Christ is risen! “Our
God is a God of salvation, and to Yahweh the Lord belongs deliverance
from death” (Psalm 68:20). As our celebration of Eastertide draws
toward its close, we remember that, even after his deliverance from
death, Jesus visited his disciples for forty more days. Does that
strike anyone else as odd? I mean, the Ascension could have taken
place on Easter Monday. It could have even taken place on the eve of
Easter Sunday, with Jesus rising from the roof of the house in Emmaus
where he broke the bread. But Jesus stayed, not just for a day, not
just for a week, not just for a month, but for forty days – a nice,
round number of biblical significance. Jesus chose to wait forty
extra days before being enthroned in heaven's glory. Why? Was there
some benefit he got out of it? The benefit wasn't for him. The
benefit was for the disciples. Jesus had his focus securely on them
and their needs, even after his resurrection. Is an abrupt goodbye
really the Messiah's style? Here they are, still in shock after the
crucifixion, still befuddled by the emotional wrenching back and
forth of the discovery of the empty tomb, still awestruck and perhaps
confused by seeing him living again. They're joyful, but believing
their eyes is a long-jump of faith. Even after the resurrection,
even in the midst of appearing to the believers in Galilee, “they
worshipped him, but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17).
If Jesus had left
immediately, even the earliest disciples would have been left with
divided hearts, afflicted and assailed by their doubts and questions,
their misgivings and misunderstandings. So Jesus stayed to give them
“many convincing proofs” of his risen life (Acts 1:3). And when
he stayed, he wanted to make them ready for what was to come after
he'd go. What did Jesus do to occupy his forty precious days as the
firstfruits of new creation, still walking the corrupted soil of an
old creation? He brought them peace, wished them peace, but he also
gave them teaching. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Did he teach
them off the top of his head while he was “giving instructions
through the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:2)? No, he pointed them to the
books of the Old Testament, saying that “everything written about
me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be
fulfilled”, and “he opened their minds to understand the
scriptures” and how they were really a story about him and his
mission (Luke 24:44-45). Jesus reminded them that their work would
be anchored in understanding Scripture – and has that changed? Is
biblical literacy no longer vital to the church's work? Only if you
think Jesus was wasting his time those forty days! The church is
absolutely called upon to be a community saturated
in the Bible, learning from the Bible, wrestling with the Bible,
praying through the Bible, teaching each other the Bible – because
it's from the Bible that we learn God's story, our story, creation's
story, and are trained in the roles he's given us.
Beyond teaching his
disciples to understand in their minds and hearts what the Bible was
saying, he also gave them a gift, a gift which – to look at many
believers today – you'd think the church resents. That gift was a
commission, a calling, “to be witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48), called to declare both forgiveness of sins and
repentance through the name and authority of the Messiah – not just
to the Jews, but to “all nations”; and not just to foreign
nations, but “beginning in Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). One and the
same gospel is for Jews and Gentiles alike, revolving around the
authority of the same Messiah, who offers forgiveness for sins and
calls us to repentance. Those are two sides of the same coin:
without repentance from sin, there isn't forgiveness, and without
forgiveness being granted, there's no power to really repent.
The
church is called to keep those thoughts together. If we're so
paranoid to avoid looking 'exclusive' that we forget that forgiveness
requires repentance, then we're failing to be witnesses to the whole
story. If we're so self-centered that we don't bother to proclaim
outside these walls, then we're scarcely witnesses at all. But “you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8), he said – which is exactly how
Acts runs, starting from Jerusalem and rolling the gospel mission
right to the halls of imperial power in Rome. And the story isn't
done, because here we are, across the ocean from Jerusalem, and
there's still proclaiming of repentance and forgiveness of sins to be
done. Jesus gave his disciples a mission. Are we his disciples too?
So
after forty days, Jesus led them to the village of Bethany, on the
southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives. And outside that village,
standing higher even than the Temple Mount, he commissioned his
disciples one last time, and then “as they were watching, he was
lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).
“Lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing
them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51). What was Jesus doing while he parted from them? Was he
waving a tender goodbye? Was he turning his attention to his upward
journey? No, even on the skyward trek from earth to heaven, his
thoughts and actions are still
on the band of disciples left below. Even while being caught up to
heaven, even while the cloud interposes itself, Jesus is actively
speaking words of blessing over them! And doesn't that just
sound like the Jesus we know? Do you think he stopped once the cloud
concealed him? Or do you think that he kept blessing them even while
hidden from their earthbound gaze? I dare say that these words,
“while he was blessing
them”,
have been his chief mode of operation from that moment forever
onward; and of every other action he takes from his heavenly throne
at the right hand of the Father, it happens “while he was blessing
them” – and we're them. From earth to heaven and everywhere in
between, his love pours itself out in words of beautiful benediction
upon each and every one of us, and upon the tempest-tossed church as
a whole. He blesses us still and “daily bears us up” (Psalm 68:19).
What
did the disciples do when Jesus ascended, when they saw him go up and
then saw him no more? Their gazes were fixed on his heavenward
track, 'til a pair of angels asked these “men of Galilee” why
they were just gawking at the sky and longing for the status quo
(Acts 1:10-11). The status quo was no more. Then “they worshipped
him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were
continually in the temple blessing God” (Luke 24:52-53). When they
witnessed the ascension, they worshipped. Their worship was focused
on Jesus – unabashedly, unashamedly, true disciples worship Jesus.
But never to the exclusion of the Father: true disciples are
continually blessing God. And as true disciples bless the Father and
worship the Son, they return with great joy to do what the Father and
Son say. They returned down the mountain, down to Jerusalem: We
can't always live on the mountaintops of spiritual rapture; we have
work to do, but while we may not always have bliss, we can take the
“great joy” of the Lord with us where we go.
The
ascension motivated the worship of the early church, and the ascended
Christ still spurs our worship today. But the ascension also
motivated them to something we seldom think of: strategic planning.
Where does that come in? Well, when the disciples came back down
from the Mount of Olives, where do they go? They go to the Upper
Room, to the midst of the praying community of believers – which by
now includes Mother Mary and the formerly unbelieving brothers of
Jesus, like James (Acts 1:13-14; cf. John 7:5; 1 Corinthians 15:7) – and,
while the gathered church is still only 120 strong, Peter leads the
charge in filling out the leading body of the Twelve, since their
number had dropped to an ill-suited Eleven (Acts 1:15-22). This was
the only time a replacement was ever made, because it wasn't the
death of Judas that required it, but his betrayal of the faith.
Peter, Matthew, John, Thomas – they all still hold the office now
that they held then, no matter the surprise it is to groups like the
Mormons who hail their leaders as apostles who replace the original
Twelve.
But
here, a new apostle has to be found from among the ranks of those who
were eyewitnesses “during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in
and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day
when he was taken up from us” (Acts 1:21-22). The final choice
here was by God himself – the Eleven prayed and cast lots, knowing
that God would answer them (Acts 1:24-26) – but first they had to
propose two candidates, and that took strategic planning (Acts 1:23).
Using God's wisdom, they brainstormed options and then laid the
question before the Lord. Hammering out the strategy for the
church's mission isn't the opposite of living by faith. God calls us
to pray, and
God calls us to think and plan. What the church does every Sunday is
and should be a response to the reality of Christ's ascension. But
the same goes for what the official board does on the first Tuesday
of every month, and for the trustees and the stewards and the
Christian Education Commission whenever they meet. In the wake of
Christ's ascension, we need to bring all the wisdom and experience
God has given us, and we need to plan strategically for the mission,
and then we need to offer it up to the Lord who “knows everyone's
heart” (Acts 1:24).
That's
how we respond to his ascension. But why did he have to ascend at
all? What makes that so important to our faith? Why couldn't the
forty days be forty centuries? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have
Jesus still here with us in the flesh? Yet “it is to your
advantage that I go away” (John 16:7), he said. Where's the
advantage? Well, first, the ascension of Christ is critical to his
ongoing priestly ministry. Without ascending, there would be no
lawful priestly work of Christ, as the author of Hebrews says: “Now
if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all” (Hebrews 8:4). The foundational act of Christ's priestly ministry was to
offer up the sacrifice of himself as a perfect atonement for our
sins. But in order to bring such a sacrifice, one has to go into the
right holy place to meet with God, just as the high priests of Israel
went into the temple. And just so, Jesus had to ascend to the
heavenly Holy Place so as to present his own sacrifice to the Father
(Hebrews 9:12). And so Jesus “entered into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24).
Furthermore,
if we live through Christ, then we're “in Christ”, as Paul's so
fond of saying (Romans 16:7). If our lives are “hidden with Christ
in God” (Colossians 3:3), then our lives are located wherever he
is. If our lives are embedded in his risen life, then where he goes,
we spiritually go. And it's only because he has ascended above all
things to the Father's presence that we spiritually live the ascended
life already: God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). We've already inherited such a
high and secure position, but only because Jesus spiritually brings
us with him to the high and secure place where he's ascended. And
only in that way do “we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by
the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19).
With
the ascension, Jesus Christ is fully empowered, raised and acclaimed
to the highest position, being “enthroned at God's right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age
but in the age to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). After having “made
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is enthroned as the King of the
kingdom of God – having “purged our stains, / he took his seat
above” – but he is there as both a king and a priest. As a king,
he lives in God's heavenly throne-room; and as a priest, he lives
forever to minister in God's heavenly tabernacle, which is one and
the same reality (Hebrews 8:1-2). And in being there, directly in
the immediate presence of the Father, he can present our prayers to
the Father in person. Jesus “always lives to make intercession”
for us (Hebrews 7:25). And because our spiritual location is in his
location, our seemingly earthbound prayers hit the ears of the Father
through the lips of the Son at the Father's right hand – only
because Jesus ascended.
As
if that weren't enough, the ascension of Christ is a precondition and
a guarantee of the greatest Gift. Why is it an advantage to us to
have Jesus in heaven? Because “if I do not go away, the Advocate
will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7) as the “Spirit of Truth” who “will guide you into all
truth” (John 16:13). He was taken up to send the Spirit down. And
the ascension accounts agree. The disciples had to stay together in
Jerusalem, because even with all that Jesus had taught them from the
scriptures, they weren't ready yet for their real mission. All the
biblical knowledge there is, isn't enough in itself. After all of
that, we need to be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). We need to “wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4), knowing that we “will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon [us]”, as Jesus said (Acts 1:8).
What's
so important about that? Well, unless we're filled with Christ's
Spirit, we can't be Christ's body (cf. Ephesians 4:4). A body
without its own spirit, is a cadaver. And the church is not called
the motionless cadaver of Christ; we are called the body of Christ, a
living body: “You are the body of Christ, and individually members
of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27)! And how can we carry out our
commissioning if we're anything less? The Church cannot afford to be
a zombie! Jesus gave us a Christ-sized mission! Who else can save
the world? Who else can initiate people into salvation? Who else
can teach mysteries from heaven? Who else can bring such healing and
spiritual power? The Great Commission is a Christ-sized mission, and
that will take the very body of Christ, living and animated by the
Spirit of a risen and ascended Christ, to carry out.
This
same Spirit, who animates the body of Christ, also is the means by
which Jesus spreads spiritual gifts throughout his body. Although
we're united as one body, responding in one Spirit to one God and one
Lord, joined by one faith and one baptism into one hope of our
calling (Ephesians 4:4-6), yet we have different gifts and graces,
“according to the measure of Christ's gift” (Ephesians 4:7). For
“when he ascended on high, he made captivity itself a captive; he
gave gifts to his people”, or perhaps “gifts in
his people” (Ephesians 4:8; cf. Psalm 68:18). What gifts? “The
gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). That's
not a complete list, as Paul shows elsewhere by listing more
“varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).
The
point is that the ascended Jesus has freely and abundantly sprinkled
these gifts throughout his body, and I don't for a minute believe
there's such a thing as an ungifted disciple, a believer whose
purpose is just to take up space in a pew, a Christian whose calling
is to be a consumer and not a contributor. Every believer has a
role, every believer has a function, and the body of Christ can't
grow properly without it. Because the purpose of the gifts is “to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body
of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full
stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13). We have to become fully
grown, fully matured, fully equipped, because it's a big mission.
That's one major reason why we get together regularly as a local
church body: to equip each other. Not just for a preacher to prepare
an audience, or a teacher to prepare a class; it's for each and every
one of us to actively contribute our gifts to the spiritual
improvement of the whole body.
And
we have to grow into Christian adulthood. Children are easily
misled, tricked by the lies and half-truths of the world, “tossed
to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's
trickery”, as we see with sorrowed eyes too often in American
churches (Ephesians 4:14). But we grow up through living the truth
in love (Ephesians 4:15), and Jesus will provide for our unified
growth as we do that (Ephesians 4:16). Real adulthood, real
maturity, doesn't conform to pagan culture or impurity, living “as
the Gentiles live”; but rather, real adulthood, real Christian
maturity, means using the spiritual gifts to help the whole body
become more like the perfect likeness of Jesus himself, “created
according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”
(Ephesians 4:17-24). And it's because our ascended and exalted head
has gifted his body through the Spirit sent down, that we can grow.
The Spirit was given so that we could be the body of Christ on the
mission of Christ: so that, even today, we could keep understanding
and living out the scriptures and could continue being empowered
witnesses, living the truth in active love.
Furthermore,
the ascension of Christ is a precondition and guarantee of his
eventual return: “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into
heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven”
(Acts 1:11). Bodily he went up, bodily he'll come down. We have a
certain hope, a guarantee, that Jesus will come back. And when he
does, the kingdom of God will not just be inaugurated; it will be
consummated, made full and perfect upon the earth as it is in heaven.
When? The disciples had that question too: “Lord, is this the
time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Did
Jesus say, “That will be May 14, 1948”? Did Jesus say, “That
will be December 21, 2012,” or, “That will be September 28,
2015”? No – no, Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the
times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority”
(Acts 1:7). We have the guarantee that Christ will return, but
speculating on it is pointless. Ignore the ravings of the end-times
pontificators, the prophecy speculators, the Robertsons and the
Falwells and the Campings and the Hagees. The Father has set the
times by his own authority, and we're called to be as ready for Jesus
to return tomorrow as for Jesus to return in a century.
Finally,
in being taken up into heaven, Jesus “ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10), and
the church is “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all”
(Ephesians 1:23). If there were any doubt, Jesus is most definitely
in a position vastly above all of creation, spiritual and material.
His station is eternally secure: “His kingdom cannot fail, / he
rules o'er earth and heaven.” And so his changeless character –
“while he was
blessing them”
(Luke 24:51) – is eternally welded to changeless authority – “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me; go, therefore,
and make disciples...”
(Matthew 28:18-19) – to give us a firmly-anchored hope beyond all
fluctuation and beyond all shadow of turning. The Ascension is not
some second-rate appendix to Easter, something optional to remember.
The Ascension is a vital sequel in the ongoing victory of the risen
Lord of Life! So “lift up your heart, / lift up your voice,” O
church, and “rejoice! the Lord is King” in heaven indeed!
