Seventh Sunday of Easter
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Readings: Acts 1: 6-14 and John 17: 1-11
Today we stand between Ascension Day and Pentecost. If some people find the idea of Jesus’ resurrection difficult to come to terms with, then the Ascension will cause them more difficulties. Exactly what happened is, as one writer says, ‘opaque.’ The oldest surviving texts of the gospel are at variance with each other. One says that having blessed the disciples, Jesus was carried up to heaven; others omit that detail. The similar passage in Acts that we heard just now adds that a cloud hid him out of their sight. Matthew and John do not mention the Ascension at all, and a brief message in Mark’s gospel comes in closing verses that most scholars consider to be a later addition.
So, what are we to make of it? Perhaps the best we can say is that something had to have happened to Jesus after the resurrection. He revealed himself to the disciples for a brief time, but then was seen on earth no more. So the Ascension marks the end of those bodily appearances. But ascension to where, and in what form – these questions are unanswerable. We simply cannot know. We have to live with hints and guesses, but mostly with unknowing.
In today’s gospel Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of those he is leaving behind – addressed to the disciples at the time, but also to those who will come to believe in Jesus through the disciples’ witness. He says to his Father, “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.” Jesus’ work may be finished, but we do not lose his presence. He is not now with us in the body, but is always with us through the Holy Spirit. As Cally Hammond says in Church Times this week, with our readings today, ‘past, present and future collapse into one another.’
The writer John Masefield (who was born in Ledbury in 1878) wrote a play – The Trial of Jesus. He imagines the wife of Pilate, whom he names Procula, having a conversation after Jesus’ death with Longinus, the name traditionally given to the centurion who saw Jesus die on the cross and who said “Truly this man was the Son of God.” In Masefield’s work, Procula asks “Do you think Jesus is dead?” Longinus replies “No, lady, I don’t.” She asks “Then where is he?” And Longinus replies “Let loose in all the world.” The Ascension celebrates this letting loose of Jesus in all the world. No longer confined to the restraints of time and space, we might say Jesus has a wider presence with us now than when he was here on earth. He is now able to be with all peoples at all times and in all places.
The Ascension of Jesus gives us a threefold message – of Power, Promise, and Presence.
A verse from Ephesians, one of the readings for Ascension Day itself, tells us about Christ’s power. St. Paul says, ‘God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.’ It is our belief that Christ is in control of our world. Regardless of what is happening in our lives or in the world, we know that our ascended Lord is in control and has not abandoned us. He is above all rule and authority and promises to come again to take final and complete control of the world.
There is an encouraging verse in the letter to the Hebrews which says that Jesus continues forever; that he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. We so often say at the end of our prayers ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord’ – an acknowledgement that he is our intermediary with God, and that he prays for us.
Then there is a great message of promise at Ascensiontide. ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.’ Today the Church invokes the Holy Spirit through the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. The power that Jesus is given in the Ascension is shared with us through the promised Holy Spirit, and that helps us to do what Jesus did while he was on earth.
We are given the ability to make a difference. We are certainly called to be witnesses, but we are also called to do what he did: to heal the sick, to feed the hungry: to fight oppression and evil, and to work for justice and peace; to seek reconciliation, and to teach others to do those things, too. And the Church, and its members, has made a huge contribution to the life of the world, by being inspired by Jesus’ message and ministry.
Jesus actually says that we will perform greater works than he did after he gives us the Holy Spirit. That’s a pretty awesome concept to get our heads around. But, of course, the Church has fed more people, healed more people, and shared the good news of the gospel with more people than Jesus did while on earth. And that is because we have received the promised Spirit.
Thirdly, in our list of three ‘P’s in the message of the Ascension, we have presence. This might seem a strange word to use since we’re talking about the event that took Jesus away from the disciples, but he guaranteed his presence. In the closing verses of Matthew’s gospel, he promises “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
You might think that absence and presence are complete opposites. But many people will tell you that they feel the occasional or continuous presence of a loved one who has died. Through the Ascension, Jesus actually becomes more present to us than he could before. We see the effect of this in the lives and witness of the disciples. We see them learning to stand on their own feet. Peter begins to take a lead as they wait expectantly for the promised gift of the Spirit. This wouldn’t have happened if Jesus had remained with them.
The disciples may have felt a sense of bereavement when Jesus left them, but they returned to Jerusalem with purpose. Things can go on in a positive way even if we appear to have lost our mainstay in life. In fact, if we are going to grow as people, we sometimes need to be left on our own to cope when the boss moves on, or when the figure we’ve had nurturing or teaching us is no longer on the scene. We can rely too much on other people, and not take the responsibility for the things that we might. It is sometimes easier to assume that we’re not well equipped to do something and overlook the gifts and talents we have, than to take the initiative.
Power; Promise; Presence – gifts of the Ascension.
“Alleluia! Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now” – as a hymn puts it. The two men in white robes at the place of Ascension asked the disciples why they were just gazing up to heaven? Maybe those first disciples didn’t understand the significance. But we hear the message: that Jesus’ going to heaven helps us to become more mature in our faith; that we should wait expectantly for what he can do among us; and that we should rejoice in the promise of the Spirit to see us through whatever life’s changing circumstances can bring, and to know that we are not separated from Jesus, because his love and power and sovereignty always remain.