He Ascended, and We in Him
“Two men in white robes” acknowledge the great mystery that scripture and the creeds attest to: “He ascended into heaven.” Jesus has been taken up from us, ascending into heaven, back to the right hand of the Father. Yet he is taken up for us, both as a pledge of our own future bodily resurrection following his, but also as a means of empowering our witness to him on earth amongst all sorrowing flesh. Having descended from heaven to take up our flesh, fulfilling scripture and accomplishing our salvation, Jesus now ascends back from whence he came, bearing our humanity into the presence of God forever. Our human flesh, in all its frailty and redeemed glory, is now before God forever! So no longer are things in heaven and life on earth far apart, and no longer is the suffering and weakness of our own flesh far off from God’s own life. Thus the two men ask the gawking disciples, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Just as God has put God’s great power to work in raising up Christ above all things, so in this same ascension God has given us a glimpse of the heavenly glory that we too one day shall share in, and that we share in already within the church, “which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Confident that Christ has brought our humanity on high, we are unleashed to be his people in this world.
