#DailyDevotion Jesus Came From The Father & Returns To The Father
John 16: 28I left the Father and came into the world; and now I’m leaving the world again and going to the Father.”
Now these verses are a bit more appropriate to the Sunday before the Ascension than say other text that are chosen. For here Jesus says he is going back to the Father. Though that always makes me wonder when Jesus tells Mary, “Don’t lay hold of me because I haven’t returned to the Father” and then he’s telling his disciples to touch him and see he is flesh and bones. Did Jesus return to the Father between those times? He did ‘disappear’ for a period. Was what he told Mary something different than his ascension to the right hand of God?
I do believe what Jesus is talking about here is his return to the right hand of God the Father. The apostles were to be eyewitnesses of that. So Jesus tells his disciples plainly he left the Father and came into the world. He is truly God of God and Light of Light, one in being and substance with the Father. Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God, the Angel of the LORD, humbled himself and become one of us. He took on our human flesh. He became like us in every way excepting sin. He took on our flesh through the seed of the woman. In that flesh he suffered what we deserve for our sins. The Father laid the sins of us all upon him in his flesh and he has become our scapegoat. He in that flesh becomes the sacrifices of the atonement, his blood being poured out upon the mercy seat of God in the heavenly tabernacle and sprinkled upon us in baptism. In his flesh he has taken away our iniquities, our guilt, and our shame. Ultimately, he has taken our death into himself and buried it in the grave.
Now Jesus tells them he is going back to the Father. Jesus ascends to the right hand of God. When Jesus ascends to the Father he doesn’t dispense with his flesh as unnecessary. Jesus ascends to the right hand of God with his flesh, it being assumed into the Godhead. What a marvelous mystery that is. For just has Jesus has communed with us in our suffering and death in his flesh, we now commune with him in his divine nature at the right hand of God. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, we are now, yes now, seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Being one with Christ we too are assumed into the Godhead where we share in Jesus’ Spirit, Glory, Righteousness, Holiness, Wisdom, Might, and Blessing. We share in everything that is Jesus’ because we are one body with him. As a husband and wife have all things in common and are one, so too are Jesus and all who put their trust in him. The Ascension is important (though you wouldn’t know it by Thursday evening attendance). It’s just as important as Christmas and Easter for it completes the gift of God in Christ Jesus to humanity. It is the fulfillment of our redemption.
Of course if Jesus returns to the Father he also returns to us. He comes back to us as he left us, with the clouds and all the heavenly hosts with him. He returns in judgment which for those who believe him means salvation. His return means the resurrection of our bodies to be like him in his glorified body. We experience fully then on that day what we believe we already have now by faith.
Heavenly Father, you sent your son Jesus Christ into the world to take on our flesh to be a sacrifice for sins and in that flesh you have glorified by having him sit on your right, thus showing our future redemption. Grant us faith to believe his so we may participate in it at his revelation. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.