THE GLORIOUS ASCENSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Last Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord and I would like to focus our attention today on that blessed event.

There has been a great deal written about the mighty Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but surprisingly little about his glorious Ascension. I do not know why this is so and I must admit that I have not conducted a detailed search of the literature to verify it, but it certainly seems to be the case.

Yet we must recognize that the Resurrection and the Ascension are both necessary and equally important events in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. They are intimately connected through the continual river of God’s Love, and belief in each of them is vital to our spiritual growth and well being. Hence, both these events are stated as items of belief in all three creeds.

The Ascension is, in fact, the inevitable sequel to the Resurrection; but more so than the Resurrection, the Ascension is a deep mystery. It is my hope and purpose today to try to place these things in the context of Christ’s total ministry and in doing so, to shine a little light on the Ascension.

The circumstances around these two events exhibit one dramatic difference. The Resurrection took place in the lonely tomb and there were no witnesses to the actual happening. I am sure the great theological thinkers through the centuries have given us numerous weighty explanations of why that was so, but I am as far removed from such intellects as we Earthlings are from the planet Zog, so I need to understand this in simple terms.

Such terms are that it was not necessary for anyone to see Jesus rise up and discard his burial clothes. What was important, what is important, is that Jesus lay dead in His mother’s arms at the foot of the cross and was later wrapped in burial clothes and sealed in the tomb. Then, in the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension, He proved by His many appearances the reality of His Resurrection.

The completion of that forty day period, however, did not take place with Jesus alone in a private place. The Ascension took place before witnesses, His Apostles. This makes the loud, clear statement that Jesus’ earthly ministry was completed.

It brings fulfillment to the Incarnation and we know that Jesus assumed His place at the right hand of the Father. His heavenly ministry, wonderfully illuminated and focused by His earthly manifestation, is restored in all its glory.

Our High Priest and King reigns in Heaven, in the city of God. By far the largest part of the Church is there, too. We are, as Kenneth D. MacKenzie, sometime Bishop of Brechin described it, in the Church in the suburbs, surrounded by the ever present dangers of this world.

But the Ascension says, look towards the High Priest, look towards the core of the City and follow the road our Great High Priest has laid out before us, leading straight into the boundless joy of His eternal presence. In my Father’s house there are many mansions, Jesus said and it is there we should be longing to live.

But even in the suburbs, we in the Catholic Church are part of that City of God. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:19, we are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

Jesus, our Ascended Lord, is even now our Great High Priest. We are told that in Hebrews 4:14, for example.

St. Mark, in Chapter 16 of his Gospel, refers very briefly to the Ascension, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into Heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. Brief and to the point.

Matthew and John leave out the Ascension events and only St. Luke provides us, in both his gospel and in the Acts, with descriptive narrative of the Ascension. Having made that statement, let me back up immediately and acknowledge that John does record two occasions when our Lord alluded to His Ascension. In John 6:62, he reports Our Lord’s words, What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before.

And in Ch.20:17, Jesus says to Mary in his first Resurrected appearance, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

But it is St. Luke who tells us the most. In his Gospel, ch.24 verses 50-53, Luke writes, And Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

What an incredible journey Jesus led those Apostles through in just forty days. From the terrors they experienced during Our Lord’s Passion, through their awakening and growing confidence after his Resurrection, the Apostles came to great joy and devout worship at his Ascension.

Jesus passed from the natural world to the supernatural world, blessing his Apostles as he went. His Ascension tells us nothing about the supernatural and the Ascension itself must remain for us a great mystery. The details, like the details of the Real Presence of our Risen, Ascended Lord in the Holy Eucharist are less important than the fact of the actual event.

To quote Dr. Francis Hall in Dogmatic Theology Vol vii, The ascension signifies a transfer of Our Lord’s physical and local presence into heaven.

Many of our contemporaries struggle with the Ascension because there is no scientific way of explaining it. But to deny the Ascension requires that we reject the apostolic belief in it, as witnessed by St. Mark’s reference to it and St. Luke’s descriptions in his Gospel and in Acts. It means denying Christ’s own allusions to it in John’s Gospel. We must toss out the story of St. Stephen, who at the point of his death beheld Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of God.

We make liars of St. Paul and St. Peter, the former establishing his belief in the Ascension in Ephesians 4:8-10; in Philippians 3:20 and in 1 Timothy 3:16.

St. Peter, in his first epistle is very specific, Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God. 1 Peter 3:22.

Jesus ascended into heaven. The Apostles witnessed the withdrawal of Our Lord from physical presence in this world in a manner which indicated Heaven as the goal of his movement, but they saw only the withdrawal, not the goal of his journey, to quote Hall again.

It is not for us to know where heaven is, but Jesus has carefully provided us with the immense comfort of knowing that it is where he is and where he wants us to join him.

St. Luke, in Acts 1:11, reveals just a little more, but provides an additional point of some significance. Let me put this in context by beginning in v9, right after Jesus has spoken his final words to the Apostles. And when Jesus had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Jesus ascended into heaven and we are told that he will return the same way he left, allowing no doubt about who he is. Not that I think for one second that the second coming will leave any of us in any doubt!

So now we can see the totality of Christ’s High Priestly Office, of his complete Kingship over us and of this activity within the continuum of the Alpha and the Omega, the Holy Trinity.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. John 1:1.

God always was.

God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Eph. 3:9.

God created us in a state of grace and innocency and we fell.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:14

God sent His Son to live among us, absorbing our humanity into His Godhead for a time.

I am the way, the truth and the life, John 14:6, Jesus said, as he gave us the perfect example and teaching about how to live our mortal life if we sincerely want to spend eternity in heaven.

And when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Luke 23:33. We killed him. He suffered agony and utter humiliation and then died on the Cross to redeem us with the Father who created us.

After that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. Mk 9:31. As he had taught his disciples, he rose again, overcoming death. He spent forty days more among us appearing to his faithful friends, teaching, strengthening, preparing his Apostles for the Great Commission.

He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. Jesus ascended into heaven to his place in glory, fulfilling his promises, sending forth the Holy Spirit, interceding for us as our only Mediator and Advocate with the Father.

And he will come again in glory in the final judgement.

Our Lord, Saviour and King. Crucified, risen, ascended.

The Alpha and the Omega.

Peter Jardine+

Sunday After Ascension, May, 2005