Why Should We Celebrate Christ's Ascension?

Growing up, my church never celebrated Christ’s ascension on a special day, nor did I think too much about its importance.  On Palm Sunday, I paraded with the other kids up the aisle singing Hosanna and waving palm branches as trumpets blared.  Holy Thursday and Good Friday we were somber.  On Easter morning, we gathered on the church patio to wait for sunrise and then we sang to a small brass band composed of any church members who could play a brass instrument; it didn’t sound very good, and I always felt a little bad for the people in the apartments across the street, who probably didn’t enjoy such noise at 6 a.m.  But we shouted “He is risen!” because we couldn’t contain our joy.  Then we went into the church full of lilies for more formal worship and the trumpets resounded again (this time, only the semi-professionals played).  Pentecost involved a smaller celebration.  Christ’s ascension was just skipped over.  The Cross brought our forgiveness; Christ’s resurrection assured that we would live after death; his ascension was insignificant for our salvation.

However, as an adult I have been captivated by the view of salvation as Jesus swooping down from heaven to scoop up humanity by joining us to himself, then returning with us to God at the ascension (Bonaventure's exitus-reditus).  In this view, Christ’s ascension is essential to our salvation.  But is this view biblical?  Recently, I noticed an important word I never noticed before in Luke 9:51 - "When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem."  The main goal mentioned here is not to heal, preach, die for our sins, or challenge the authorities, but the goal is to be "taken up/ascended," using the Greek word later used by Luke to refer to the ascension in Acts 1, (similar to Luke 24:51).  I never realized that Luke mentions the ascension so early, and places it as the goal of the journey to Jerusalem just as John's Gospel says that the night Jesus was arrested "Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father" (13:1) and then he spoke of "going to the Father" and sending the Spirit (John 14:1-6,28; 16:28; 17:11).  In other words, both Luke and John present the ascension as an important result of Jesus’ crucifixion.  As we go through our own suffering/crosses, we can be sure that our goal is the same - return to the Father- and we can have hope because in Jesus we are already seated at the right hand of God, for Ephesians 2:4-6 says, "God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, brought us to life with Christ... raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus" (c.f. Colossians 3:1-3; Hebrews 6:20).  Again, Christ’s ascension involves our salvation.  It is most definitely something we should celebrate!

Here are some wonderful quotes about the Ascension.  Bishop Gregory of Nyssa wrote,  “I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God [John 20:17].  O what wonderful good news!  He who for our sake became like us in order to make us his brothers, now presents to his true Father his own humanity in order to draw all his kindred up after him” [cf. Heb 2:17; 9:24] .” (St. Gregory of Nyssa, bishop, Oratio I in Christi resurrectionem: Jaeger IX, 305, in Monday of Fifth Week of Easter, Office of Readings).

St. Augustine wrote,

“Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food. Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are sons of God. 

So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body. Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head. "

(St Augustine, Sermo de Ascensione Domini, Mai 98, 1-7: PLS 2, 494-495, quoted in Office of Readings for Ascension Thursday in the Sixth Week of Easter).