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| | Ascension Day Amid pomp and splendor and religious ceremony, Elizabeth II, was coronated as queen of England on June 2, 1953. She had already been serving as queen after the death of her father, King George VI, over a year previous to the coronation. She had, so to speak, ascended to the throne.
Today (May 1, 2008) is the day that Western Christians celebrate the day of our Lord’s ascension into heaven. This day doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it is still a vital and relevant aspect of the Christian story. So what happened and how does it affect us?
First, we should note what hasn’t happened. Jesus hasn’t, as some supposed, rocketed off of the planet and shot out into space somewhere “way beyond the blue.” It is true that Luke tells of Jesus arising off of a mountain. Though that occurred, the point of that visual isn’t that he has lifted off like a hot air balloon. Rather, it was a demonstration that Jesus has gone into heaven, into the immediate presence of the Father. This heaven is like another dimension that interlocks with ours. It is not a place far beyond, but somewhere all around us just behind the veil. (I recommend reading Dallas Willard’s The Divine Conspiracy and/or N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian for good accessible explanations of this concept.)
Now we can note what has happened. Jesus has entered into the dimension we call heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. This, as Daniel 7.9-14 demonstrates, means that Jesus has been given the place of honor, power, and authority over all creation. He is the High King of all. We celebrate today, in a sense, the coronation of Jesus as King of all that was made. He was the rightful King already, on this day so long ago, he was vindicated and declared to be the rightful ruler of the universe.
So what does this mean? When we realize this fact, it changes much about how we view the world. For the sake of brevity, we will only highlight a few things here.
First, we are reminded that Jesus is Lord. The powers of this world, whether they be invisible forces, political might, or commercial strength, are never final. Jesus is Lord over them all. They might oppose Him. They might rebel against Him. They might ignore Him or deny Him. But it does not change the fact that He is their Lord.
This brings us to the second highlight: Jesus will judge. All those powers will be called to account by the King of the universe. All the powers of past, present, and to come will be judged for their deeds, whether good or ill. All things will be put right. Bullies will be brought low. The oppressed will be raised up. The Lord will return and straighten everything out.
All of this affects how we live. First, Scripture tells us that since Jesus is Lord, those of us who believe in Him live according to His rule, not that of the world’s powers. We have a different set of values, a different set of rules, a different set of expectations. This does not mean that we ignore the rules that are, but rather that we know what we follow supercedes all power. This is one reason Christians of the past have declared that “we ought to obey God rather than men.” When the powers of the earth oppose the rule of Christ, we must follow the rightful Lord, not the pretenders.
Second, we have a special hope. We know that everything will be made right in the end. We work for and towards that end. We live and breathe and pray to that end. Even when we suffer injustice now, we place our hopes in the Lord who will return and make it right. And we speak for justice now because we know that is what our Lord cares about.
This special hope extends even to a deep affectionate level. Scriptures tell us that our Lord Jesus, through His incarnation, calls His followers “brothers” (we might add sisters in this present day) (Hebrews 2.5-11). Hence, our Lord is also our family as we have been adopted into the household of God. We are royalty by virtue of the fact that our Father is God and the King is Jesus, our brother. We are, of course, royalty subject to the King. Nevertheless, we know that we will reign with him and are already seated with Him. We have special access in the royal courts directly to the King.
Ascension Day doesn’t get a lot of attention, but perhaps it should. Because of this day, we know that our risen Lord and Brother rules over all. The powers we confront today do not have the final word; Jesus alone does. And we have a special place in the Kingdom of God, having been adopted into the royal household. All things are to be made right, and the extraordinary grace of our God has made it so that once rebellious “sons of Adam and daughters of Eve”, to quote C.S. Lewis, are now given thrones.
To God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be all the glory, into the ages of the ages! Amen.
| | | Posted 5/1/2008 12:20 PM - 16 views - 0 comments
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