We have one up and one down this month as we continue with the Alleluias of the 50 days of Easter celebration. The ‘up’ happens on 14th May, 40 days after the resurrection with the Ascension of Christ. The resurrection appearances were not confined to a few people over just one weekend but continued for nearly six weeks. We read about breakfast on the shore of lake Galilee, or the walk to Emmaus, or Jesus appearing to ‘doubting’ Thomas, but other times will have happened before Jesus ascended in to heaven.
There is an important quote from Gregory of Nazianzus (born 329AD) which reads, ‘That which he has not assumed, he has not redeemed (or healed)’. It is about Jesus having full humanity, experiencing the whole range of human experience (yet without sin). No divine short cuts but the full frustration, joy, pain and delight; the not knowing, sorrow and grief, alongside the full wonder of friendship and love. No short cut on the cross but the full horror of betrayal, torture, death and burial (and descending to the dead for the harrowing of hell). Then Ascension.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus had the mark of the nails still left in his hands and feet, and the scar of the spear in his side after he had risen from the dead? Surely if you could come back to life you could have a perfect, unmarked body. But these marks are so important. Jesus takes with him in to heaven all that it is to be human. Rather than escape our humanity Jesus embraces it, redeems it and heals it. It is not gone away but is transformed.
For me this gives purpose and meaning to both the delights and the trials of this life; nothing is outside the knowledge and love of God, there is nothing that is too great or trivial for God. Also every human being, battered or scarred, is of sacred importance to God and therefore to me, humankind matters enough to be assumed into heaven.
That just leaves the ‘down’, the Day of Pentecost on Sunday 24th May when we look at the power from on high.
Nick
Team Vicar