Acts: Acts 1:1-11
Gospel: Luke 24:44-53
Epistle: Ephesians 1:15-23
Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus which occurred 40 days after the Resurrection. Traditionally, this celebration occurred on Thursday since that would actually be 40 days after Easter Sunday, but the feast has been moved since Sunday is an easier day to celebrate. The Ascension is kind of one of those weird churchy things that most evangelical churches have no idea what to do with and basically seem to ignore. This is somewhat strange because it is important to Jesus' ministry on earth and also crucial to the creeds of the Church. But the Ascension is also strange because if it were not for Luke's Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles, we wouldn't really know about the Ascension. So it is an event crucial to the life and ministry of Jesus and to the creeds of the Church, but one also that three Gospel essentially ignore.
What then is the significance and importance of the Ascension? The Ascension is what affirms Jesus' bodily resurrection. Jesus, in his resurrected physical (matter) body ascended to seat at the right hand of the Father. Jesus in his resurrected state still bears the scars of his crucifixion. Jesus embodies what it means to be a fully transformed and resurrected person. In this sense, Jesus' Ascension, like his Resurrection, provides the hope and promise of our own resurrection when Christ's Kingdom comes fully. Another important image of the Ascension that is confessed in creeds is that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father after his Ascension. The right hand is the place of power and authority. The fact that he is sitting also implies that his work is accomplished. On the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished" and commits his spirit into the Father's hand; now we see Jesus sitting with Father, vindicated and raised to the place and authority above every name.
The doctrine of the Resurrection and the Ascension fully ground Christian theology in the realm of the physical and the earthly. God came in the flesh, as a man, to redeem all of creation and restore it to it's original purpose. The hope of Christianity is that not that when we die we become "angels" or disembodied souls. Nor is it that when Christ returns we will be beamed up to some "heaven in the sky" where we float on clouds as spirits. The hope of Christianity is that Christ will return and his resurrection, the "first-fruits" of our own resurrection, will see its fulfillment and harvest in God's new creation.
The even crazier thing to all of this is that the Father not only displayed his power in and through Jesus, not only that he placed Jesus above "all rule and authority and power and dominion," not even that he placed Christ as head over the church, but that the Church is his "body, the fullness of His who fills all in all." (Eph 1:20-23) The Church is his body to the world. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, but through his Church and by his Spirit, Jesus is present in the world. N.T. Wright says this about Eph 1:20-23:
This same power is what God now wants to exercise through his people. The victory of Jesus over the evil in the world is not simply a fait accompli which could be disproved by the continuance of evil to this day. It is a victory waiting to be implemented through his followers.
(Following Jesus, found here: http://eerdword.com/2014/05/29/heaven-and-power-n-t-wright-on-jesus-ascension-part-2-of-2/)In the church, Christ is present bodily and physically; in his Spirit, he is present and fills "all in all." The theology in this section of Ephesians is dense and so full of themes and images. It reveals so much about Christ, the Father, the Church, humanity and creation so we are really just scratching the surface here.
So what does the Ascension mean to us today? I think Wright said it well in Following Jesus--we are to be about the Christ's work through his Spirit. I am reminded of the words from 2 Cor. 5:17-20: in Christ we have been transformed in to a new creature and have now been given the ministry of reconciliation. In Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright has a section on the Ascension where he stresses the fact that Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father and thus the Church is not Christ. Jesus is not identical with his people. He still stands separate from, and in authority over, the Church. The Ascension reminds of this fact as well: although in his Spirit he is present in the Church, the Church has to be careful to not present its dogma, structures, leadership or traditions as Jesus himself. (pg. 112)
This week, let us seek Christ and allow his Spirit to fill us and let the power of the Ascension live in us. It is not something we can grasp or earn for ourselves, but it is a gift given by God to those in Christ. Let us live as faithful ambassadors of Christ, ministers of reconciliation to a world in need of Christ.
Grace and Peace.
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