John 15
A few minutes ago, we sang a well-known Lutheran hymn about the ascension of our Lord that begins with a prayer of thanksgiving that might – at first thought – seem to be expressing an odd and unexpected sentiment:
“We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.”
If a friend whose company you enjoy has been visiting you but then has to leave and go home to a distant place, this is a sad and disappointing thing. You might accept the necessity of the end of the visit, but you’re not thankful that you will no longer be spending time with your friend.
In the first line of that hymn, though, we expressed our thanks to Jesus – to our dearest friend Jesus – that he has gone into heaven. Is that something to be thankful for?
Sure, we would have to accept this, if this is what must happen. But we don’t have to be happy about not having Jesus here with us, as his disciples had him with them during his earthly ministry. Do we?
Even at a human level, having a trusted friend around as a part of your life is a good thing – especially if that friend is an influence for good in your life. A friend like that can warn you away from dangerous temptations, when your own judgment may not be as reliable.
A good friend can often get you out of a tight spot, or give you the encouragement you need to stick with something important that you have committed yourself to. A friend who is right there with you can defend you and protect you, console you and rejoice with you.
But if such a friend has departed, moved away, or returned to a distant home, and is accordingly no longer there with you for the ups and downs of your daily life, none of those benefits of the friendship will be actively experienced any longer.
It is a sad thing when such a parting between friends takes place. It is not something for which to be thankful.
But, in this hymn, we thanked Jesus for ascending to heaven. Why? And according to Luke’s reporting of Jesus’ ascension, the apostles were also joyful on the occasion of their Master’s physical departure from them.
We are told that while Jesus blessed them, “He left them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God continually in the temple.” Again, why?
In our human relationships, those who are dear friends to us, usually also have other friends besides us. And just as these friends are a source of many blessings to us during the times when they are with us, so too are they a source of the same kind of blessings to others, on those occasions when they are with their other friends.
If all of these various friends, and friends of friends, do not, however, live in the same locality, then this sharing of friendships means that everyone has to take turns, as it were, in spending time with the mutual friends whose companionship is desired by everyone.
If I have friends in Minnesota, in California, and in New York, I cannot be with all of them at the same time. In order to be with some of my friends in one place, I will have to be separated from other friends who are in different places.
I cannot be the kind of friend to all of them, or to any of them, that I might want to be – continually spending time with them – because of the physical distances that exist between them and me, in various directions.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was able to cultivate deep and meaningful friendships with his apostles. He did a lot for them during the three years he was with them as a constant companion, which inspired within them a deep devotion toward him.
And at one point, as recorded in John’s Gospel, he told them this, regarding his impending suffering and death on the cross for their sins:
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. … I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
But the specific thing Jesus mentioned that demonstrated that he was their friend – namely, that he had made known to them all that he had heard from his Father – does not apply only to the twelve apostles. God’s message of salvation through his Son is something that Jesus wants to be made known to all nations, and to all people in all nations.
When the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners is proclaimed, heard, and believed for the forgiveness of sins, new Christians are created. And new friends of Jesus are made. That’s what allows all of us also to sing: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.”
But can all of us continuously enjoy this friendship, and this special companionship with Jesus? During Jesus’ earthly ministry, when he was physically accessible to his disciples in Galilee and Jerusalem, and among the people of Israel, he was not in those years physically accessible to people in other parts of the world.
But Jesus did have people in other parts of the world in mind, as those whom he intended someday to befriend and claim as his own. Drawing on the imagery of sheep and their shepherd, Jesus said, also in John’s Gospel:
“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father – in heaven – was not like an astronaut traveling from the earth to another planet within our solar system – going from one specific place in our three-dimensional material universe, to another specific place in our three-dimensional material universe.
Rather, in the ascension, Jesus entered into a different dimension. He is not now here. He is everywhere. St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians that Jesus has “ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.”
Jesus is no longer in his state of humiliation: living according to the limitations of his human nature; making himself known and being physically present in only one place at a time. He is now fully exalted, and his human nature is now fully permeated with all the powers and qualities of his divine nature: his omnipotent and omnipresent divine nature.
And if Jesus – in his divinity and in his humanity – now fills all things, that means that he fills his church, all around the world. He fills our congregation.
He fills the ministry of Word and Sacrament that is carried out here in his name and by his authority. And as you repent of your sins, trust in his forgiveness, and daily seek his help in your life, he fills your life. He fills you.
Again, in the first line of that hymn, we sang: “We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.”
The hymn says “we,” not “I.” Together with all of the Lord’s disciples – those who knew him on earth 2,000 years ago, and those who know him by faith now – we are singing this prayer, jointly and collectively.
We are together thanking Jesus that he has changed his way of interacting with his friends so that he is able now to interact with all of them – all of us – all over the world, all the time.
With Jesus being at the right hand of God the Father almighty, where he intercedes for us, we do indeed now have “a friend in high places.” But since God is everywhere, the right hand of God is likewise everywhere.
So, we also have a friend who is intimately close to us. Both of those things are true – mysteriously and wonderfully true.
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is one of the best times to recall that Jesus, though invisibly present, is really present among us: to do for us what a close and trusted friend would be expected to do for us, according to his divine power and gracious desire to help us in all our needs.
He comforts us in our sadness: in our sorrow over having offended God, and our brothers and sisters, by our sins. He strengthens us in our weakness: in our yearning for God’s grace and healing in our lives.
He embraces us in his love: uniting his true and glorified body and blood to our bodies and souls, and filling us with a resurrection hope. He fortifies us in our convictions: renewing us by his Word, and giving us sound minds and devoted hearts.
And he encourages us in the fulfillment of our duties; and in our resolve to amend our sinful lives, and to do better in how we think, speak, and act within our vocations, as God enables us.
The hymn also speaks of such things, when it says:
“Ascended to His throne on high, Hid from our sight, yet always nigh.”
“O blessed Savior, bid us live, And strength to soul and body give.”
“Through Him, we heirs of heaven are made; O Brother, Christ, extend Thine aid, That we may firmly trust in Thee, And through Thee live eternally.”
And this all helps us to understand the first line of the hymn:
“We thank Thee, Jesus, dearest Friend, That Thou didst into heaven ascend.” Amen.