his ascension quickly approaching, Jesus gave those disciples a job to do. Up until now he had often told them to keep quiet. “Don’t tell anyone about how I raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead.” “Keep it a secret how I was transfigured on the mountain.” But no more. Everything, all of it, was building to this.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
The Gospel was going out. The good news of Jesus and his salvation was ready to be proclaimed. This news is for everyone. All the world. All creation. Jesus came to Israel, the Son promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the eternal king in the line of David. But he did not come just for Israel. He came to be a Savior for all people, with a kingdom that reaches to the ends of the earth.
And the blessings of the Gospel, which Jesus won on the cross; the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, are received by “whoever.” Whoever believes and is baptized. Jesus doesn’t limit these things one bit. Nor does he treat them as the thing we contribute to our salvation, as if he’s done everything else, so now you just have to take the last step. When you are eagerly waiting for someone you love to give you a call do you boast that you answered the phone? “It was nice of you to call, but I’m the one who really made a difference, because I answered!” The call of the Gospel is going out into all the world. Pick up the phone; it’s for you.
Jesus also spoke of miraculous signs that would accompany the preaching of the Gospel. All of these things did happen and they were wonderful signs that these apostles were not working on their own but God was with them. People today sometimes expect the same, but that’s testing God, demanding that he do things in the way that I will, and not as he wills. Don’t go picking up snakes and drinking poison to test if God really loves you. Instead, when doubts assail your heart go back to the Word those apostles proclaimed. The proof is in the cross. The proof is in the empty tomb. The proof ascended into heaven.
But couldn’t Jesus have accomplished all of this without ascending into heaven? Wouldn’t we have preferred if he had stayed on earth where we could see him? Not at all. Even before Jesus died and rose again it was not always so easy to see Jesus. One time a paralyzed man was lowered through a thatch roof because that was the only way his friends could figure to get him through the crowd that filled the house so that Jesus could heal him. Another time short Zacchaeus climbed up a tree just hoping to get a glimpse of the Messiah. Many of us say things like, “I wish I could go to Jerusalem and see the places where all these things in the Bible happened, but I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance.”
But that’s OK, because Jesus isn’t sitting there in Jerusalem, with grace to give to anyone who makes the journey and who waits in line. To our eyes Jesus’ ascension looks as if he is going away, but in fact it is the opposite. Jesus’ visible presence is removed, yes, but at the same time he promised his disciples, “Surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” Jesus ascended so that we would instead look for his presence in the Gospel. Jesus himself, whose name is the Word of God, went out into all the world, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, wherever the Sacraments are rightly administered. He is here, with us, with his good gifts. Mark says, “Those who went out preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”
What a glorious revolution, what a change for a world dying in sin! Hear this good news from God, whoever you are, wherever you are. Your sins are forgiven. Your guilt is atoned for. God has ascended amid shouts of joy. The Lord is king over all the earth.
Amen.