Ascension Sunday

Forty days after the resurrection, the disciples stand on the Mount of Olives and witness Jesus ascending into heaven. As He blesses them, He is taken from their sight. Yet the Day of the Ascension is not about Christ abandoning His Church. It is about Christ taking His throne. The One who was crucified now reigns. The One who was rejected by the world now sits at the right hand of the Father. The One who humbled Himself unto death is exalted above all things. And this is of great importance for the Church, because we continue to live in a world that does not know Him.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.” These words are not meant to frighten the disciples, but to prepare them. Christ speaks honestly about what it means to belong to Him. The disciples would soon discover this for themselves. After the Ascension, they would preach Christ in a hostile world. They would be mocked, imprisoned, beaten, and cast aside. Yet they would continue to proclaim the Gospel because they knew that Jesus still reigned, even though the world could no longer see Him.

The same struggle continues for Christians today, though often in quieter ways. A Christian begins to take the faith seriously and suddenly realizes that he no longer feels at home in old patterns of life. Conversations that once seemed normal now feel empty. Values once accepted without question now trouble the conscience. Sometimes old friendships begin to fade. Not always because of open hostility, but because of a growing difference in the understanding of life itself. The world says that happiness is found in self-expression, self-invention, and unlimited personal freedom. But Christ calls His people to repentance, faithfulness, sacrifice, and holiness.

A young couple desires marriage, lasting fidelity, and children raised in the faith, and many around them consider these desires outdated or restrictive. Parents try to teach their children the Scriptures, prayer, and the fear of God, while the world increasingly insists that children should be shaped primarily by the spirit of the age. The pressure is constant: adapt, soften, conform. But Jesus says, “Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

The Church feels this tension because Baptism truly changes a person. This is the promise we hear in Ezekiel: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.” Israel had profaned the name of God. They had rebelled, wandered, and failed. Yet the Lord does not speak about what they must do for Him, but about what He will do for them: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.” The Lord Himself acts. He cleanses. He renews. He restores. And the Church hears in these words the promise fulfilled in Baptism. Christ takes sinners and makes them His people. He gives a new heart. He places His Spirit within them. He brings them into His kingdom.

But if we belong to Christ’s kingdom, we should not be surprised if we increasingly feel like strangers in the world around us. The baptized Christian lives between two realities. We still live in this world, love our neighbor, work, study, marry, raise children, and serve others. Yet our identity no longer comes from the world. We belong to the ascended Christ. Therefore Peter writes: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.”

Peter does not speak as someone unfamiliar with fear or weakness. He himself once denied Christ. Yet after seeing the risen Lord ascend into heaven, Peter understood that suffering for Christ is not a sign that God has abandoned His people. Rather, he says, “Rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings.” Christians suffer precisely because they belong to Christ. Not because they are better than others. Not because they seek conflict. But because their lives are shaped by a different Lord.

And this becomes more obvious as the years pass. Christians increasingly find themselves regarded as strange because of their faith, because they believe that truth does not change, that marriage is sacred, that children are gifts, that forgiveness matters, that the body matters, and that Christ alone is Lord. Discipleship can involve a certain loneliness. At times Christians feel like strangers even among people they love. But the Day of the Ascension reminds us that the Church is never abandoned. Jesus says in the Gospel, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth… He will bear witness about Me.”

The ascended Christ continues to care for His Church. Though unseen, He is not absent. He sends the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel. He strengthens His people through His Word and Sacraments. He preserves the Church even when it appears weak in the eyes of the world. This is why the Ascension is such a comfort. The future of the Church does not rest upon cultural acceptance or earthly power. Christ reigns now. The crucified and risen Lord governs all things for the sake of His people. And the One who reigns is still the One who bears the wounds of the cross. He knows rejection. He knows suffering. He knows what it means to stand alone before the hatred of the world.

So when Christians grow weary, they do not turn to a distant God who cannot understand them. Instead, they belong to a Savior who fully entered into human sorrow and overcame it. And now the ascended Christ intercedes for His Church before the Father. That is why the disciples could rejoice after the Ascension. Not because life would become easier, but because they knew who sat upon the throne. The One who reigns, the One who remembers His people, the One who will not lose those He has redeemed. The world is constantly changing. Ideas rise and fall. Cultures reshape themselves from generation to generation. But Christ remains the same. And one day the same Lord who ascended will return in glory. Then faith will become sight. Then every tear will be wiped away. Then those who seemed foolish for following Christ will shine with His glory. Until that day, the Church continues to live by the promises of her ascended King.

Amen.