Where is God?
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Good morning! Today is the day that the Church sets aside to celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. One thing I like about the lectionary is that it gives a sense for the order of events in the life of Jesus and his Church. We follow him from the incarnation to the ascension and from there, we watch him empower his church to build his heavenly kingdom here on earth. As we track with Jesus we see in the Book of Acts the disciples witnessing Jesus ascending into heaven.
At the ascension we see Jesus having conquered sin and death and now taking his place at the right hand of his Father in heaven. Jesus is all powerful. He transcends our concepts of power. Not only does he fly without aid, he is seated at the right hand of the Father. It’s almost worth inventing a new word. Power is almost inadequate to describe one seated at the right hand of the Father.
And so we celebrate this moment of the ascension. It’s a day to behold the triumphs of Jesus Christ. Another thing about the lectionary is that it doesn’t always align with world events. Sometimes our celebration comes at a time of mourning in the world. This past week, you’re probably aware there was a school shooting in Texas and our hearts go out to the victims and the families of that tragic event. When the worst things are taking place in the world, our hearts can experience a conflict between what is happening in the Church and what is happening in the world. But Christianity’s celebrations are not at odds with the tragedies of the world. Christ came to meaningfully engage with his world and to address tragedy and death as a category. Christ’s triumphs are not emptily triumphalistic. They address the pain and trials of the human condition. And so, how is it possible to celebrate Christ’s ascension and mourn the tragedy in Texas at the same time and still be authentic, integrated human beings? I think we can get there by engaging with what seems like an unanswerable question. One that we’ve seen asked in the media this week, or perhaps asked ourselves. And that question is: “Where is God?” Where was God when that happened? That question can mean different things to different people at different times. For some, it’s a sincere question. They want to know what God’s plan was that he decided not to stop that event from taking place. For some, when they ask that question, for the most part, they aren’t actually looking for an answer. When they ask “Where was God?” what they mean to say is: No one has a right to talk about God when something like this happens and if you try, your God is evil. If we give an answer related to God’s location, it bounces off, because that’s not really the question that’s being asked. No question is being asked at all.
For those of us who truly ask in good faith, “Where was God?”, who truly want to understand something about God in that moment, there are some answers. The ascension actually brings them together. The Bible tells us that God is closer than our very breath. God is omnipresent. He’s everywhere. He’s with us when we’re awake and when we’re asleep. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He’s there when we trespass and when others trespass against us. At the ascension, we see that he is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. So we have answers to the question, “Where is God.”
And because of that, a different question gets to the point better. When it’s being asked in good faith, what is really being asked is: why didn’t God act? Why didn’t he stop that from happeninng? And the honest answer to that honest question can only be guessed at. Only God really knows. God does act and restrain evil. We have no data on how much evil has been restrained by God. We don’t know what evil is being restrained at this moment. We could ask why evil is ever restrained? But that’s an easier question when we look at God’s goodness. We know that God is not the author of evil, but we still see evil in our world. God does allow some evil to exist.
When we ask, “Where was God?”, we do have a picture. The picture of God’s location helps us with the question of why he didn’t act the way we think he should act. Wherever else he may be, we can say that God is enthroned in heaven. Jesus, as God, is seated or enthroned at the Father’s right hand. And while we can say it gives us some comfort to know that God is on his throne when tragedy happens, at our least empathetic moments that might not seem like enough. In those moments, we might ask why God doesn’t get off of his throne and come down and stop evil things like school shootings from happening? When it seems straightforward how God should act, and he doesn’t act in that way, we have a choice. We can dare to act as the moral judge over God or we can grapple with the evil we don’t fully understand with patience and trust. Since God is the one enthroned on heaven and I am just me and you are just you, judging him isn’t right or OK or appropriate or any kind of reasonable.
So we are left with trusting him with patience. This can be incredibly hard sometimes. Sometimes if we’re told to trust God in severe circumstances, our response might be something like: Why should I? And that honest question also has an honest answer: we look to the Cross. Why should you trust God in evil circumstances? Because he didn’t just stay in heaven. He did come down from heaven. He made himself vulnerable. He took on flesh. He was tortured to death because he knew humanity needed an answer to where is God? As we read the news, even take in today’s art, and literature, and especially politics, we see that the world would love for Jesus to come down again so they could torture and crucify him if they could get their hands on him. They’d tell him, if you are God, get off the Cross. If you are God, stop this event, or stop that event. But the full measure of humanity’s torture and ridicule of God was accomplished at the Cross. It wouldn’t make a difference if God came down to answer to man’s judgment for the sin of the world. He’s already taken that on himself at the cross. Instead, what he offers is the only thing that could have stopped that shooting: a changed heart.
Jesus didn’t ascend to heaven to escape or to ignore us. He went there to accomplish his good purpose in the world. He went there knowing that evil people and things would still remain for a time. But he leaves us with words of hope. He leaves us in order to set the world right. He leaves us to intercede for us, and in that sense he doesn’t leave us at all. These observations come from our psalm this morning and we should spend a few moments looking at it.
Psalm 110 is the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. There we see a view of the ascension account from David: The LORD said unto my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The New Testament shows this verse as pointing to Jesus. Imagine yourself living in the time of David reigning as king of Israel. And King David says “The LORD said unto my Lord.” What would you do with this phrase? The LORD is the easy part. That’s Yahweh, God himself. But who is David’s Lord? The only one above the king is God. But God is talking to someone the king considers to be important enough to call him, “my Lord.” So THE LORD is speaking to David’s Lord. And he tells him to sit at his right hand. Jesus tells us that Moses looked forward to his day and it seems that David does as well. David is describing a cosmic event in which someone who is indescribably powerful takes his seat at the right hand of God. And that someone is Jesus and that event is the Ascension. Just as the resurrection of Jesus the righteous was the ontological response to his righteous death, it’s almost as if there is no other possibility but that the resurrected Jesus would ascend to heaven and be seated at the right hand of God as the culmination of his earthly ministry.
Let’s keep going with vs. 1: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The same breath that describes the ascension addresses our need for justice, for evil to stop. The ascension begins the process of the enemies of Jesus being subdued. We can see this clearly every once in a while, if we have eyes to see. Times of great revival, (something to pray for), are an example. Any time someone turns from spiritual darkness to see Christ as their Lord and savior, that’s another spiritual victory another moment when the evil spiritual realm, the enemies of Jesus, are subdued. Good does happen and the kingdom is being built. But we await for a complete fulfillment of the enemies of Jesus and indeed of our own souls to be subdued once and for all.
Ps. 110:2 “The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
At the ascension, we see the power of Jesus going out in the midst of his enemies. I think we’re on safe ground to see the power of Jesus as the Holy Spirit restraining evil, convicting, comforting, empowering, and protecting and ultimately pointing forward to perfect justice and order when he comes again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is not sitting with us face to face yet, but he is able to rule perfectly from heaven, from a distance. God is everywhere. He is ruler everywhere. But he is holy, set apart, and he rules from a holy place, his throne in heaven.
Ps. 110:3 “Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, in holy garments; from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.”
The changed hearts that Jesus offers us through the work of his Spirit bring out praise and right worship of God instead of cursing and derision. As the Ascended One reigns from heaven, he subdues his enemies, he wins spiritual victories that result in changed hearts. Glimpses of chaos being resolved into order and grumbling into praise can happen because Jesus ascended.
So Jesus ascended to accomplish his good purpose in the world. He went there knowing that evil people and things would still remain for a time. But he leaves us with words of hope. He leaves us in order to set the world right. And now we see a picture of his intercession for us.
Ps. 110:4 “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.””
Melchizedek is a priest of God in Genesis, before the levitical law, so he’s a completely different kind of priest than what we see in the rest of the Old Testament. The book of Hebrews gives us an extended treatment on Melchizedek and how Christ as priest is in the same order of priests as Melchizedek, based off Psalm 110. While the levitical priesthood was always meant to be temporary, Jesus’ priesthood was meant to be permanent. And it begins at the ascension. His atoning work is accomplished and his focus turns to his priestly work, begun at the cross.
At the Father’s right hand, he intercedes for us, fully knowing what it’s like to be a human with our weakness, with our vulnerability to our enemies. He knows our needs and with unhindered access to the Father, he intercedes for us. He pleads for our good. He’s doing this right now, at this very moment.
And finally he promises the justice that we are looking for when our hearts ask, “Where is God?”. He will bring his justice perfectly to liars, rapists, school shooters, whether they are poor or kings. They will receive justice at the Cross where vengeance for sin was carried out for all sinners who turn and believe in him, or they will receive justice at his second coming, where they will bear his wrath on their own.
Ps. 110:5 “The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.”
Perfect wrath was carried out on Jesus at the Cross. Justice is accomplished. And it will be revealed. And we will see perfect justice perfectly. Where is God? Enthroned in heaven. Defeating spiritual darkness. Conquering and restraining unknowable evil, interceding for those he’s chosen, and looking forward to the moment of final and perfect justice at the time the Father has appointed. And we can trust him as we wait. He’s proven that we can trust him by stretching out his arms of love on the Cross. So, this ascension Sunday, let us worship the ascended Lord and put our trust in him as we wait for him to bring wholeness out of brokenness, perfect order out of chaos, and in the end, he will turn our sorrow into joy. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.