Ascension and Incarnation

Today is Ascension Day, the day when the risen Jesus departed from the disciples and, according to the pre-scientific understanding of the ancient writer of Luke and Acts, ascended into heaven. If we were to try to describe the same phenomenon today, how would we do it? We might say that Jesus was transported from earth to the heavenly realm the way characters in Star Trek go from place to place. Or we might say that Jesus stepped into a wormhole in space-time. But these explanations would be no more accurate than Luke’s account of Jesus’s having been taken up to heaven in a cloud. Our versions might have the advantage of better special effects, but when it comes right down to it we would be scrambling to describe a mystery just as much as Luke was.

Luke is the only gospel writer in the New Testament who even tries to put the ascension into a narrative framework. John has Jesus make an oblique reference to Mary about not yet having ascended to God, but he does not describe the event itself. Mark and Matthew ignore it altogether. But I’d bet that if you asked, all of them would agree that Jesus now exists on a different plane of reality than we do. The writer of Ephesians talks about Jesus’s being seated “in the heavenly places,” while early creeds claim that he has taken his place “at the right hand of the Father,” and these explanations fit well within the writers’ ancient cosmology.

We on the other hand might be able to ask harder and more specific questions about the ins and outs of the ascension—how did it take place, where did Jesus start from and where did he end up, what was his manner of propulsion, and so on—but in the end we too would have to plead ignorance in the face of mystery. The essential truth is that, whereas Jesus used to walk and talk and live and die on this earth, he no longer does so, but we still hold the conviction that he is alive. We can talk about ascension, translation, and the celestial plane, but at the end of the day we are still dealing with mystery.

In regard to this mystery, it would be worthwhile to ask the same question about the ascension that Marcus Borg used to ask about the resurrection: no matter what you believe happened in that historical moment, what do you think it means? Let me take a stab at answering that question.

I think the meaning of Jesus’s ascension lies in the even deeper mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus had come to earth to put flesh and blood on God. Within himself he had represented the wedding of the human and divine natures. Now his work on earth was done, although the work of incarnation continues…in us. By departing the scene Jesus cleared the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit (which we will celebrate in worship on June 8, Pentecost Sunday) who would come upon the disciples and once again wed human flesh with divine energy. Baptized in the Holy Spirit, those early disciples carried on the work of Jesus by means of God’s power within them.

We have the same task and privilege today. It is our job and our joy to incarnate Jesus just as Jesus incarnated God. By the guidance and empowerment of the Spirit, we are Christ’s body on earth. As St. Theresa makes clear in her famous prayer, “Christ has no body now but yours; no hands, no feet on earth but yours.” The ascension, and Pentecost ten days later, starts us on a grand adventure—the joyful and thrilling adventure of living as the body of Christ and bringing the good news of God’s desire to redeem and embrace the world through the ministry of Jesus Christ. A ministry that continues in us.