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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
You and I may have been watching movies or TV shows of which, for one reason or another, we did not get to see the ending, or you and I may have had dropped cell-phone calls or otherwise-interrupted conversations that we never really got to finish. Such experiences came to my mind when considering the final four verses of tonight’s Gospel Reading for the Ascension of Our Lord, in which verses we heard that, while Jesus was blessing the Eleven, He parted from them and was being carried up into heaven. Did Jesus finish blessing them? Did they get to say “Amen” to His blessing? The Divinely‑inspired St. Luke does not say! Yet, as “blessing” more than in any other New Testament book is prominent in St. Luke’s Gospel account, with almost one-third of the New Testament’s total uses of this particular Greek verb, so are prominent in these four verses the Eleven’s being blessed by Jesus and their blessing God, in the sense of “praising” God (so the NIV and NASB; the KJV uses both). Tonight we consider these four verses of the Gospel Reading, directing our thoughts to the theme, “Blessed and Blessing”.
This particular Greek verb is a compound of the adverb for “well” and the noun for “word” and gives us our English words “eulogize” and “eulogy”, generally referring to the kind of formal “speaking well” of someone that you might hear at a non-Lutheran funeral or wake. Informally we may not hear or do much speaking well of someone, despite the Eighth Commandment, which we understand to call for our defending our neighbor, speaking well of him or her, and explaining everything in the kindest way. We or others around us in society may be more likely to curse someone, despite the Second Commandment, if not also to curse even God, especially after events like the recent mass-shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. Those accused gunmen especially may have had mental-health problems, but by nature they are no more sinful than you are or I am, and their alleged crimes of murder are no more damning than your and my sins against the Fifth Commandment: our hurting or harming our neighbors in their bodies and our failing to help and support our neighbors in every physical need.
Because of our sinful natures and all of our actual sins, we deserve to be cursed with both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity, unless, as God calls and so enables us to do, we repent of our sin and trust God to bless us with the forgiveness of sins. The Divinely-inspired St. Peter writes to the dispersed believers that we are called that we might obtain a blessing (1 Peter 3:9). When we so repent and believe, then God does bless us with the forgiveness of sins. God forgives our failing to speak well of someone. God forgives our cursing someone, even our cursing God Himself! God forgives our failing to help someone. God forgives our sinful nature and all of our actual sins, whatever our actual sins might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
God sent Jesus, St. Peter preached to those gathered one time in Solomon’s Portico of the Temple, to bless all people by turning them from their wickedness (Acts 3:26). We might say that the man Jesus was blessed by God through the personal union of the two natures, and we certainly can say that Jesus was blessed, at least in the sense of being “praised”, by those who welcomed Him into Jerusalem as the answer to their calls for salvation, chanting “Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord” (for example, Luke 19:38, making use of Psalm 118:26). Jesus came humbly but was righteous and had salvation (Zechariah 9:9). With no sin of His own, Jesus took our sins and the sins of all people to the cross, dying there in our place and for our benefit. And, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, and, after presenting Himself alive to the Eleven and others during another forty days, Jesus ascended into heaven, enthroning our human nature there! With His ascension into heaven, Jesus signaled an end to those appearances after His resurrection, but Jesus did not stop being present with His Church. Rather, Jesus changed the way that He is present with His Church in order to bless His Church.
Jesus began to teach and do in person until the day when He was taken up, and then Jesus continued to teach and do through the apostles whom He sent blessed by the Holy Spirit, as even today Jesus continues to teach and do through the pastors whom He sends blessed by the Holy Spirit. The apostles preached and pastors preach with the living voice of Jesus. As Jesus during His ministry took little children, even infants, in His arms and blessed them by laying His hands on them (Luke 18:15-17), so now Jesus blesses with the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation little children of all ages by pastors’ applying the water and word of Holy Baptism. As Jesus during His ministry personally spoke words effecting the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 9:1-8), so now those with His authority both bless the repentant with forgiveness of sins as from God Himself in Holy Absolution and exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation in Excommunication (John 20:21-23). And, as Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread and a cup and blessed them to be His Body and Blood (for example, Matthew 26:26-28), so now in the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus continues to be present with His Body and His Blood and thereby give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation with the bread that we break that is a participation in the Body of Christ and the cup that we bless that is a participation in the Blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). We are truly blessed in all of these ways!
Our so being blessed leads to our blessing—both our blessing God, in the sense of our praising Him, and our blessing others. In the Gospel Reading, the Eleven worshiped Jesus right after He ascended, and then they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing, or praising, God. Having been blessed with the forgiveness of sins, we also have great joy and peace, even after events like the recent mass-shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde. We pray for others to have that peace, and we speak to them of the sure and certain hope that we have in Christ (1 Peter 3:15). When we are in God’s house, we offer up a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15), and, when are not in God’s house, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). We speak well of our neighbors. We do not curse or otherwise misuse God’s Name, but we call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. We help and support our neighbors in every physical need, and we at least want to and try to keep all of the other Commandments, too. When we fail to do so, as we will fail, with daily repentance and faith, we live in the forgiveness of sins that we both receive from God and receive from and extend to one another.
We are “Blessed and Blessing”. Our Lord is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, where He both actively rules over all for the sake of His Church and intercedes with the Father for us (Romans 8:34). His blessing of the Eleven may or may not have been interrupted when He parted from them and was carried up into heaven, but, regardless, His blessing was continued and continues through His Church, and, whether or not we ascend to heaven before then, His blessing will be fully realized when He comes in the same way that they saw Him go into heaven. Surely He is coming soon. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)!
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +