Luke 24:44-53 - Jesus Is Now "The Man Upstairs" - May 24, 2020

We’ve all heard the expression “the man upstairs.” It’s regularly used to refer to God. But do you know where the expression comes from? It comes from the days when the boss’s office was located far above the factory floor. “The man upstairs” made all the decisions, directed everything that happened down below, and was the one everyone had to answer to. I know some may find it disrespectful to refer to God as “the man upstairs” – but given his authority and responsibility, doesn’t it seem to be a fitting analogy? Today we are celebrating the Ascension of our Lord – the day, 40 days after his resurrection, when Jesus bodily ascended into heaven in view of his disciples to be crowned with glory far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion (Ephesians 1:21). The Ascension proves that Jesus is now “the man upstairs.” The question is: Is that a threat or a comfort?

There’s no doubt that having a man upstairs can be threatening. In the traditional factory setting, the office of the man upstairs had large windows so that he could look down and observe everything that was happening on the factory floor. He could see all of his workers all of the time. There was no hiding from him. That’s threatening. And that’s how it is for us. There is nowhere that we can hide from Jesus, our “man upstairs.” In Psalm 139 David writes where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell – there you are! (Psalm 139:7-8). The author of Hebrews tells us that there is no creature hidden from him, but everything is uncovered and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we will give an account (Hebrews 4:13).

There is no way to get away from the omnipresent, penetrating gaze of the man upstairs. There is no employee only “break room.” There is no dark corner where you can go to hide. There is no “punching out” from work and then leaving to do whatever you want. Like the song by the Police from the 1980’s said “Every breath you take…every move you make…every vow you break…I’ll be watching you.” [1] Everywhere you go on the factory floor of this world is within eyesight and earshot of the man upstairs. And, unlike Visa (the credit card company), He’s not only every place you want to be, [2] he’s every place you don’t want him to be.

Which is why, as natural born sinners, just like lazy or disobedient employees, we have an innate desire to get out from the ever-present glare of the man upstairs. We see this tendency first in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve tried to hide from God in the trees (Genesis 3:8). You see it in the toddler who just naturally knows that if he’s going to do something he knows is wrong, he better keep very quiet and do it out of sight of mom and dad. You see it in the teenager who refuses to let his parents see, much less touch, his phone. You see it in the crazed desire of many to achieve absolute personal privacy. You see it in the Christians who neglect Word and Sacrament in an attempt to hide their lifestyle from their fellow believers, their pastor and their God.

And it’s true, you may be able to hide almost anything from your parents, your spouse, your boss, your pastor; but you cannot hide anything from Jesus, the man upstairs. He knows every thought that passes through your mind (John 21:17); he sees everything you do (John 1:48); he hears every word you speak, before you speak it (Psalm 139:1-4). Oh sure, the devil will coax you to believe that it’s only wrong if you get caught; that what your boss or your spouse don’t know can’t hurt you; that as long as you don’t actually follow through on the sin it’s ok to fantasize about it. But if you fall for the devil’s lie, you’re just setting yourself up for a big shock when you die and Jesus calls you into his office and demands an accounting for every thought, word and deed (Romans 14:12).

Just like in those old factories, the Man upstairs won’t accept excuses or justifications for our disobedience. He doesn’t care how terrible your childhood was. He won’t excuse your hoarding of food and supplies or your abuse of food or alcohol or your abusive attitude toward your family because you’re stressed out by this virus crisis. Whatever reasons, excuses, or justifications you have for disobeying “the man’s” commands, the only thing you deserve to hear is: “You’re fired! You’re finished!” (Romans 6:23).

It can be threatening to have an all-seeing man upstairs, can’t it? Who can live under such a relentless, merciless inspection of their thoughts and hearts and lives every minute of every day? From a human perspective, it leads to one of two reactions: hopelessness or hate. Hopelessness sets in when you believe that because there is no way you can please the man upstairs, you’re doomed. Since you can’t go seven seconds, much less seven days, without sinning in thought, word, or deed, you know you can never please him. It’s hopeless. (That’s one reason many people who are involved in very legalistic churches (where you’re always being told to do this or that to make God happy) often end up leaving the church and Christianity completely: they’ve lost all hope.) Hate sets in when you think of Jesus like a cruel boss who is constantly riding your back, following your every move, second-guessing every decision, criticizing you for every mistake. This is the God Luther was taught to know and fear. The God Luther knew held him to a standard of perfection that was impossible for him to meet – and demanded that people undergo brutal physical, emotional, and spiritual penance in order to satisfy his anger. So Luther hated rather than loved God. [3]

It’s clear that knowing that Jesus is “the man upstairs” can be a threatening thing…but it doesn’t have to be. It can be very comforting. So what’s the difference? Is it based on you; what you think of him, how obedient you are? Anyone who has ever worked for a cruel boss knows that this isn’t true. You can be as obedient and hard-working as possible – but none of it will matter if your boss is simply either inept or merciless. No, it all depends on who the man upstairs is. Take the current pandemic crisis for example... Who is our man upstairs? He’s God, the Maker of heaven and earth (John 1:3). He built the factory; he designed its operating system. The man upstairs is the unquestioned expert at running, directing, and fixing the factory. Jesus knows this world inside and out.

Of course, many bosses may know the factory inside out, but many of them don’t know – or don’t care – about the workers. They’re ivory tower, white collar types who could care less about the blue collar types who work below. But our man upstairs is no ivory tower, white collar type. He’s not only true God, he’s also true Man. This means that not only does he understand this world perfectly, he also understands you perfectly. John tells us: [Jesus] did not need anyone to testify about man, because he himself knew what was in man (John 2:25). By becoming true man, the man upstairs experienced everything we do; our hunger, our pain, our sorrow, our frequent feelings of helplessness and loss (Hebrews 4:15). He knows how we were formed. He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:14) – and so he understands our fear of death, he understands why panic and fear may well up in our hearts on account of the coronavirus – in fact, he faced that fear himself in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). The man upstairs knows you, intimately, personally. He knows – and cares – about your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and your fears. The man upstairs is both true God and true man – he’s a capable and compassionate boss.

But the comforting nature of having a man upstairs doesn’t only depend on who he is, but also how he got there. We’ve all heard stories of nepotism and favoritism in business and politics (and even in the church) – where a person gets a position of authority, not based on merit, but based on family or friendship. Those who work under these types of leaders often hate them because they know they didn’t deserve the position. But Jesus didn’t receive his position of power by birthright – even though he could have. (He has always existed upstairs and had every right to stay there because he was the boss’s Son (Philippians 2:5-11).) But he gave it all up. He gave up all the power and glory that rightfully belonged to him as the Son of God and he humbled himself, he became an “undercover boss” in order to descend to the factory floor to carry out the grimiest, sweatiest, and most back-breaking work possible.

What work was that? What’s the hardest job in this world – the one that no one has ever successfully accomplished? Living obediently under God’s holy Law (Galatians 4:4-5). That was supposed to be our one and only job – but because we couldn’t carry it out, Jesus came to do it for us. He did your job so well – in fact – that you have already passed inspection by the man upstairs (Romans 4:25). Ah, but your conscience and the devil may cause you to doubt this. What about your poor job performance? What about all those times you actively worked against your Father’s will? What about the countless shameful, horrible things you have thought, said, and done? After Jesus did your job for you he stepped in to take the punishment you deserved. He wasn’t just scolded out or demoted – he bled and cried and died for you on the cross. He left his safe, secure position upstairs to buy you back from the hell you deserved with nothing less than his life. And, by his perfect life and his sacrificial suffering and death, he earned a permanent place for you in his Father’s factory in heaven (John 14:1-4).

Knowing that there is a man upstairs watching your every move is comforting when you know who he is, how he got there – and, finally, what he’s doing there for you. Jesus’ ascension was not his retirement party. The one who paid for your sins with his blood isn’t in heaven golfing or fishing or binge watching Netflix. So what is he busy doing? The Bible tells us about two things, specifically. First, Paul says that God placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church (Ephesians 1:22). Jesus is ruling the world – yes, even during this crisis – in his own hidden way for the good of the church. And, in Romans, he tells us that Jesus is at God’s right hand…interceding for us (Romans 8:34). Jesus is still busy defending you before his Father’s throne based upon his all-atoning sacrifice for your sins.  

And that’s where we find a specific connection to our text this morning. Luke says he led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. These hands are our ticket out of this world of misery to the bliss of heaven. Especially in times of fear and panic: remember Jesus’ hands – these are the hands that still bear the holes of the nails driven through them, the hands that were spread wide on the cross to pay for the sins of the world – these hands are now pleading your case before the Father; these are the hands that reached down to wash you and claim you in Baptism; these are the hands that seal your forgiveness with the sign of the cross in absolution; these are the hands that hand you his own body and blood to eat and to drink in Holy Communion. Because what we’ve done with these hands have rightly earned us an immediate, one way ticket to hell – Jesus holds up his pierced hands and says “Father, I already suffered hell for them; you must have mercy on them and forgive them!”

So yes, while it can be threatening to know that there is a man upstairs watching and judging our every thought, word and action, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, because it’s Jesus, it shouldn’t be. Because Jesus left his office upstairs and came down to do our job for us and pay the price for our forgiveness, we have no reason to fear him. He’s not there to judge us but to rule the world for our eternal good and to intercede for us before his Father. And that is why the disciples – unlike when Jesus left them to be crucified (John 14:1) – returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Because Jesus had opened their eyes to see the truth of Scripture, they now knew that the man upstairs was not some nameless, faceless, malicious boss – but their friend, their teacher, their Savior. They knew that the One who had done so much for them on earth could and would do even more for them from his position of power and authority in heaven. This is the source of our certainty and the reason for our joy as we celebrate our Lord’s Ascension! Amen.

[1] https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/the-police/every-breath-you-take

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/business/media/visa-trims-slogan-to-expand-meaning.html

[3] Luther’s Works, 34:336