What happened after Jesus rose from the dead? He ascended.
Consequently, this day on the church calendar doesn’t get much attention in America, but it’s actually a bank holiday in Germany (Christi Himmelfahrt) that occurs 40 days after Easter on a Thursday. (This year it was May 5.) Should we pay more attention to it?
The Apostles Creed summarizes the Ascension poetically by saying: He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. The creed describes how Jesus now is seated by the Father in the place of honor waiting until the time of his return.
Acts 1:6-11 records the historical event of the Ascension. The disciples were gathered around Jesus and they were still wondering about the earthly kingdom of Israel. Was it now time for it to be set up? Would Jesus conquer Rome now? They didn’t yet understand just how big Christ’s kingdom was designed to be.
And then he rose into the sky while they looked on.
This event is so crazy to me that I don’t doubt its truth. If the disciples were pre-modern people who were making a myth in order to start a new religion they could have made up something better. The most obvious thing could have been to say, “Only we can see Jesus. He appears to us in visions like he did to the prophets.”
Or they could have made Jesus like Enoch’s story recorded in Genesis 5 - God took him and he was no more. There would be some religious precedent for that. But they didn’t say anything easy like that.
Luke recorded that Jesus ascended on high, like a Cracker Barrel sign over an exit ramp, and the apostles stood there staring until two angels appeared and told them to quit it since he was going to come back in the same way.
There are three simple reasons why we should pay attention to the Ascension:
- Christ ascended to sit down and show the completed nature of his work. (Hebrews 1:3)
- Christ ascended to intercede for us presently at the Father’s side. (Romans 8:34)
- Christ ascended in order to pour out the Holy Spirit on the whole church. (Acts 2:33)
Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Churches will use this common refrain in their liturgy to emphasize the past, present, and future work of Jesus on our behalf. Jesus died so that we would be justified, reckoned righteous before the Father.
Christ is now risen that we can experience sanctification—the power that raised Him from the dead at work in us causing us more and more to put to death our flesh and instead grow more and more in Christlikeness. You could say it another way: mortification (of the flesh) plus vivification (of the Spirit) equals transformation of the soul.
Christ will come again in the future and complete this work. At that time the whole cosmos will see him as the King triumphant over the world, the flesh, and the devil. All things will be subject to him and he will make all things new.
In Him,
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