Ascension Day
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the great feast of the Ascension. The event is recounted at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (which we heard today). In his Gospel St. Luke had recorded the things which Jesus began to do and teach until the day that he was taken up. He showed himself alive after his passion over a period of forty days, speaking to them of the Kingdom of God. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father: “for John indeed baptised with water, but you shall be baptised by the Holy Ghost not many days hence”. His disciples asked him if this would be the time when the kingdom would be restored to Israel. He replied: “It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.” When he had said this he was raised up and a cloud received him out of their sight. “And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments, who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him go into heaven.”
Contemporary Christianity has sadly become polarised along largely political lines and this is reflected in how the doctrine of the Ascension tends to be viewed. The first school of thought strongly emphasises the importance of maintaining the doctrine as an actual event. It is not to be rationalised or explained away as a mere metaphor, but should be celebrated as the ascension of the risen and glorified body of the Saviour into heaven. Unfortunately, little attempt is made to relate this important truth to what is happening in the public realm in this world. It is sometimes claimed that since the Saviour is now enthroned in heaven there is no need to concern ourselves unduly with the social and political challenges that confront us in this world, for faith is seen as essentially a private and personal matter.
In reaction to how this doctrine has tended to be presented in some forms of conservative Christianity, much modern liberal Christianity plays down the importance of the Ascension. It is said to be a product of a pre-scientific worldview which is now outmoded. It should not, it is said, be viewed today as an actual event, but rather as a symbolic way of stating that the Saviour who lived and died in one place in first century Palestine is now present universally, wherever the faithful gather in his name. But this is the truth of Pentecost rather than the Ascension. At Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to guide, strengthen and cheer the Body of Christ in this world. The Ascension is not about a disembodied spiritual presence in the hearts of the faithful, but the enthronement of the Saviour at the right hand of the Father. Hence, to reduce the doctrine to a purely spiritual presence is not so much to reinterpret the Ascension as to reject it.
How might we gain a more balanced perspective than has been achieved by either of these two opposing schools of thought? It would be best to begin from the standpoint of the first disciples who had followed Jesus and witnessed his resurrection from the dead. They had believed him to be the one who would redeem Israel, who would be another warrior and conqueror like King David. He would successfully defeat the might of the Roman empire and establish an independent kingdom of Israel. Jesus had preferred to refer to himself as the Son of Man rather than the Messiah because it did not have the same military overtones. In this he was referring back to the scene in the book of Daniel where the rule of the beasts (the pagan nations who are oppressing Israel) is replaced by that of the Son of Man, who represented the kingdom of the saints of the Most High who would inherit the kingdom and possess it for ever. But he emphasised that his future enthronement as the Son of Man would come about not through war and conquest, but rather reversal, repudiation, suffering and death. He would not win a military victory over the pagan oppressors of Israel, but would suffer at their hands. He would turn the other cheek and go the second mile. He would take evil upon himself and somehow subsume it to good.
His resurrection showed the truth of his message, but it was still not fully clear to the disciples. They thought that this would now perhaps be the time when the kingdom would be restored to Israel. Jesus replied that their message would extend much further than the land of Israel, for they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth. It is important to emphasise that this does not mean that a political hope for the restoration of an independent kingdom of Israel has now been replaced by a purely spiritual message about personal salvation. It is rather saying that now that the divine purpose for Israel and the world has been fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of the Saviour it was therefore time for the good news to be proclaimed to all nations.
It is at this point that the ascension into heaven takes place and the Saviour is enthroned at the right hand of the Father. All authority not simply in heaven but on earth has been given to him. It is true that we do not, as the epistle to the Hebrews put it, yet see all things subject to him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels now crowned with glory and honour. His kingdom will only fully come on earth as it is in heaven at his second coming, but he has already been enthroned at his ascension.
Hence, the Ascension is not simply a matter for a purely private and personal spirituality unrelated to the public realm. It is in fact making a powerful political statement that it is Jesus and not the existing powers that be who is the true lord of this world. In the first centuries of Christian history there were many martyrs who witnessed (and the word martyr means witness) to this truth that the Roman Emperor was not the ultimate authority, for there was another king, one called Jesus. In our own day it means that if Jesus is Lord, then the Chinese Government is not, Vladimir Putin is not, the President of the European Commission is not, Donald Trump is not, Keir Starmer is not. These and other ruthless seekers after power and control in this world may be very successfully manipulating the present crisis to their own advantage but they are not, whatever delusions of grandeur they may have about themselves, the ultimate authority. The true ruler is one who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, who is now risen, ascended and glorified, enthroned at the right hand of the Father.
Let us therefore rejoice on this day that the dark forces that appear to be all powerful in this world are not the ultimate authority. They have already been in principle defeated and will be finally vanquished at the second coming of the Saviour in that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
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