Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension. The Ascension is traditionally one of the high feast days of the Church year. However, it usually gets very little attention from the average Christian because it usually falls on a weekday. This celebration recalls that after spending forty days with the first Christians after His resurrection, Jesus ascended, that is returned to heaven. The first chapter of the book of Acts records this event and seems to imply that Jesus was literally lifted up into the sky. Exactly how, being both God and man, Jesus returned to God the Father and the divine realm are mysteries we cannot explain. However, the importance of this event cannot be under estimated for our own lives as Christians.
The Ascension strikes several chords that ring important truths for Christians:
1. The Ascension completed Jesus’ passion further proving His messiah-ship.
2. The Ascension is also the event through which Jesus’ humanity was taken into heaven, even into the Trinity itself. This is a great mystery, but also a great encouragement for us to know that God did not only create us, but that God understands us from our own human point of view.
3. The Ascension completes Jesus’ victory over Satan. A victory He won at the cross and through His resurrection. The final battle remains to be won by Jesus (at the second coming), but through the Cruxification, Resurrection, and Ascension Jesus has already won the war against Satan and “all the spiritual forces of wickedness which rebel against God” (BCP, 302).
What does it mean, "The final battle remains to be won by Jesus..."?
ReplyDeleteThe second coming of Christ, the war has been won (at the cross), the final "battle" if you will is when Christ returns and ushers in the fullness of the Kingdom of God. This is the reality that we are living in the Kingdom of God, it is here, but it isn't fully here yet, what is ofter referred to as "already/not yet" theology.
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