Ascension Thursday: Jesus Ascended to be with us
Transitions today may be times of stress – as we leave school, as we move from the parental home to our own home, as we leave work. Sometimes they are times of joy – as we get married, for example. Sometimes, times of sadness.
Today we celebrate one of a handful of Jesus’ transitions. Jesus was there at the beginning. A few months ago we celebrated his birth; another transition was the start of his ministry; another critical one we remember as Good Friday; and three days later we celebrate his victory over death
Today we remember his Ascension, his penultimate transition, with his last transition being when he comes again.
The Ascension involves some tricky theology, partly caused by the false trails laid by the context in which the Ascension stories were written, and partly by the language and imagery we continue to use today, with the worst of that imagery being the white toes disappearing upwards as the white-skinned, blue-eyed Jesus enters the clouds. We are led to think of the Ascension as Christ’s going away, up to heaven, maybe as the real Absence of Christ in contrast to the real Presence
The story we heard today from the writers of Acts and Mark was written knowing that heaven was up there. The Greek word translated as heaven also means sky. People in Jesus’ time knew there was an opening in the sky to get to heaven, which was above the sky.
Of course, our knowledge of what is above the earth, and indeed above the sky, is quite different now. The sky is not a firmament sitting on pillars as a reading of Genesis might have us believe. Nor does it involve the Hellenistic Earth around which the sun and the planets revolve. Back then the hole in the firmament was above the Temple, above Jerusalem (Pilch 1999, 2012), so that is why Jesus ascended from near there. Of course, that is not our understanding today, hence the tricky theology.
“He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
So yes, when Jesus ascended into heaven, it was not about a journey upward to a heaven created by an ancient Jewish or Hellenistic understanding, but a signal of another transformation.
That lucky band who saw the Ascension had seen Jesus before his death on the Cross. They knew him after he rose from the dead and they walked and talked with him for 40 days until the Ascension. Our experience of Jesus today is not the same as their experience of Jesus. Jesus has gone through another transformation, for them but of benefit to us.
In our understanding today, heaven is not out there above the sky, somewhere remote. Heaven is right here, with us. It is here at Saint Peter’s. It is in the streets and lanes of Melbourne. It is in the bush and in the cities.
“He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
When I was younger, I sang a hymn about the Risen Jesus, the chorus went like this with apologies for my poor rendition.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
The Ascension affirms Christ is the Risen Lord, who has taken his place on Heaven. But it is a heaven where, he walks with me, and he talks with me. The transformed Jesus who ascended into the first century heaven is here, in the 21st-century heaven which I inhabit. He is still available as a teacher, to walk with me and talk with me. Yes, Christ has ascended to heaven, but that does not mean Christ is somehow remote from us, above the sky. Christ is right here, right now.
We are challenged throughout the New Testament to think about the kingdom of heaven, which I prefer to refer to as the realm of God. Is it somewhere and sometime in the future? Or is it here and now? Or is it both? The Ascension is like that. In the first century understanding the Ascension was up into a heaven above the sky. In the 21st-century understanding, Jesus ascended to be with us.
Christ has both ascended to heaven, but he ascended to a place which is all around us, and indeed within us. We try to live the life of Jesus, to walk in his footsteps, to live as he lived, so that people can see Jesus within us; so people can see our love for Jesus, and our love for the community that he served and we serve.
It is this gift, of a transformed Jesus who is with us in a different form, which we celebrate today. Sure Jesus is in ‘heaven’, sitting at the right hand, but he is also here, with us.
You listened to my singing, of one summary of where Jesus ascended to, you can now hear a better chorus, with skilled singers, this time maybe of how Saint Patrick described the result of that transition on Ascension Day:
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me
Pilch, John J. 1999. The cultural dictionary of the Bible. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
Pilch, John J. 2012. A cultural handbook to the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.