Q. Jesus ascended physically into heaven after his resurrection. Is Jesus still flesh-and-blood God or is he now Spirit? I ask this question because of a comment my sister, a Calvinist, made concerning the Lutheran view of the Eucharist. She states that Jesus is always with us so his presence in communion is no big deal. I believe that while Jesus as God is always with us, His physical presence during communion--in, with, and under the elements--is especially faith-building and soul-reassuring, both a time of joy and a time of deep repentance.

A. The Ascended Savior no longer shows Himself in visible form to His believers on earth until His return at the end of the world, on the last day. His Ascension, therefore, took place before the eyes of His disciples "while they beheld" (Acts 1:9), in order that the truth of His ascension might be historically established for the disciples and the entire Christian church.

Our Lord may have chosen simply to disappear from their eyes, as He did after His resurrection on several occasions (see Luke 24:31).

The Ascension marks our Lord's return to God's right hand, with the human nature he assumed in the Incarnation (Mark 16:19; 1 Peter 3:22). The "right hand of God" is an expression to indicate and describe the heavenly throne of Christ's exalted humanity, as Scripture clearly teaches, for instance, in Ephesians 4:10: "He . . .ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things" or Ephesians 1:20-23: "God raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and has put all things under His feet."

What must be understood when one wonders about how the actual body and blood of Christ, the human nature, is able to do such things, is the fact that this humanity, this actual human flesh and blood, was assumed into the person of the Son of God, thus sharing in the divine nature. We cannot, with our human reason, "figure this out" and most attempts to do so end with false doctrine throughout the ages, including the erroneous beliefs of the Reformed church regarding the two natures in Christ. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended far above all heavens "not only as God, but also as man" and "rules from sea to sea and to the ends of the earth; as the prophets predicted, Ps. 8:1-6; 93:1f; Zech. 9:10 and the Apostles testify, Mark 16:20" (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article VIII, 27.

Why is the truth that Christ, according to both His Divine nature and human nature, ascended to heaven of such powerful comfort? The Formula of Concord answers this question:

"We hold . . . that in His Church and congregation on earth He is present as Mediator, Head, King, and High Priest, not in part, or one half of Him only, but the entire Person of Christ is present, to which both natures belong, the divine and the human; not only according to His divinity, but also according to, and with, His assumed nature, according to which He is our Brother, and we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone."

The Human Nature of Christ now shares completely various attributes of the Divine Nature and thus, in this miraculous and wonderful mystery, our Lord Jesus Christ, according to both His human and divine nature, "lives and reigns to all eternity" (Small Catechism). This is most certainly true! Thanks be to God.