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The Resurrection of our Lord was followed by His Ascension into heaven.
There is less evidence for the Ascension than for the Resurrection.
Instead of four accounts we have only the direct evidence of St. Luke given
in his Gospel and more fully in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
But St. Luke is a thoroughly trustworthy historian who knew some of those
who were present and was as careful in his selection of evidence as any ancient
historian could be.
There are also many allusions to the Ascension in other books of the New
Testament.
St. Paul refers to it (Rom.8.34; Col.3.1; Eph.1.20, 4.10; Phil.2.9; I Tim.3.16).
In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is the foundation of the author's argument:
Christ is the High Priest who has passed into the heavens,
as the high priest on the Day of Atonement passed into the Holy of Holies
(Heb.1.3, 4.14, 8.1, 9.12, 24, 10.12, 12.2).
It is also mentioned in I Peter 3.22
and in the Marcan Appendix (Mark 16.19).
The Ascension was necessary, for the appearances of our Lord after the Resurrection
were not to continue indefinitely.
There must have been some event to bring them to an end.
When the disciples were asked, "If, as you say, your Master is not dead
but risen, where is He now?"
they answered,
"He has ascended to the right hand of God."
This answer is assumed by all parts of the New Testament.
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If we had only St. Luke's Gospel, we might suppose that the Ascension took
place on the same day as the Resurrection.
But St. Mark, St. Matthew, and St. John (in his last chapter which is an
appendix) tell us that our Lord also appeared to the disciples in Galilee,
which implies that they had time to go to Galilee and return.
And the
Acts tells us that the appearances went on for forty days, which is the usual
Hebrew expression for a considerable time, but must have been fairly exact
in this case as Pentecost was fifty days after the Passover.
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While they beheld, He was taken up;
and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
The traditional site of the Ascension is a spot on the road from Jerusalem
to Bethany now occupied by a small mosque.
It is on the brow of the
hill just beyond the place where the city ceases to be visible.
Our
Lord appears to have risen up off the earth and passed into a cloud as a
sign that He would be seen on earth no more.
We are not to think of
Him disappearing into the blue sky like a skylark,
still less as "soaring
through tracts unknown" to some astronomically remote place.
The Ascension is much more wonderful and mysterious than that.
He passed out of time and space altogether.
He did not go up as one ascends in an aeroplane.
He went up as an heir to the throne becomes king,
as a boy goes up from the fourth form into the fifth form,
as a soldier rises when he becomes a general.
He is not "in the bright place far away", for He is
not far from each one of us
(Acts 18.27);
but He is too glorious to be seen by human eye, except in vision
as St. Paul saw Him at his conversion and was blind for three days (Acts
9.9),
and as St. John in Patmos saw Him and fell at His feet as one dead (Rev.1.17).
Therefore we are not to think of the Ascension in terms of astronomy.
It has nothing to do with astronomy.
If we are asked, "Where is He now?"
we can only answer in symbolic language, "At the right hand of God",
though we do not mean that God has a body and a right hand.
He is out of space and time,
but we can only think in terms of space and time.
The events of the Incarnation are all mysteries.
They have one side in space and time, the other outside.
Our Lord was conceived and born in a particular place on a particular day,
but He came into space and time from outside.
He rose from the dead in Jerusalem on a particular Sunday morning,
but the return of His spirit from the dead is outside our understanding.
Likewise, His Ascension took place at a particular place and time,
but He went out of space and time.
All these events are partly historical
and are therefore subject, so far
as they are historical,
to the ordinary rules of historical evidence.
But they are also partly outside of history.
It is true that no one, so far as we know, who was not a disciple, saw our
Lord after the Resurrection.
It does not follow that no one else could have seen Him.
Anyone who met the disciples going to Emmaus must have seen three men, not
two.
Anyone who had been present on that part of the Mount of Olives at the right
moment would have seen the Ascension.
No unbeliever saw our Lord after the Resurrection because He took care that
no one should.
He did not wish to force anyone's belief.
He did not wish to drive anyone mad, as might have happened if anyone had
seen Him without faith.
It is certain that some of those who did see
Him did not expect to see Him and did not recognize Him at once though they
knew Him so well (Luke 24.15, 31; John 20.15, 25; 21.4).
The Ascension is therefore an historical event, and it is also an event
in the spiritual world, the exaltation of the Manhood of Jesus Christ to
the glory of Heaven.
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Why did our Lord withdraw from His disciples?
For three reasons:
When our Lord had ascended into Heaven, He sat down at the right hand of
God.
Every reference to this event is connected with Psalm 110.1,
treated as a prophecy of the Messiah.
Christ is regarded as enthroned (Heb.1.13, 10.13; Rev.3.21).
Ascension Day is the festival of Christ the King.
(For this reason the modern addition of a special festival of Christ the
King by the Roman Communion is superfluous.)
"Sitting" is, of course, a metaphor.
It signifies not rest but triumph.
The victorious King sits because He is the conqueror of death and Satan.
Once, we are told, He was seen standing by St. Stephen at the moment of his
death.
This means that He is always ready to help (Acts 7.55; cf. Rev.1.13,
5.6).
The "right hand" means the position of highest honour and power.
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He is not idle in Heaven but ceaselessly active,
for His work of redemption is not finished.
Mankind is not yet fully saved far from it!
He is the Head of the Church (Eph.4.15; Col.2.19),
the Mediator between God and man (I Tim.2.5; Heb.8.6, 9.15, 12.24),
the Intercessor and Advocate for men with the Father (I John 2.1),
not that the Father loves us any less than He does,
but that His love is shown by His intercession,
than which nothing is more pleasing to the Father.
He directs His Church from Heaven.
He does not possess any earthly headquarters.
All places and countries are the same to Him.
The danger that the Church might have its centre at Jerusalem,
like the Church of the Old Testament,
was removed by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
In later times Rome and Constantinople have been great centres,
but their dominance has been merely of human origin.
The only Head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ,
and her only headquarters is in Heaven.
It is contrary to the universal character of the Christian religion that
any one city, country, or nation should lead the Church, either permanently
or by divine right.
No one nation has any claim to the special favour of God,
such as Dante claimed for the Romans,
some Russian thinkers for the Russians (and some Englishmen for England).
The "British Israel" theory carries this claim to the point of
heresy,
for St. Paul teaches that the heirs of Abraham
are not those who are descended from Abraham
(as the "British Israel" theorists fantastically claim that the
English are),
but those who have the faith of Abraham (Gal.3.7 ff.).
Though Christ is in Heaven, He is not far away. Heaven is not a place
but a state, and He is nearer to us than we are to one another.
His
ministry, exercised from Heaven, takes three forms:
He is our King, our Prophet,
and our Priest.
Our Lord told us that all authority had been given to Him in heaven and
in earth
(Luke 10.22; Matt.11.27, 28.18).
This authority included lordship
over the angels (Eph.1.21; Phil.2.9; Heb.1.4; I Pet.3.22);
over nature (Col.1.16; Rev.5.13);
over man (Matt.25.32; Rev.2.26; etc.).
The kingdom of this world,
which He will render up to His Father at the last day (I Cor.15.24),
is to be distinguished from His eternal kingdom
which, as we say in the Creed, will have no end (Luke 1.33).
[This clause was inserted to exclude the teaching of Marcellus
of Ancyra, see p. 64.]
The kingdom of the Lord on earth is not actual but potential
that is, not what is, but what ought to be, and might be.
The earth is His by right, but actually most of it is under the power of
the Devil.
The Church is not itself the Kingdom
but is charged with the administration of the Kingdom on earth. (See pp.
252-253.)
Our Lord is also the Prophet, the last and greatest of the Prophets of
Israel.
Their work was to declare to man the will of God,
to say with authority "Thus saith the Lord".
Our Lord, however, said, not "Thus saith the Lord",
but "Verily, verily, I say unto you".
His prophetic work is exercised by means of God the Holy Ghost,
who is the true and only Vicar or Representative of Christ (John 14.26).
It is God the Holy Ghost, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity,
who declares the will of God both to the Church as a whole
and to each member of it (Acts 4.31, 15.28, 16.6-7, 20.23, 21.11, I John
2.20).
Our Lord is also the great High Priest
who at His Ascension passed within the veil,
as the earthly high priest did on the Day of Atonement and, being a high
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (Heb.6.20), offers perpetually
to the Father the sacrifice or offering of His life once laid down.
There can be no repetition of what was done for all on the Cross.
His sacrifice is not repeated but perpetual in Heaven.
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The Church on earth, of which He is the head, has her part in His work as
King, as Prophet, and as Priest.
The Apostles were given His authority to rule the Church,
and that authority has been passed on to their successors in every generation.
The duty of declaring to the world the will of God is laid upon the Church
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who from time to time sends prophets
and teachers into the world and directs the rise of new movements required
by successive generations.
And the Church is permitted to share in the priestly work of the Lord in
heaven, offering the work and the life and the gifts of men,
in union with His perfect and sinless offering, to the Father.
The Holy Eucharist is the means through which all offering on earth is brought
into one. (See pp. 368-379.)
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Finally, our Lord is the Judge of men.
He is continually judging all our life,
and He will come again at the end of the world to give His final judgment
when His work as King, as Prophet, and as Priest in relation to this world
will be brought to an end. (See pp. 447-9.)
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