What is the Ascension all about?
Readings: Luke
24: 50-53
Acts 1: 9-11
There is a place called Walsingham in Norfolk, which is a place of
pilgrimage, where apparently if you look up to the chapel roof you can see the bottom
of a pair of feet sticking out of the clouds.
It looks a bit like Jesus has crash-landed through the roof. The problem is, the age we live in nowadays
is so different from the one when this account was written - we know what lies
behind the clouds, we've sent rockets up through space, satellites. Some of us have even sat above the clouds
ourselves. We know that heaven isn't a place which is literally upwards. You know Jesus kept going for a few thousand
miles, hit Mars and there it was on the right.
The image of the foot-through the clouds Ascension just doesn't touch us
now, even though so many people are fascinated by abductions on the X-Files.
However, the fact is that whenever we say the creed, we say, "I
believe...He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the
Father." So this is one of the
central beliefs of our faith - it's not just a question of Jesus saying a
dramatic goodbye to his disciples.
So how are we to understand it? I
think it's important that we concentrate not so much on the literal hows and
wherefores, but on what the meaning of this event is for us, what it teaches us
about God. We know that God became
human in Jesus. That he lived, was
crucified, and rose again from death.
We also know that he appeared to his disciples after his resurrection
for about forty days. But we know that
at some point he made a decisive and deliberate exit from them, after which
they would not see him again. It was
the closing of one chapter, and the opening of another. This is the Ascension. Whatever you think about how the Ascension
happened, the point is that it was of such a nature that the disciples knew
that Jesus was going, and that they would not see him again. It was unambiguous. Jesus was leaving the earth once and for all
and returning to the heavenly kingdom where he had come from. Neither they, nor we will see him physically
until he returns again. The
Ascension is therefore the crucial link between the Jesus of history, and the
Jesus we have faith in today.
But the nature of this event was also one where they knew it wasn't a
fading out, like Jesus dissolving away, it was the goal Jesus had been aiming
for since the start of everything - it was his ultimate glory. Like a footballer who starts kicking a ball in
the street, but can only think of the day when they will kiss the World Cup,
Jesus had set himself towards this goal of being lifted up before God. Rising from death was making it to the
final, Jesus' ascension was the winning goal.
Philippians 2 v 9-11 tells us
that Jesus had gone from the lowest depths of hell to the highest place that
exists. "God must have a sore hand," said the little boy. "Why?" asked his Mum. "Because Jesus is always sitting on
it."
The resurrection proves that Jesus lives, but the ascension proves that
Jesus rules. At the moment, we are
engaged in a general election. Once it
is all over the winner will enter
Buckingham Palace. He will walk through
hallways loaded with wealth, up red carpets, and no doubt get bowed to by several
people in funny wigs. When he meets the
queen, he will kiss her hand and she will give him the authority to
govern. But this is nothing compared to
what happened when Jesus ascended into heaven.
We can not begin to conceive of the glory that Jesus has entered
into. The passage in the book of Daniel
begins to touch the tip of the iceberg as to what it must have been like when
Jesus, the Son of Man, entered heaven following his ascension, and received the
glory that had been prepared for him.
Ephesians 4 verse 10 says that Jesus "ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill the whole universe." When he entered into heaven, Jesus'
authority not only poured over every nook and cranny of our world, but into and
over the parts of the universe that we can never even hope to have a glimpse
of. In his earthly life he was limited
to one place at one time, now he touches life at every point. I read a good quote recently: "He is
the source from which the world draws all the light it has. He is its Sun. It is less true to think of the light of God in the world, than
to think of the world as in the light of God - as the earth is in the light of
the sun." Ascension means that in
this complex and divided world where so many people are competing with so many
claims for authority, there is only one ruling hand by which the kingdoms of
this world will find their destiny, and that belongs to Jesus. Although Jesus' earthly ministry was not
that different from the pattern of other religious leaders - he had a
following, he said some wise words, but far more people rejected him while he
was alive than accepted him, what makes him unique is that he is the only one
who now rules over the entire universe in glory. Tony Blair, however he fares this year, knows he will not be in
power for ever. Jesus will.
It is important to realise, however, that Jesus' ascension wasn't an
escape from our humanity. It wasn't as
if he was saying to his disciples, "Right, I've had enough of all your
pain and suffering and sweat and conflict and unfulfilled longings, I'm off to
somewhere where I don't have to worry about all those things - Good
luck!" The truth is that the
angels told the disciples that "This same Jesus.." had gone to be
with his Father. The same one they had
known all along - the one who had laughed at parties, washed their smelly feet,
been whipped, spat on, jeered at, is the same one who now rules our
universe. Jesus didn't leave humanity
behind when he ascended to God, but he took all of human experience, from birth
to death and beyond into the heart of God, where the Bible tells us he is
always bringing us to the centre of God's love and care. It was by becoming man that Jesus brought
the life of heaven to earth. It was by
his Ascension that he took in himself the life of earth to heaven. So when we pray to him, we are not talking
to some disembodied spirit who has a vague memory about what it was like to be
human, but to a God who can hold our human weaknesses as part of himself. The human Jesus has not been lost.
When I was preparing this, I was getting very excited about all these
ideas about Jesus being Lord of all, exalted above everything, and I was
telling Ruth about them. When I had
finished ranting, she said, "Great - what's that got to do with
nappies?" I take her point. When I listen to a sermon I often think
"I agree, but how is this going to change my life this week?" And I think that's true with something like
the ascension - we can get carried away with the images and the concepts, but
we sometimes fail to grasp hold of in what way God wants us to change because
of this knowledge.
I think what the ascension gives me most of all is a change of
perspective. When I was at school and
things got on top of me, I often used to walk to the top of the hill which
overlooked the school in the evenings and look up at the stars. I'd then look down at the buildings, and
begin to realise that, compared even to what I could see with my own eyes, the
buildings, the people and the problems I associated with them were very small
indeed. A few years ago the Guardian
newspaper ran an advert showing several camera shots of the same event. In the first shot you saw a skinhead rushing
aggressively towards a woman walking along carrying her handbag. Your immediate reaction was that he was
attacking her. But it wasn't until the
camera panned back and you saw the whole scene that a brick was about to fall
on her head and the skinhead was actually trying to save her. I think what Jesus' ascension is saying to
us is that we need a change of perspective - we need to look up, not so we can
see a pair of feet sticking through the clouds, but so that we can see the
whole picture - the Jesus who now rules over everything. We need to look up after a general election
and see that our rulers aren't the be all and end all - they may have their
role to play, but our real ruler won't elected on June 7th. We need to look up when we see dictators and
oppressors to realise that they cannot win - no human empire lasts, or is
remotely comparable to the rule of Jesus.
When we look at the problems
in our society, in our local area we can begin sometimes to be overwhelmed by
despair, but it's then we need to look up and see that every dark corner, every
bruised soul is within the reach of the Jesus who fills all things. If we are struggling with personal fears of
death or dying or sickness or depression, we need to look up and know that
Jesus is the Beginning and the End and knows the reality of all these. Not only does he reign, but he has taken our
humanity to the heart of God - the ruler of the universe is not unable to
sympathise with our weaknesses. When we
pray we often need not to begin by looking down at our own failings, but by
looking up at the true authority and glory of the one we worship. And for each of us there is a question to
which Jesus' Ascension demands an answer.
That is, who are we going to serve?
There is a Bob Dylan song called "You've got to Serve
Somebody" - each of us here has been created to serve and to worship
something much greater than ourselves.
Philippians 2: 9-11 says again: "God exalted him, and granted to
him the name which is above every other name, in order that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things upon the earth,
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father." The truth of the
Ascension is that one day Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Bill Clinton, and even
Tony Blair will bow before the Carpenter of Nazareth, and those who have even
denied that he exists will serve him.
The question for us is will we look up to see the one who has been
raised above all things and serve him with our lives? Not out of fear of what might happen if we don't, but because
serving the Lord of everything is the only thing that will give our lives here
the significance and meaning for which he made us. And we also know that when he ascended he went to prepare a home
for us - a home where God's love will flow freely in our lives.