Ascension Day
Un royaume
lorsqu’il l’a ressuscité des morts et fait asseoir à sa droite dans les cieuxr, 21bien au-dessus de toute Autorité, Pouvoir, Puissance, Souveraineté et de tout autre nom qui puisse être nommé, non seulement dans ce monde, mais encore dans le monde à venirs.
il faut que s’accomplisse tout ce qui a été écrit de moi dans la Loi de Moïse, les Prophètes et les Psaumesi. »
mais d’y attendre la promesse du Père, « celle, dit-il, que vous avez entendue de ma bouche : 5Jean a bien donné le baptême d’eau, mais vous, c’est dans l’Esprit Saint que vous serez baptisés d’ici quelques jours. »
8mais vous allez recevoir une puissance, celle du Saint Esprit qui viendra sur vous ; vous serez alors mes témoins à Jérusalem, dans toute la Judée et la Samarie, et jusqu’aux extrémités de la terre.
voici que deux hommes en vêtements blancs se trouvèrent à leur côté 11et leur dirent : « Gens de Galilée, pourquoi restez-vous là à regarder vers le ciel ? Ce Jésus qui vous a été enlevé pour le ciel viendra de la même manière que vous l’avez vu s’en aller vers le ciel. »
If these figures do indeed represent Moses and Elijah, which seems probable, they ought to know about such things, since both of them traditionally “ascended” into heaven (in spite of Deut. 34:6).
Luke Johnson suggests one last Moses/Elijah connection that is crucial to the interpretation of the ascension of Jesus in Acts. As in the Gospel of John, Jesus needs to leave before the disciples can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Readers will recall that just as Moses’ departure enabled Joshua to exorcize his prophetic spirit (Deut. 34:9), so Elijah’s ascent into heaven was necessary before Elisha could receive a double portion of his prophetic spirit (2 Kgs. 2:9). As Johnson summarizes, “So long as Jesus was physically present, he was available only to those he encountered; by the Spirit he became powerfully present to many through his prophetic successors.”
Christians, in celebrating the ascension of Christ, also affirm the kingship/Messiah status of Jesus, the reality of God’s reign at the center of Jesus’ message, and the universal love of all of those who acknowledge their dependence on God.
The psalm makes it clear that, humanly and politically speaking, no power is absolute. It warns us against the undue claim of sovereignty that nations are tempted to claim for themselves and the danger of wanting to be number one.
As is true with all Hebrew Bible passages, we must do a double reading—once to determine what the text might have meant to ancient Israel (and by extension, what it might mean for Jews today) and once to determine what the text might mean for the Christian community.
On Ascension Day, we are invited to celebrate God’s reign. Just as God provided for Israel in days of old, God continues to provide for us in the twenty-first century.
In the first 900 years of Christian history, Christians did not focus on images of the tortured, dead body of Jesus that now haunt Western imagination, according to Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker.
Perhaps a way to begin is with the notion of an “uplifting experience.”
of “all things seen and unseen.”
Rather, it is concerned with the divine act of making space so that the mission of the church can begin. So long as God was in the world in human form, all eyes and hearts were fixed there. Jesus’ ascension makes space for the disciples to turn their gaze upon the world, where “repentance and
A prayer commonly attributed to Teresa of Avila (1515–82) poetically expresses this reality:
God of love, help us to remember
that Christ has no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours.
Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the world.
Ours are the hands with which to bless everyone now.
Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.
Stand up for justice. Look up in hope. Pull yourself up. I am feeling up today. Look up at the stars. The sun is up. Reach up. Up with people. I am on the upward way. Up, up, up you go, up in the sky so blue.