Seeing the Ascension As Like a Child
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
– Fr. Michael Penfield
“When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:” [John 15:26]
Jesus once said to His disciples when they attempted to keep children away from Him:
“Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.”
What Christ meant by this statement has been debated for years, but what is clear is that Jesus was telling us that our acceptance of our faith should be as innocent as a child’s acceptance. Surely God does not want us to be ignorant or to not use our mental faculties. But He does want us to accept that which is part of our faith with the innocence that children exhibit.
Nowhere is our faith challenged more than by the Ascension. This act of God has only two other precedence in the Old Testament and defies scientific analysis. If we wanted to be cynical, we could assert, as in fact some have asserted, that Christ really did not die on the cross, but rather swooned. We then could explain the resurrection as merely Christ’s recovery from the crucifixion. But the Ascension cannot be explained. It either occurred or it didn’t. There is no other choice.
And this is precisely why the Ascension is a pivotal tenet of our faith. If we cannot accept with child-like innocence the Ascension, we will not be able to accept any other tenet.
Yet, the relevance of this Holy Day to our faith may not be fully understood. As Christians, we all understand the gift God bestowed on the world by the birth of His only begotten Son. We also understand the atonement for man’s sins bought by Christ’s suffering and death upon the cross. We even understand the vanquishing of death demonstrated by Christ’s resurrection. Yet, how many of us can say what Christ’s Ascension means to mankind?
The Ascension caused a major shift in the way the Disciples of Christ viewed their relationship to Him. Prior to the Ascension, the disciples could depend on Christ’s presence. Even after His resurrection, Christ still appeared to them during His unexpected visits. But this all ended with the Ascension. From that moment on, the disciples had to learn to depend on Christ’s invisible, as opposed to visible, presence. As James S. Stewart put it, with the Ascension came the “spiritualizing of Religion.” Now, only through the Holy Spirit could God be made real to anyone at any time:
“When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:”
Sight gave way to faith, and the blessed were those who believed but had not seen. Therefore, through the Ascension faith found its supremacy. After Christ ascended, only through faith could God be approached.
But what does it mean for us Christians to accept and believe in the Ascension of Christ as like a child? It means, first, that we accept Christ’s Ascension to “the right hand of God.” This phrase should not be taken literally. But it DOES make clear that the Ascension is the vindication of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
The Ascension is the crowning finale of all His words and works for our salvation. Here is the final and complete assurance that God the Father has accepted the work of His Son for the redemption of men from the guilt and punishment of all their sins. It tells us that what He represented on earth is the Truth, controlling both the universe and human history. It expresses the truth that what we see in Him is the ultimate Sovereign Reality.
The Ascension also declares that the ministry of Jesus, who is God Incarnate, was not limited to the work of a man who once lived but now is dead. Rather, Christ’s ministry through the Ascension is extended through his apostles and through all men who acknowledge him as their King, knowingly or unknowingly, throughout time.
Also, belief in the Ascension means that we accept the Ascension as a declaration that Jesus Christ reigns everywhere. Since he is “at the right hand of God” and since God is omnipresent, the sovereignty of Christ is universal. St. Paul confirms this when he wrote that God placed Christ at His right hand:
“Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.”
To declare that we believe in the Ascension is to declare that Jesus Christ has absolute sovereignty over every part of the universe and more. It is also to declare that His love in action, crowned upon a cross, will triumph over every other force in the world and outside that world.
Additionally, if we believe in the Ascension, we affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord of the future. It is a fundamental insight of the faith that “the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory” belong to God who manifested Himself to the world through the second person of the Trinity, namely in Christ, and that “he must reign until he has put all things under his feet.”
When we proclaim our belief in the Ascension, we also proclaim that the Gospel of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, is available to all men, everywhere, for all time. In his ascendancy, Christ demonstrates his kingship over everyone and everything.
Another aspect of the Ascension is revealed by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 4, verse 14:
“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
At Easter, we celebrate Christ’s resurrection to life. We know he lives because the Apostles saw him. More importantly, in Acts, we have the revelation that Jesus ate with the Apostles, and in John, Chapter 20, verse 27, we have Jesus telling Thomas to feel Jesus’ wounds to prove that He had risen. All these points prove that Jesus was alive at the time of His Ascension and that means that He is a living being “at the right had of God.” This fact is essential to our belief and is why at communion time we quote in our Prayer Book those comfortable words of Saint John:
“If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins.”
Without the Ascension, we do not have a LIVING advocate with the Lord. But with the living Christ, we have the most able of advocates, for, although without sin, He truly understands man’s weaknesses having become man Himself.
Jesus ascended, not to end his work, but rather to continue it. So, if we believe in the Ascension of Christ, we cannot conceive of him at rest, but rather we must believe that Christ’s activity for us is uninterrupted even now. Thus, to proclaim belief in the Ascension is to adopt as true the whole doctrine of our Lord’s High Priestly Life in heaven. It is to proclaim that Jesus ascended to heaven to make intercession for us.
Finally, a living Christ is essential to the belief in a Second Coming. Christ must be alive so that He may return in the future and rule this earth.
To accept the Ascension is to accept more than the fact that Jesus Ascended into heaven. It is to accept the personal relationship we have with God. No other religion has a living Messiah at the right hand of their god prepared to intervene on their behalf.
But we must also realize that acceptance of the Ascension is an awesome responsibility. To accept the Ascension gives each of us Christians the responsibility to proclaim Christ’s sovereignty in action:
“And ye also shall bear witness, . . . . These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God’s service.”
For believers here on earth, the highest blessings of the Ascension may be in the realm of Hope. Hope here means faith as it concerns the future. In view of the Ascension, believers were given a new impetus both to work and to wait for the Savior’s second coming. We call this our hope, and “we are saved by hope.” To be of lasting worth, our hope must have a sure foundation. That foundation rests on the everlasting Rock of Ages, Christ and His unchanging word.
Ascension Day brings into the church the final note of victory. Ever since the Ascension, the church has kept looking up and will do so until He comes again, as He will. A child-like faith and belief this may be, but childish or foolish, it certainly is not.
In the light of Ascension Day, our prayers ascend in the assurance of God’s love. By faith, we have One who lives to intercede for us, the One exalted far above all earthly things, able to govern His Church and finally lead her to glory forever. For our King, this was coronation day. At the end of His earthly sojourn it was fitting that He should return to heaven in triumph. For those who now walk the way of the Cross and with all their heart believe that no one cometh to the Father but by the Son, the Ascension of Christ has built a free bridge to heaven.
Amen.
