Why is the Ascension of Christ so important? Significantly, Psalm 110 (particularly verse 1) is the most quoted passage in the NT and typically it is referred to the Ascension. 'The LORD says to my lord: "Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool". St Peter applied this verse to the Ascension of Christ in Acts 2 (vv34-35) noting that the verses could not be definitively applied to David because he did not ascend into the heavens! The full meaning of Psalm 110 is found in the Ascension to (and present Session of Christ at) the Father's right hand.
The Ascension concerns authority, Christ's authority; for Jesus Christ ascended after the resurrection to where He is at the right hand of God "with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him" (1 Peter 3. 22). Significantly again, Hebrews 1, which also quotes Psalm 110 (v1), speaks of Christ's ascension by implication (1.3) but adds that Jesus the Son, sat down 'at the right hand of the majesty on high'. Sitting down indicated the status of the Son. No one sat in the presence of the King except the King's heir; here Jesus sat down to point to his rank. According to Psalm 110, he is now waiting until all his enemies recognise his rightful place as Lord of the heavens and earth.
It's important for us to recognise afresh the place of our Lord at the right hand, the favoured place beside the Majesty on high, to bow our hearts before Him and continually to reverence Him in our hearts.
And, he is doing something remedially as his enemies are subdued; of course, it often does not look like it but to urge the problem of evil as an argument against the existence of the God revealed through the Christian scriptures does not work. It does not work because, as is now accepted more and more, man cannot stand in a position with regard to the whole universe so as to be able judge the plans and purposes of God.
However, apologetics aside, mankind can reflect on the fact if it will, that full humanity now dwells in the heavens with the King of the Universe. We note that in Luke's account (ch24), Jesus eats before his disciples, showing thereby his humanity but then a little later parts from them and is taken up into heaven (following the KJV text). Hebrews reminds us that this Son in the heavens who intercedes for us is able to do that effectively because he knows what it is to be human, to be tested, tried and tempted (2.18). So, are you in pain, need, sickness or any other kind of trouble; the Man in the heavens knows what that is like and sympathises with your condition not necessarily leading to our being lifted out of our condition but strengthening us in the condition.
I saw this marvellous little piece on a blog today (http://illuminations.blogs.com/illuminations/) and share it in the light of the church's focus on the Holy Spirit as we lead up to Pentecost:
"We live in an age when all of the marketing and focus of the media is about ME and what I want. As a pastor, I too am regularly tempted to try to do all I can to make our church comfortable and pleasing to those who might attend. While I think it is OK to be a little "SEEKER FRIENDLY", we must fight to truly make our churches more Holy Spirit friendly, and be a place that is welcoming to God and his Presence. We must also contend to do all we can to not feed the selfish tendencies of fallen human nature."
John 14, is overshadowed by Jesus', "where I am going you cannot come" (13: 33) and then with the issue of Peter's predicted denial. The chapter begins with the promise of Jesus' preparation of a new home in heaven for them, of his coming to take them to himself and of his being himself the very Road to the Father's house. He moves to the idea that the Father is in him and he in the Father. The works of the Son are the works of the Father but then the works of the disciples are going to be greater 'because I go to my Father.' Then comes the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit, the other Counsellor/ Comforter/ Advocate, who is another, 'just like' (so the Greek) Jesus. This Counsellor will strengthen them when they are brought before tribunals to bear witness to the Resurrection and will be not only with but in them. Jesus then said that he and the Father would love the one who has and keeps Jesus' commandments, which is equated with loving Jesus and having Jesus manifest himself to the disciples.
Then Judas (not Iscariot) asks, 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?' (Jn 14. 22). What a wonderful, probing question from Judas who was obviously following carefully what Jesus was saying. Jesus repeats the issue of obeying his commandments out of love and then says, "and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make home with him".
Ah, so now the disciples are going to have Father and Son residing within by the power of the Spirit and this residence will be a manifestation of the presence of the Lord to us all. This is experiential, inner knowledge of the Lord God.
St John 14 (1-14) among other things is Jesus' preparing of his disciples for his going away both at Calvary but also post-Calvary. With regard to the first, they have just heard the distressing news that Peter will betray the Lord three times before the cock crows. No wonder their hearts are troubled!
However, St John, by the Holy Spirit, is also telling his readers more about the uniqueness of Jesus, the 'road' to God. In a sense, this theme has dominated his work from chapter 1. "No one has seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (v 18).
Our Lord directs their faith, not to Peter's predicted failure but to God and himself, to the road He will travel in order to go and prepare a place for them. Beautifully the writer transitions from this going with the theme of Himself as the Road, the unique Road to God.
First, Jesus tells them to their consternation I suspect that they know this way he is about to take. Dear Thomas then asks the question on all of their hearts I suspect, "Lord, we don't know where you are going and how can we know the way?" Jesus answers, "I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me" (v 6).
"I am the road" is the translation given by J B Phillips and I think it a singularly helpful one for it gives us a word-picture. Just as a pathway, a footpath, a road allows us to get somewhere, Jesus is the One who leads to the Father. This revelation is profound because it means that our whole lives need to be lived upon the roadway which is Jesus, who is truth and life.
I found it interesting that in Eastertide we have Shepherd Sunday (John 10. 1-18). One compelling reason is that the Shepherd discourse brings to the fore the qualities of our Saviour as the One who suffers for his sheep and lays down his life for his sheep.
This is the Easter message in the context of the middle-eastern shepherd who lies across the doorway of the sheepfold, who puts his body 'on the line'. By being the One who lies in the doorway, He is able to say, 'I am the door to the sheepfold' and 'I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture'.
But more than that, St John wants to impress upon us that Jesus is unique as the door in that this shepherd not only lays down his life for the sheep but then is able by the authority vested in Him by the Father to take that life up again. No one took his life away from him. He voluntarily laid it down so that he might take it up again for all his sheep. Was there ever a shepherd like this that even death was unable to hold him fast on the third day? Of course not! No holy man or woman has ever defeated death in that way Jesus Christ did! No wonder St John urgently sets him forward as the Good Shepherd.
Hearing the Emmaus story read again today, I became aware of the graphic picture it presents of the Christ ministering to us in all our troubles, griefs, sicknesses and problems: the Christ we see but do not recognise!!
And the fact that we do not recognise Him does not make his ministry to us any less potent. The Lord seemed content to minister to Cleopas and his companion without their knowing who He was. So often in life, we only realise much later that it was the Lord serving us, upholding us, supporting us and teaching us at a particularly dark time.
Perhaps the Emmaus story, along with many other of its facets, reminds us that our Lord is always with us because He has purposes to perform in our lives that will be achieved despite our spiritual blindness and sometime lack of zeal.
