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May 4, 2008 |
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Academy of Christian Formation
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God Has Gone Up Luke 24:44-53; Psalm 47 Dr. Dennis L. Johnson Baptist Temple, Charleston, West Virginia For 40 days after his resurrection from the dead, the risen Jesus lingered on earth. And during those days he appeared to his followers, ate and drank with them, including breakfast on the beach one morning, assuring them that he was no ghost. He spoke to them about being his witnesses not only at home but to all nations, and he promises the coming upon them of “power from on High.” And then last thing he did with them was bless them at Bethany. Of all the places he could have chosen to take them as his parting place, he chose Bethany. As Jan Richardson reminds us, it was a special place for him.[1] He retreated there often. His dear friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus made their home there and had shown Jesus hospitality there. It was the place where Jesus raised to new life the dead Lazarus and where a woman anointed Jesus when suffering and death awaited him. Friendship, hospitality, healing, restoration of life--these made Bethany a meaningful and memorable place for Jesus. So he took his companions there as the place he would depart from them. As he was blessing them at Bethany, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. Christ’s ascension from earth into heaven is perhaps the single-most neglected, ignored, avoided, puzzling part of the whole Jesus-story. It’s as if our rationalistic, scientific-dominated minds almost look at it as a primitive embarrassment from a distant unenlightened culture. We aren’t able to scientifically prove such an ascension, which doesn’t make it untrue. It means our minds are too small, too earthbound to grasp and understand the wonder and mystery of God and the truth about the ascended Christ beyond and above the earthly. It’s not a scientific question; it’s a faith conviction. This faith conviction was formalized in the Apostle’s Creed I was taught and memorized and recited in worship during the Presbyterian part of my spiritual journey. Even though I became a non-creedal Baptist, those ancient church words about Jesus are still precious to me: “born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” “Ascended into heaven.” What are we talking about? What are we saying, not only as Christians but also to the world? We are saying in the words of the Psalmist, “God has gone up.” The crucified and risen Jesus has gone up, not to abandon us, but to take charge, to rule, to put all things under his feet. He has gone up to take his rightly place as Lord and ascended to assume godly rule. And this godly rule of the living Lord is to reign in our hearts and every dimension of our lives. Under the Lordship of Christ, we love as Jesus loved and we do that which brings greater glory and praise to God in all circumstances. Under the Lordship of Christ, we open ourselves to be more fully conformed to the image of Christ, more perfectly shaped in Christ-likeness. Under the Lordship of Christ, “we find the basis and foundation of our lives not in earthly things, but in God alone.”[2]
But the reign of the ascended Christ is bigger than our hearts. He has gone up to rule as Lord of all creation and the entire cosmos. As William Willimon says, The one who came and stood beside us, who suffered because of us and for us, who felt the heel of Caesar, the fickleness of the mob, and the cowardice of disciples, this one has gone up. He is God, not just for the church, not just within my heart, but for the whole world. Nothing shall be beyond his lordship. Bonhoeffer wrote that if Christ is not Lord of all, Christ is not Lord at all. No matter who’s in the White House or who is elected the next President or what the media says or which way cultural winds blow, Christ is Lord of all. God has gone up, and nothing is beyond the lordship of God in and with and through Christ. This is what “he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven” means for us and the whole world. Christ is in charge. The apostle Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. He existed before creation began, for it was through him that everything was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen. Through him, and for him, also, were created power and dominion, ownership and authority…(E)very single thing was created through, and for, him. He is both the first principle and the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation. And now he is head of the body which is the Church. Life from nothing began through him, and he is, therefore, justly called the Lord of all.[3] Christ has gone up to rule with God. Scottish writer William Barclay, the insightful and prolific biblical scholar from an earlier generation, speaks to Christ’s ascending into heaven with these words: If the Ascension is the Ascension into glory, then clearly the Ascended Christ is the regal Christ. He is the ruler of the kings on earth. To him the great doxologies of praise are sung by the whole of creation. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. He is far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…All power is given to him. Clearly, the Ascended Christ is the Christ who has entered into his royal power.[4] In the ascension of Christ we are saying with Paul: Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[5] The ascension of Christ may be seldom recognized or discussed by us, but it speaks to the bedrock conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord and he shall have his way with all creation and ultimately his will shall triumph over every form and structure of evil and injustice. So in dark days and tough times, our faith clings to the conviction and our lives and lips proclaim, God has gone up. In a time when gas prices are going up, job losses are going up, home foreclosures are going up, war fatalities, casualties and life-changing injuries are going up, the cost of living is going up, the sense things are out of control is going up, we say God has gone up! The ascended Christ rules. To parents worrying about their children and grown children worrying about their aging parents; to the suffering, the hurting; to the terminally ill and dying and to those grieving the death of a loved one; to the despairing and desperate; to the mother anywhere in the world weeping for her hungry child; we say God has gone up. Christ is in charge. Let this be our witness to the crucified, risen and ascended Christ in whom and through whom there is forgiveness and redemption. Let us join the disciples in worshipping our living Lord Jesus, and with great joy return from this place of Bethany-blessing to our Jerusalem-world of everyday life to witness to Christ who came among us as one of us and was for us and bless God who created us and continues to care for us. Let us tell our story and share the news and live in our lives what we say with our lips: God has gone up. Christ is Lord of all--Lord of the church, Lord of our hearts, Lord of the whole world he holds in his embrace.
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