The only way is up
Readings: Luke 24. 44-53 & Ephesians 1. 15-23
Katy & I are big fans of rollercoasters. We’ve been to Alton Towers many times over the years, and of course shortly after moving here went to Oakwood. The same can’t be said of my mum, she does not enjoy rollercoasters, when me and my sister were younger she would be the one waiting next to the ride with the bags whilst myself, my sister and Dad went on them. From memory only once did we get her on one. And my enduring memory is of her in a rather panicked voice saying ‘it’s going up’. Yes we say, why are you worried. She replied ‘That means it’s going to go down’. On the one hand, that’s just how rollercoasters work, you have to go up to get any speed, but once you’re up the only way is down, usually pretty fast.
And life can sometimes feel like that, the only way is down. Things can only get worse. Whether it’s personally, we feel beyond our prime. Or in this country as we worry about the future. Or in the world as violence and wars seem to be on the increase, and the existential threat of global warming. We thought we were going up in the world, but does that just mean the only way is down?
The Gospel gives us rather a different view. The feast of the Ascension flips all that on its head. For us who know Christ ultimately the only way is up. Why? Because God has come down. The Feast of the Ascension doesn’t work without a descent, like a roller coaster in reverse, how can you go up if you first haven’t come down.
Jesus is the God who comes down, God with us. He descends in humility to Bethlehem, born vulnerable and frail, he descends further still as he becomes the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and hardship, he descends even further at Golgotha, suffering, humiliated, tortured and killed. There are no depths of sorrow, of hardship or difficulty, which Jesus has not Himself descended into. God descends, stoops to the lowest place. Even in our worst moments, the darkest days, we’ll find him there, his light shining there. He’s been there before us.
But he doesn’t stay there, he Ascends. In the victory of the Resurrection, Salvation’s work is done. Jesus has borne the weight of sin, paid our debts, he’s conquered death, he has become our way to God. Through Jesus our relationship with God can be restored, we can be made right with God once more. He bursts forth from the tomb in resurrection life and light and joy, the resurrection we’ve been celebrating these last 40 days, the resurrection we share in. And Luke tells us He stays for 40 days, teaching about himself from the Scriptures, convincing people of the reality of his resurrection, enjoying fellowship with them. And now, Jesus’ work of salvation is completed, and so in victory he leaves, he ascends into heaven to receive his reward. The Ascension is the final seal on the Resurrection. Having descended to the lowest depths now he ascends to the highest heights.
And He doesn’t just live, He reigns. He reigns right now at God’s right hand, working all things for the good of those who love Him. Jesus doesn’t leave for a holiday, you know, kettle on, feet up, Netflix on, leaves us so he can enjoy heaven for a bit then one day will remember us and come back. Jesus in His Ascension enters heaven in glorious and victorious procession and takes His place to reign over all things until the day when His Kingdom will come in all its fulness, when all things are made new.
The world isn’t left abandoned to the forces of entropy, to chaos, waiting for God to come and take control. Instead we are assured that the one who loves us so much that He died for us is reigning over all things. Working His purposes out in and through all things. He’s ruling as King, Christ triumphant ever reigning. That’s what the Ascension means. The man once crowned with thorns is now crowned with glory and honour, reigning for his people.
And he doesn’t shed his humanity as he goes. The incarnation wasn’t a bold experiment which he’s now done with. God the Son, the second person of the Trinity is eternally incarnate, eternally our brother, enfleshed. The one reigning on heaven’s throne is a human man. The one who identifies with our weaknesses, knows our troubles and strife from the inside.
And as he leaves, like any conquering King, he gives gifts to his people. He tells the disciples to wait, wait for the promised gift, wait for the Spirit. Even though he is for a time not here in person, he will not leave us as orphans, he is with us through the Holy Spirit. Even in his absence he is present. But that’s for Pentecost in ten days time.
Jesus has gone ahead of us, so that where he is, we will be. The only way is up. Just as we are united in His death and resurrection. We are also united with Him in His Ascension, not yet in its fullest sense. But even so, because we are united with Christ, because He is seated in the heavenly places so are we, right now by the Spirit, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And at last he will bring us to the fulness of that reality, no longer just in Spirit but physically, with him in glory. He will bring us, with all who trust in him, along with all of creation, into new and everlasting life, life in perfect and never-ending fullness. Life in God’s very presence. My brothers and sisters the only way is up.
So what now? Well Jesus tells us, tells his disciples as he leaves. You are my witnesses. We are to pass on what we have. Pass on our faith in him that others may come to believe, come to put their faith in him too. To share to the very ends of the earth the good news of the God who stoops to our lowest depths to raise us to his heights. That in him, through his death and resurrection, all can be forgiven, restored and healed. That death and evil and entropy don’t have the last word, Jesus does, the one who brings life and light and healing in his wings. What we have is good news, the God who died our death, now brings us his life if we place our faith, our hope, our trust in him.
My brothers and sisters he Feast of the Ascension means we have a friend in very high places. The King who rules over all things, the one who sends the Spirit to be with us and empower us, the brother who reaches down into the pit to draw us up to where He is. Which means whatever we face in even the darkest places we find Jesus who came down from heaven to the mess of our world, so that we can look up from the mess of our world to His heavenly glory, and know that where he is, there we also shall be. The world may think the only way is down, but we know the truth, in Jesus, the only way is up.
Jesus reigns, pass it on. Amen.