The Ascension of Jesus Christ

The Ascension of Jesus Christ

Introduction

The two primary historical passages describing the ascension are found in Luke 24:50-51 and Acts 1:9-11.4 In these accounts, Luke places the ascension forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3) while still maintaining its close connection to the resurrection (Luke 24). In each passage, it is clear that the ascension is the essential fulcrum linking the life of Jesus (the Gospels) to the life of the Church (Acts). Even though these Lucan accounts of the ascension are usually seen as normative for our understanding of the ascension as a historical event, other passages expound on the theological significance of the ascension as an 'accomplished fact'. Of particular importance to this study are the passages exhibiting the themes of descent and ascent.

Discussion

According to the common teaching of the Church Fathers, the most significant manifestation of the descent-ascent motif is the descent of Jesus assuming human nature in the incarnation and the ascent of that human-divine Jesus in his resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. Quite frequently, the Fathers draw upon these themes in connection with the biblical logic of John 3:13, in which the ascent of the Son of Man into heaven is interpreted as dependent on and proportional to his descent from heaven. Similarly, Novatian states in De Trinitate, 'the word descended from heaven as promised to the flesh so that through the assumption of the flesh the son of man might be able to ascend to that place, whence the Son of God had descended.' It was argued that if the second Person of the Trinity emptied himself in the incarnation, then the ascension can be seen as a glorification of Jesus' human nature. Hilary of Poitiers says similarly, 'Then the Word made flesh, even in its manhood, would return [ascend] to the unity of the Father's nature, since the flesh that was assumed had taken possession of the glory of the Word.' As the completion of Christ's work on earth, the ascension is interpreted by the Church Fathers as the climax of redemption, in so far as it completes the movement of Jesus, the God-man, from humiliation through glorification. John Davies writes that Maximus, in a sermon dating to the 460s AD, refers to the ascension as the completion of Christ's work of redemption. Maximus sums up the essence of the miracle of the ascension in that 'He brought to the Father the manhood which He had assumed from the earth' so that 'He might gain possession of the authority which was His due and that an inviolate faith of promised immortality might remain for us .'

The theological significance of the ascension

The pattern established by the Church Fathers to interpret the ascension as the climax of redemption, the uppermost point on the upward movement of ascent, is a result of expounding on the theological significance of the ascension, not merely its historical occurrence. Whereas the historical emphases of Luke's accounts of the ascension ...