Ascension For Christian

The meaning of the Ascension for Christians is derived from their belief in the glorification and exaltation of Jesus following his death and Resurrection, as well as from the theme of his return to God the Father. Thus, the Gospel According to John uses both the sayings of Jesus and his post-Resurrection appearances to indicate a new relationship between Jesus and his Father and between him and his followers, rather than a simple physical relocation from earth to heaven.

According to the first chapter of The Acts of the Apostles, after appearing to the Apostles on various occasions during a period of 40 days, Jesus was taken up in their presence and was then hidden from them by a cloud, a frequent biblical image signifying the presence of God. Although belief in the Ascension is apparent in other books of the New Testament, the emphasis and the imagery differ. In the Gospel According to John, the glorification described by the Ascension story seems to have taken place immediately after the Resurrection. The imagery of the account in the Gospel According to Lukeis similar to that of Acts, but there is no mention of a period of 40 days. The Ascension of Jesus is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed, a profession of faith used for baptism in the early church.

A distinctive feature of the feast’s liturgy in the Western churches is the extinguishing of the Paschal candle, first lit on Easter, after the Gospel has been read, as a symbol of Christ’s leaving the earth. Despite the idea of separation indicated in this act, which might be expected to set a note of sadness, the whole liturgy of Ascensiontide, through the 10 days to Pentecost, is marked by joy in the final triumph of the risen Lord. One of the central themes of the feast is the kingship of Christ, and the theological implication is that the Ascension was the final redemptive act conferring participation in the divine life on all who are members of Christ. In other words, Christ “was lifted up into heaven so that he might make us partakers of his Godhead.”

In the European Middle Ages the people’s delight in the visual and dramatic found an outlet in various ritual practices that came to be associated with the feast. Popular customs included a procession in imitation of Christ’s journey with his Apostles to the Mount of Olives, as well as the raising of a crucifix or a statue of the risen Christ through an opening in the church roof.
In Christian art the Ascension is an old theme, appearing since the 5th century. The earliest version of the Ascension, which persisted in the West until the 11th century, shows Christ from the side, climbing to the top of the hill and grasping the hand of God, which emerges from a cloud above to pull him into heaven. The Apostles, assembled below, watch the event.

In the 6th century a different version of the Ascension was developed in Syria and was later adopted in Byzantine art. This version emphasizes Christ’s divinity, showing him frontally, standing immobile in a mandorla, or almond-shaped aureole, elevated above the earth and supported by angels. He holds a scroll and makes a gesture of benediction. A curious detail of this version is the regular inclusion of the Virgin Mary, who is not mentioned in the biblical account of the event, and St. Paul, who, on historical grounds, was not present. The inclusion of these figures has not been adequately explained, but they may represent, with the figure of St. Peter, an allegory of the church that Christ leaves behind. This type of Ascension, which follows the Roman tradition of representing the apotheosis of an emperor, often figured prominently in the monumental decoration of Byzantine churches as the emblem of one of the principal church feast days.

In John 3:13 Jesus declared, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” That verse sounds difficult at first glance when we realize that in the Old Testament, Enoch ascended into heaven in the sense that he was carried there, as was Elijah when the chariots of fire lifted him up into the heavens. When Jesus speaks of ascension, He’s not speaking of merely “going up.” He is speaking of something in technical terms. He is thinking in terms of the Psalms of Ascent that celebrated the anointing of a king (Pss. 120–34). When Jesus says no one ascends into heaven, it is true that no one ascends or goes to heaven in the same manner or for the same purpose that He went there. He was lifted up on clouds of glory in order to go to His Father for the purpose of His coronation as our King — as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He ascended into heaven to fulfill His role as our Great High Priest, interceding for His people daily. So as He sits at the right hand of the Father, exercising His lordship over the whole world and His intercession before the Father on behalf of His people, He improves our condition dramatically. Not only this, but before Pentecost could come and the Holy Spirit could be poured out upon the church, empowering the church for its missionary enterprise to the whole world, it was necessary for Christ to ascend so that together with the Father He might dispatch from heaven the Holy Spirit in all of His power.

As hard as it is to imagine, the condition that we enjoy right now on this side of the atonement, on this side of the resurrection, this side of the ascension, and this side of Pentecost is, redemptively speaking, a greater situation than that which the disciples enjoyed during their three-year tenure in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We celebrate the ascension because we celebrate our King.

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