Ascension: The God Who Completes (2)

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Ascension culminates the achievement of God’s eternal purpose. Earlier I described God’s eternal purpose as his passion to have a world full of people to live over, with, for, and astonishingly as a human being, in intimate fellowship on a planet flourishing in beauty and abundance. Jesus Christ, fully human-fully divine, in his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension lived as God as a human being, and at the same time, the human being God intended us to be offering his life as the faithful rendition of humanity. In him we behold that interlocking of the realms of heaven and earth we spoke of earlier. In him we too have been lifted into that faithful rendition of humanity so we also may live life as God intended.

Heaven and earth are united in another way in him. When he ascends to heaven he does so as the divine-human being he became in his incarnation. He sits today at God’s right hand as one of us. And again we share that position with him by his grace. It would be exceedingly odd were Jesus the only bit of the first creation that made it through to the new creation given God’s purpose to have a planet of people with whom to live forever. But the truth is, he is not. All of us, full-bodied, will enter the new creation as Jesus does to live with him and the Father and the Spirit forever. No dualism of body-spirit or matter-spirit with spirit being privileged as superior and eternal while the latter is inferior and temporary is allowed in Christian faith. Nothing shows this more clearly than the ascension.

Yet another link of heaven to earth lies in the fact that Jesus ascends still bearing the scars of his wounds from his passion and crucifixion (see Rev.5:6 which some believe is the Seer’s account of the ascension where the Lamb arrives in the heavenly throne room as one who had been slaughtered). Earthly harms from terror, torture, injustice, and oppression leave their mark on the humanity that ascends to God’s presence. The alchemy of divine love somehow morphs these marks of hatred and hostility into sacraments of divine love by which Christ overcame all that opposition and negativity and used it to enact the Father’s mission and achieve his final purposes without denying or forgetting the cost involved but rather, unfathomably, healing and redeeming it.

Heaven and earth reunited! The creation as God intended it. His dwelling place with his people on his world. The creation a temple. All of this in Jesus who ascends to the Father to take up his rightful rule over all creation. Paul summarizes the gospel with eight affirmations in 1 Cor.15. Jesus, he writes

1.       preexisted with the Father

2.       took on human flesh, fulfilling God’s promise to David

3.       died for sins in accordance with the scriptures

4.       was buried

5.       was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures

6.       appeared to many

7.       is seated at the right hand of God as Lord

8.       and will come again as judge.

Notice where the verb tenses change from past to present: is seated at the right hand of God as Lord. Ascension is finally about lordship – Jesus’ lordship. About power and rule and sovereignty. Oh, a different, upside-down, inside-out version of those thing, the true version which looks strange only when we see them from the distorted version of the world runs by. A verse in Mumford and Sons’ song “The Cave” captures this well:

So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker's hand.

But notice Christ has one further role to play in Paul’s gospel: to come again as judge. His lordship is rejected and resisted by some prior to his return so he comes back as judge. The ascended One rules over a conflicted age. Not all acknowledge or accept him as lord; yet he is. A confession of faith appropriate to the ascension of Christ in this age will acknowledge this conflict but firmly insist that he is Lord appearances notwithstanding. A great example comes from the PCUSA’s A Declaration of Faith:

“We declare that Jesus is Lord.                                                                                                        His resurrection is a decisive victory                                                                                             over the powers that deform and destroy human life.                                                                   His lordship is hidden.                                                                                                                   The world appears to be dominated by people and systems                                                          that do not acknowledge his rule.                                                                                                   But his lordship is real.                                                                                                                 It demands our loyalty and sets us free                                                                                           from the fear of all lesser lords who threaten us.                                                                          We maintain that ultimate sovereignty                                                                                             now belongs to Jesus Christ                                                                                                          in every sphere of life.                                                                                                                   Jesus is Lord!                                                                                                                                 He has been Lord from the beginning.                                                                                         He will be Lord at the end.                                                                                                              Even now he is Lord!” (ch.4, par.5)

Now that’s a robust ascension faith!