Ascension Sunday 2021

Tell me if you’ve seen this picture before. A white-skinned Jesus with luscious blonde locks levitating above the ground surrounded by a pillar of light, almost as if he had just uttered the phrase, “Beam me up, Scottie.” Have you seen that image? On billboards, pamphlets, and terribly illustrated children’s Bible’s? Yes, most likely.

This is typically how people think about the ascension of Jesus. If they think of it at all. They focus on Jesus being lifted up into the heavens. They see it as a spacial ascension. But, I need you to throw that image out of your mind. The ascension of Jesus is not about a change of altitude. It’s a change of power.

Think of any movie that you’ve seen that involved a king or queen. There’s always a scene where they are in their palace or castle or whatever, sitting on the throne. The throne is the symbolic place of power and authority, it’s where the king or queen executes their authority and will. And how do we describe someone who begins their governance? They ascend to the throne. It’s an ascension of power.

If you had met Jesus during his time on earth, if you had heard him teach in any of the towns he visited, you would have heard him speak about the Kingdom of God. He told everyone he came into contact with that he had good news to share, and the good news was that God was going to take the throne of Creation, and he would defeat all evil and injustice and end all suffering and pain, even death! He would create a new world out of the old, and this new world would be characterized by love, peace, beauty, and joy. Everywhere he went, Jesus announced this good news of the Kingdom, but it’s in his ascension that we see first hand that Jesus is not just the messenger, he is the King and his agenda of global restoration and global renewal has begun.

And this is such great news. This is the best of news for a whole host of reasons, but this morning we’re going to talk about just one.

The fact that Jesus has ascended to the throne of the world as King is good news, because it means we can give up the struggle to be God. To embrace the ascension of Jesus is to heave a big sigh of relief as we give up our struggle to be God, and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure to be God, and to enjoy our God given-role in this world: which is to point people to the real King, King Jesus.