Just What Does "taken Up" Mean For Jesus?

Ascension Day

One commonality that men and women my age have in the U.S., no matter what religion we were raised in, is the story of Jesus. If I bet money, I’d lay odds that anyone age 65 or older in 2022 can at least give a general outline of the life of Christ, even if he or she didn’t think Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. In fact, most Christians in their worship recite the story weekly. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, performed miracles of healing, was arrested, tried and found guilty, suffered death, was buried, and rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. One of the great losses we have suffered as a culture in the last half century is that this great story is no longer known to our young people, or celebrated by most of their families. I would suspect that has a lot to do with the decline of marriages, births in nuclear families, and virtuous living.

Now when I was a child, I heard the story of the ascension into heaven. Matthew, Mark and Luke agree that Jesus met His disciples either in Bethany, near Jerusalem, or in Galilee. Mark and Luke tell us that He was taken up into heaven. Luke writes it twice–in his Gospel and in the Acts, both of which we heard today.

When I was ten, that meant that Jesus went up into the clouds and literally sat at the right hand of the Father, on a throne in the clouds. In the seventies, grade-school CCD children were given balloons in some places to let go to symbolize the ascent. By the time Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, came back to earth and reported that he had been up through the clouds and didn’t see God, because there was no God, I knew that heaven wasn’t a place in space. So the communist’s blasphemy didn’t do me any damage, but it damaged others’ primitive understanding. Incomplete catechesis can be worse than none at all, because it leaves the ignorant thinking that they “get it” when they don’t.

So what does it really mean? “Jesus was taken up into heaven.” To get a better understanding, we should delve into both the OT and the NT.

In Genesis (5:24) we read that Enoch, descendant of Seth and great-grandfather of Noah, lived a total of three hundred sixty-five years, and then “walked with God, for God took him.” Jeshua ben Sira, hundreds of years later, praised him as “an example of repentance to all generations.” The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.”

Most folks know the story of Elijah, the prophet, who was taken up into heaven (2 K 2:11) by a whirlwind, after a fiery chariot separated him from Elisha, his successor prophet, who worked mightier deeds even than his mentor.

So the taking up of Jesus into heaven makes sense in light of these precedents. But even more than that, we learn from St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians, Jesus first humbled Himself, making Himself a poor carpenter-turned-prophet. He was humiliated by His own choice all the way to suffering the death of a slave, crucifixion, to do the Father’s will. Therefore the Father raised Him from death and exalted Him above every other heavenly power, so glorified that every knee should bow and every tongue profess that He is Lord. That is the ultimate meaning of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.

Now it’s our turn. Our lives after Baptism, and surely after Confirmation and frequent reception of the Eucharist, should profess the same reality. We are called to be like Christ, and like Christ to live humble lives. Lives of poverty, not destitution. If we need an automobile, maybe it needn’t be the latest model. Share the difference with the poor, with the Church. When honors are available, they don’t have to come to me. I can suggest a subordinate, or coworker. We can share power with someone who needs a mentor, to help that person become a true servant-leader.

Then we can look forward to our own ascension when we fall asleep for the final time. It will be an existence that is far better, far higher than we can imagine, but only if we, like Christ, spend our lives in service to God and our neighbor.