Listen here.

John 17:11-19

¹¹ “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Make a list of the most important days in the Church. You probably start with Christmas Good Friday, and Easter, of course. Maundy Thursday might come next. Throw Pentecost in there too. But then what? Tap your pencil on your notepad a few of times, and scratch your head. Think through the Apostle’s Creed. You confess that Jesus was “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. On the third day, He rose again from the dead.” Well, you’ve hit all those, and Pentecost comes up when you get to the Third Article, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” But notice that your list has skipped over the Ascension. “[Jesus] ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

The Ascension is easy to miss as an important day in the Church year because it occurs f Jorty days after Easter and always falls on a Thursday. I will admit that the celebration of the Ascension wasn’t on my radar until the last few of years, but that was my loss. I hope, after today, the last scene of Jesus’ ministry recorded in the Scriptures will rise in importance for you because the Ascension is an amazing but fitting end to Jesus first visit to earth.

The New Testament shows us an odd Savior – an other-worldly Savior. If Jesus were a lifeguard, the story would go something like this: A lifeguard, sitting up in his stand sees a body floating lifeless in the surf. He jumps off his stand and quickly swims out to the victim. But instead of rescuing the person and swimming back to the shore, he drowns. Three days later, the lifeguard rises from the dead and proclaims that everything – including the now-buried, drowned victim – is hunky-dory. Forty days later, the lifeguard disappears.[1] If you don’t like that, I’m sorry. It doesn’t make sense to me either. But it is the Jesus we have been given.

All of Jesus’ ministry makes no worldly sense at all. The Savior of the world is born to a peasant, teenage virgin, raised as a carpenter, baptized in the sin-filled waters of the Jordan, tempted by the devil, and rejected by the religious people of His day. Jesus is condemned under a provincial Roman governor, nailed to a piece of wood. He is deader than dead and buried in a tomb. But then, after three days, He rises again from the dead. Jesus appears for forty days to His disciples to prove that He is truly risen from the dead. But resurrected Jesus doesn’t stay around. He does not go on a publicity tour appearing on Meet the Press, The Tonight Show, and Oprah. Instead, Jesus ascends into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of God. A strange, other-worldly ministry to save you and make you an other-worldly people.

As strange and other-worldly as it is, Jesus’ ascension does not mean that Jesus is absent from us. To say that would contradict Jesus. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:18-20). The Ascension means that Jesus is with us even more powerfully now than when people could physically see Him.

Risen Jesus is now at the right hand of God the Father. God’s right hand is not a particular place that we can think of. Instead, it is representative of the whole power of the omnipotent God. Jesus is where all God’s power and authority is, and He promises that He is with you. He is with you always. And He is with you even to the end of the age. Because He is going to the Father, Jesus prays this prayer, He speaks these things, for you so that you may have His joy fulfilled in you – even while you live as an alien in this sin-filled, hostile world.

This prayer of Jesus is for your encouragement. Jesus prays, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name.” Because of your sin, you are prone to wonder and stray from God. But you are kept in God’s name by the Word Jesus has given you. Jesus prays that you would be sanctified, made holy, in God’s truth. God’s Word is truth which has made and continues to make you holy. Once you were in darkness but now you are in Christ, the light of the world. Once you were not a people, now you are a people holy and blameless in the sight of the Lord. Your old has passed away and the forgiveness of Jesus has made you new. All of this is pure gift, a gift given you when you were baptized into the triune name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And the world hates you because of it. Yet, Jesus does not ask the Father to take you out of the world but that you would be kept safe from the evil one. The devil and the world hate you and attack you because you are alien and holy. The devil and the world want to destroy you and your faith which makes you holy. Sin has corrupted this world, and even your presence makes the world hate you because you have been made holy. Holiness reminds the world of their sinfulness. The world doesn’t like that, so the world is going to persecute you. Persecution is coming and it is here. We should not be surprised when we meet it.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus says we are in the world, but we are not of the world – an important distinction. Jesus does not call you to change the world. The only thing that can change this world is Christ’s death and resurrection which has already redeemed us and all of creation. But that doesn’t mean that we can just sit back and relax either. We must speak out against sin. But even more importantly, we must announce the forgiveness that Jesus’ death and resurrection has won. We are kept in this world to be evidence of God’s forgiveness. Our lives are witness to the grace and mercy we have received in Christ. The Word which makes us holy is the Word of forgiveness that we are left in this world to proclaim.

And through all of this, Jesus asks the Father that you be kept in the world safe from the evil one. And you will be kept safe. You are Christ’s holy aliens left here to do holy work. Amen.

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1] Illustration from R. F. Capon.