“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up
from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The Ascension of Jesus is a scene that has fired the imagination of preachers, poets, and painters
for many centuries. As I sometimes do when I want to see what folks out there in cyber land are
thinking about such things, I Googled the word “ascension” a few days ago. The first hit that came
back was (and I quote) “in the Stargate universe, a process to become a noncorporeal entity on a
higher plane of existence.” Okey doke. Hope that clears it up for you.
It reminds me of the email server we had when we were back in Pennsylvania for seminary. It was
called stargate.net. One of my smart aleck friends asked if we’d joined that cult that ate the funny
pudding in order to rise up and join fellow galactic travelers on the spaceship that was supposedly
hidden behind a passing comet.
As is often the case, words like “ascension,” which once had one meaning, are often overlaid with a
meaning from another worldview entirely, and this can cause a fair bit of confusion. At this point be
forewarned: I’m about to display some appalling cultural ignorance. I didn’t know that Stargate was a
popular movie and TV series until I asked our bookkeeper, Jennifer about this, and she gave me the
whole scoop. She also gave me a very polite and patient look that nonverbally said something like,
“Gosh, Father. What cave have you been living in?”
Anyway, to this sci-fi layman this work looks to be tinted a bit by New Age spiritual ideas. Two clues
were the words “noncorporeal” and “higher plane of existence.” In New Age thought often the
spiritual realm—the noncorporeal, or the without-a-body realm—is considered superior to this realm
in which we’re encased in these bothersome bodies. This comes largely out of Hindu and Buddhist
thought, although similar ideas can also be traced to Plato. In the yoga organization to which I once
belonged, the concept of “ascension” was a more spiritualized thing having to do with evolution and
advancement through incarnations until you were able to achieve cosmic consciousness and
transcend the need for a body.
In fact, this organization often gave explanations of biblical scriptures that superimposed Eastern
ideas on them. For example, they pushed the idea that we’re all actually God, without realizing it.
They gave some mildly impressive rationale to support this, but I think rather conveniently ignored
the fact that, for Jewish people, thinking that we’re God would be the height of blasphemy. That
could’ve gotten you killed back in the day.
All of this is to say that that old Latin phrase caveat emptor—buyer beware—is not a bad stance
when you’re reading what popular culture has to say about Jesus and the Bible.
There are three things about the Ascension about which I’d like to spend a few minutes clearing up
any confusion this morning. The first is this: the Ascension was the bodily departure of Jesus from
this realm into another realm. Now at first blush that may seem a little less than satisfying. But I think
that’s probably the simplest way to word something that pretty much defies human understanding,
and almost certainly defied the understanding of those who witnessed it. The only language
available to the eyewitnesses in describing such a strange sight was to say, “He was lifted up, and a
cloud took him out of their sight.”
Some theologians and others have groused that this verse shows that the story belongs on the
trash heap of superstition. They allege that these words reflect the writers’ outdated belief that
heaven is up above the sky, beyond the dome that surrounds the earth—the old three-tiered
universe. Ironically, it often seems to be the same skeptical theologians who berate others for being
overly literal in reading the Bible. I think they may be taking this account too literally. If the
Ascension were being witnessed by people using today’s knowledge and language, I wouldn’t be too
surprised to hear a description something like, “He seemed to lift away and disappear into some
other dimension or something.” After all, Star Trek’s been around for about 45 years or so and we
have new vocabulary to use.
You see, in this case I think the important thing is not the specific words used to describe this
mystery. The important thing is to recognize the reality behind the words.
And the reality behind the words is that the risen Jesus disappeared from their sight. We can
reasonably conclude that it was his body, and not some vision or spiritual apparition, because of all
of those post-Resurrection appearances in which Jesus ate with the disciples, asked them to touch
him, and so forth. His resurrected body was a physical body.
But the curious thing about this physical body is that it seemed to be operating by rules a little
different than those with which we’re familiar. Jesus apparently popped right into the upper room
despite it being protected by locked doors, for instance. And now, in the Ascension, he’s popping
out of view altogether. N. T. Wright describes Jesus at this point being both physical and “trans-
physical.” [This says something about the nature of the new resurrection bodies we’re all promised
in the new heavens and new earth. They’ll be physical bodies, but not necessarily in the way that
we’re used to.]
And where’s Jesus going? Well, he’s not going up the elevator a couple floors in the three-tiered
universe. Instead he’s going into that wholly other realm the scriptures call “heaven.” This is made
clear by the two men in white robes that are apparently angels from that same realm. They use the
word “heaven” no less than three times in their explanation to the astonished witnesses.
And this brings us to the second point. It’s a point that’s made clear by St. Paul in his Letter to the
Ephesians. He writes, “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, and above every other name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to
come.” You may recognize here language similar to our Creed: “He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father.”
So the Ascension wasn’t simply a display designed to impress Jesus’ followers, but also an actual
sign of what Jesus had accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, for then he was seated with
God the Father as ruler over all creation. Please understand clearly the meaning of this. This
places Jesus not on the level of a “realized master” who’d managed to spiritually evolve to a place
where he realized his oneness with God, but rather as the one-of-a-kind in all history whose identity
from before time has been the second person of the Holy Trinity, the undivided God. He was, is,
and always will be, God the Son. And now he’s at the Father’s right hand.
And it’s important for us to remember something else, too. Jesus is now bodily absent, but he is
spiritually present. I’ll save the details of that one for next week, which is Pentecost Sunday. That’s
when we’ll celebrate his sending of the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
Stay tuned.
But this leads to the third and final point about the Ascension. In our Acts reading the angels tell the
eyewitnesses, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has
been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into
heaven.” Jesus Christ’s physical absence from us is not a permanent thing. Thanks be to God!
One day you and I, just like the disciples, will be able to sit at the banquet table with him eating and
drinking, and we’ll even be able at last to throw our arms around the One who loved us so much that
he would die for us to bring us new life. The angels said that he’ll return to us in just the way he
departed. He’ll come back from that other dimension, that other realm of existence we call heaven.
Only the thing is, he’ll bring all heaven with him. Heaven and earth will be united in what will be a
cosmic event of unimaginable magnitude and almost unbearable joy. If that doesn’t quicken your
pulse a bit I think maybe you’d better ask Ron Ross for a little more coffee after the service.
There’s one more thing that needs to be said in response to that whole worldview problem I was
talking about earlier. Back in my New Age days in the 70’s and early 80’s there was a very well-
circulated rumor that the Messiah had already returned and was waiting to be revealed. According
to the rumor mongers, Jesus had come back, and had been born into an Asian family living in
England. I think they called him Lord Matreiya or something. There was an aura of mystery and
anticipation in the air that was both contagious, and in my opinion, very carefully calculated. It wasn’
t the first example of its kind and certainly won’t be the last.
Jesus himself spoke about this kind of thing. He said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For
many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
He said, “If anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the
inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west,
so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” According to Scripture, Jesus isn’t going to be reborn of a
mother on this earth. That part’s already done with. His return will be sudden and unmistakable.
The angels said, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same
way as you saw him go into heaven. And my friends, to quote the old hymn, “What a glorious day
that will be!” For when he does return, the ascended Christ will be coming directly from the right
hand of God as the loving King who will reign eternally over a new earth, upon which there will be no
more evil, no more suffering, and no more death.
I close with the words from an unpublished letter of C. S. Lewis: “Think of yourself as a seed
patiently wintering in the earth; waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time, up into the
real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back on from there, will
seem only a drowsy half-waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming. It is
nearer now than when I began this letter.”
The dawn is coming, and will soon be here. To that I can think of nothing more to say than, “Amen,
come Lord Jesus!”
from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The Ascension of Jesus is a scene that has fired the imagination of preachers, poets, and painters
for many centuries. As I sometimes do when I want to see what folks out there in cyber land are
thinking about such things, I Googled the word “ascension” a few days ago. The first hit that came
back was (and I quote) “in the Stargate universe, a process to become a noncorporeal entity on a
higher plane of existence.” Okey doke. Hope that clears it up for you.
It reminds me of the email server we had when we were back in Pennsylvania for seminary. It was
called stargate.net. One of my smart aleck friends asked if we’d joined that cult that ate the funny
pudding in order to rise up and join fellow galactic travelers on the spaceship that was supposedly
hidden behind a passing comet.
As is often the case, words like “ascension,” which once had one meaning, are often overlaid with a
meaning from another worldview entirely, and this can cause a fair bit of confusion. At this point be
forewarned: I’m about to display some appalling cultural ignorance. I didn’t know that Stargate was a
popular movie and TV series until I asked our bookkeeper, Jennifer about this, and she gave me the
whole scoop. She also gave me a very polite and patient look that nonverbally said something like,
“Gosh, Father. What cave have you been living in?”
Anyway, to this sci-fi layman this work looks to be tinted a bit by New Age spiritual ideas. Two clues
were the words “noncorporeal” and “higher plane of existence.” In New Age thought often the
spiritual realm—the noncorporeal, or the without-a-body realm—is considered superior to this realm
in which we’re encased in these bothersome bodies. This comes largely out of Hindu and Buddhist
thought, although similar ideas can also be traced to Plato. In the yoga organization to which I once
belonged, the concept of “ascension” was a more spiritualized thing having to do with evolution and
advancement through incarnations until you were able to achieve cosmic consciousness and
transcend the need for a body.
In fact, this organization often gave explanations of biblical scriptures that superimposed Eastern
ideas on them. For example, they pushed the idea that we’re all actually God, without realizing it.
They gave some mildly impressive rationale to support this, but I think rather conveniently ignored
the fact that, for Jewish people, thinking that we’re God would be the height of blasphemy. That
could’ve gotten you killed back in the day.
All of this is to say that that old Latin phrase caveat emptor—buyer beware—is not a bad stance
when you’re reading what popular culture has to say about Jesus and the Bible.
There are three things about the Ascension about which I’d like to spend a few minutes clearing up
any confusion this morning. The first is this: the Ascension was the bodily departure of Jesus from
this realm into another realm. Now at first blush that may seem a little less than satisfying. But I think
that’s probably the simplest way to word something that pretty much defies human understanding,
and almost certainly defied the understanding of those who witnessed it. The only language
available to the eyewitnesses in describing such a strange sight was to say, “He was lifted up, and a
cloud took him out of their sight.”
Some theologians and others have groused that this verse shows that the story belongs on the
trash heap of superstition. They allege that these words reflect the writers’ outdated belief that
heaven is up above the sky, beyond the dome that surrounds the earth—the old three-tiered
universe. Ironically, it often seems to be the same skeptical theologians who berate others for being
overly literal in reading the Bible. I think they may be taking this account too literally. If the
Ascension were being witnessed by people using today’s knowledge and language, I wouldn’t be too
surprised to hear a description something like, “He seemed to lift away and disappear into some
other dimension or something.” After all, Star Trek’s been around for about 45 years or so and we
have new vocabulary to use.
You see, in this case I think the important thing is not the specific words used to describe this
mystery. The important thing is to recognize the reality behind the words.
And the reality behind the words is that the risen Jesus disappeared from their sight. We can
reasonably conclude that it was his body, and not some vision or spiritual apparition, because of all
of those post-Resurrection appearances in which Jesus ate with the disciples, asked them to touch
him, and so forth. His resurrected body was a physical body.
But the curious thing about this physical body is that it seemed to be operating by rules a little
different than those with which we’re familiar. Jesus apparently popped right into the upper room
despite it being protected by locked doors, for instance. And now, in the Ascension, he’s popping
out of view altogether. N. T. Wright describes Jesus at this point being both physical and “trans-
physical.” [This says something about the nature of the new resurrection bodies we’re all promised
in the new heavens and new earth. They’ll be physical bodies, but not necessarily in the way that
we’re used to.]
And where’s Jesus going? Well, he’s not going up the elevator a couple floors in the three-tiered
universe. Instead he’s going into that wholly other realm the scriptures call “heaven.” This is made
clear by the two men in white robes that are apparently angels from that same realm. They use the
word “heaven” no less than three times in their explanation to the astonished witnesses.
And this brings us to the second point. It’s a point that’s made clear by St. Paul in his Letter to the
Ephesians. He writes, “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, and above every other name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to
come.” You may recognize here language similar to our Creed: “He ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father.”
So the Ascension wasn’t simply a display designed to impress Jesus’ followers, but also an actual
sign of what Jesus had accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, for then he was seated with
God the Father as ruler over all creation. Please understand clearly the meaning of this. This
places Jesus not on the level of a “realized master” who’d managed to spiritually evolve to a place
where he realized his oneness with God, but rather as the one-of-a-kind in all history whose identity
from before time has been the second person of the Holy Trinity, the undivided God. He was, is,
and always will be, God the Son. And now he’s at the Father’s right hand.
And it’s important for us to remember something else, too. Jesus is now bodily absent, but he is
spiritually present. I’ll save the details of that one for next week, which is Pentecost Sunday. That’s
when we’ll celebrate his sending of the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.
Stay tuned.
But this leads to the third and final point about the Ascension. In our Acts reading the angels tell the
eyewitnesses, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has
been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into
heaven.” Jesus Christ’s physical absence from us is not a permanent thing. Thanks be to God!
One day you and I, just like the disciples, will be able to sit at the banquet table with him eating and
drinking, and we’ll even be able at last to throw our arms around the One who loved us so much that
he would die for us to bring us new life. The angels said that he’ll return to us in just the way he
departed. He’ll come back from that other dimension, that other realm of existence we call heaven.
Only the thing is, he’ll bring all heaven with him. Heaven and earth will be united in what will be a
cosmic event of unimaginable magnitude and almost unbearable joy. If that doesn’t quicken your
pulse a bit I think maybe you’d better ask Ron Ross for a little more coffee after the service.
There’s one more thing that needs to be said in response to that whole worldview problem I was
talking about earlier. Back in my New Age days in the 70’s and early 80’s there was a very well-
circulated rumor that the Messiah had already returned and was waiting to be revealed. According
to the rumor mongers, Jesus had come back, and had been born into an Asian family living in
England. I think they called him Lord Matreiya or something. There was an aura of mystery and
anticipation in the air that was both contagious, and in my opinion, very carefully calculated. It wasn’
t the first example of its kind and certainly won’t be the last.
Jesus himself spoke about this kind of thing. He said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For
many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
He said, “If anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, 'Here he is, in the
inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west,
so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” According to Scripture, Jesus isn’t going to be reborn of a
mother on this earth. That part’s already done with. His return will be sudden and unmistakable.
The angels said, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same
way as you saw him go into heaven. And my friends, to quote the old hymn, “What a glorious day
that will be!” For when he does return, the ascended Christ will be coming directly from the right
hand of God as the loving King who will reign eternally over a new earth, upon which there will be no
more evil, no more suffering, and no more death.
I close with the words from an unpublished letter of C. S. Lewis: “Think of yourself as a seed
patiently wintering in the earth; waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time, up into the
real world, the real waking. I suppose that our whole present life, looked back on from there, will
seem only a drowsy half-waking. We are here in the land of dreams. But cock-crow is coming. It is
nearer now than when I began this letter.”
The dawn is coming, and will soon be here. To that I can think of nothing more to say than, “Amen,
come Lord Jesus!”
The Ascension of Jesus
Ascension Day, 2009
Ascension Day, 2009
May 24, 2009
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
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