I am with you always

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

- Matthew 28:16-20

Today we celebrate Ascension Day, and the reading is appropriate to the day. I think it's important to consider the elements of this passage from Matthew in the context of the fact that Jesus has become now fully revealed as Divine, fully vested with all power and authority. He has completed his successful mission in the world, his preaching and public ministry as a human being is over, and a new chapter begins for the apostles and disciples.

There are several things to consider in terms of the power and authority that Jesus has now been given and that are revealed as His nature to his apostles. First of all we have to consider what it is that he has now completed. This is significant because he announces to his apostles that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This is an annunciation that seems to indicate a specific and significant time or event has occurred. In the epistle reading for today, from St. Paul's letter to the Hebrews (Chapter 2), Paul writes:

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.

Jesus has completed this mission of suffering and death. It is not until he has completed this mission as incarnate human being that all power is vested in him in terms of the complete authority he now assumes. While we trust his divine nature was already full as the incarnate Jesus, it is clear that the completion of his "perfection through sufferings" has given him a new status, or more fully vested him with the authority and power of the Son who is an equal and co-creator with the Father and has been given "all authority in heaven and on earth." It is his mission to us and for us that has given him this status, this fully vested condition of authority he now assumes that is announced to the disciples. I don't think that time applies to the nature of Spirit and the Divine in the same way that it applies to us, but it is clear that this full vesting of power is realized or made manifest because of his mission to us and for us in this world.

I think it's important to understand the full nature of redemptive power inherent in this story of Jesus, and its ending with Ascension - and Jesus' annunciation of the fullness of his power and glory. It is now that the apostles worship him, for he has become fully Lord in the Divine sense. It is Jesus' service to us through suffering and death that has assured this fullness of divine power, authority and status.

Paul continues:

Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

Somehow it is inherent in Jesus' ascension that he is fully Lord because he has also been human, and on human terms has endured the sufferings and evil that we struggle with in our world. If we follow the divine law that seems to be at work here, we see that it is only through service to those who suffer and struggle that true authority and status are conferred. If the Creator is reflected in the creature, it is also the Creator who, by his own nature, must bear the sufferings of the creature in order to fully realize the completion of the full power and authority of Divinity. The holiness of God is fully manifest because of God's suffering with us.

Redemptive grace is truly the element that fully restores Jesus as Lord. The Greek word for the status of this Risen Lord is "Pantokrator" - all powerful. When we face our own tests in life, we should remember that even the Divine Lord could not fully realize his power and authority until death and suffering and evil were defeated by him in the person of a human being. It is for us to understand that, as St. Paul has written elsewhere, God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Jesus has fully realized his power as Divine Being as redemptive savior who has shown us the way to bear our own sufferings, and invited us to share in the journey of redemption, and the spiritual struggle of "the good fight."

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.