COLLEGE CHAPLAIN

The Embarrassment of Belief

This week in Chapel I shared a rather embarrassing and likely unbelievable story from my past. I did so because as we draw towards the end of our Jesus After Easter series the story ends with Jesus’ return to heaven. We have spent all of this term thinking about the resurrected Jesus, our Year 10 students have been scrutinising this event in further detail in their Christian Studies classes. While they may not have been convinced of the resurrection of Jesus the evidence and eyewitness testimonies at least deserve our time and consideration to evaluate them. 

However, the end of the story all seems a bit much. Jesus floats away into heaven and the disciples can’t see him anymore and then two white-robed angels appear out of nowhere to comfort the disciples. I mean come on! It can seem a little cringey and Christians often downplay this event now known as The Ascension. This is the part that baffles most students I talk to about Jesus. How can Jesus float away? Isn’t it a little too convenient that he disappears right when everyone was just beginning to hear reports of him being alive?

I think this is why the ascension of Jesus after Easter is often left out of the story or glossed over quickly. Nevertheless, if I’m to faithfully tell your child about Jesus each week then I have got to tell you the whole story. Indeed, when we look at the Ascension it is actually not an embarrassing optional extra for Jesus after Easter. It is just as necessary as his resurrection. Admittedly, the nature of it is a little more peculiar than the rest of the Jesus story, but if one is willing to have faith in the resurrection of Jesus then this event is actually even further evidence that Jesus’ resurrection was what Jesus claimed it to be.

Jesus ascended to heaven because he did what he said he would do, he is who he said he was, and he is where he needs to be. Firstly, Jesus did what he said he would do. Jesus said very clearly, repeatedly throughout his ministry that his death and resurrection would result in him being seen in glory. He would be glorious because of what he had done. He had heaped upon him not just the responsibility of all of our selfishness and rebellion towards God, but also the full and fearful punishment of God for that rebellion. Certainly, it crushed him on the cross down into death, but then because of his own sinless and indestructible life as the Son of God, he was raised to life. He was raised for us; raised so that a path to eternal peace and life would be paved. The way of that path was through death into life and up into eternity. Jesus ascending to heaven is the last stage of that rescue path. If he had hung around on earth signing autographs for millennia, would we really be sure that he had done what he said he would do?

Second, Jesus’ ascension shows us that he is who said he was. Jesus’ claim on earth to be the Son of God seemed a bit of stretch for those who heard it. It’s part of the reason why the authorities wanted him dead. How can a mere man be the son of the God of the heavens? Yet when the disciples saw Jesus ascend into heaven they saw him as he truly was—the heavenly Son of God. A little while later in Acts 7, Stephen is murdered for his faith in Jesus and as he nears death the heavens open and he sees Jesus sitting on a throne at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus alive in heaven shows us that he is who he said he was. Indeed, he is who God said he was, for it was God who at Jesus’ baptism declared ‘You are my beloved Son’ (Mark 1:11). We now know this to be true because only the Son of God could have conquered death like Jesus did, and so the only place for the Son of God to be is with his father in heaven.

Finally, Jesus’ ascension shows us that he is where he is meant to be. The Bible speaks in numerous places of Jesus being exalted to heaven to sit at his father’s right hand until the time is right for him to return. Indeed, that’s what the angels told the disciples at the end of the Ascension passage: ‘This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven’ (Acts 1:11).

This may all sound embarrassingly unbelievable because if Jesus is real, if he is the one who can save us from our sin and suffering then where on earth is he? Surely, we need him right now? People losing their lives, their livelihood over coronavirus, cities being flooded with protests over the injustices that face our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens here and black citizens the world over. How can Jesus being in heaven be the right place for him? Surely, he should roll up his sleeves and get down in the muck with us and help?

However, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus are the reason why I trust that Jesus is where he is meant to be now and one day he will mean to be here. Between now and that day, I believe that where Jesus is in heaven, he is there as the ruling king over everything. He rules over viruses and violence and everything else better or worse, because he rules from the heavens as the one who has proven that he rules both life and death. Everything I have told you I believe to be true. As embarrassing as you may think it sounds, it’s the best news I’ve ever heard and it’s the story I love telling more than any other story, because it’s truer than any other. 

To hear my embarrassing story, tune into the podcast here.

Gareth Tyndall | College Chaplain