Image: "Ascension"
© Jan Richardson
© Jan Richardson
May 8, 2016
Today,
Jesus comes full circle.
Thirty-three
years ago he descended from heaven;
33
years later he ascends back to heaven.
We
are not privileged to know what he thought on this day,
but
if I were he, I would have three questions about his earthly experience:
What
did it mean? What did it accomplish? What now?
What
did those earthly, human years mean, this new life with a body in time?
The
Son of God descended from knowing all things intuitively to learning everything
bit by ignorant bit.
The
One who had created all things by simply saying the word now painstakingly
shaping wood into a chair.
That
perfectly peaceful person in complete control of divine desire descended to the
depth of human passion.
He
forgave a few people, but sinners abound.
He
healed a few people, but not everyone.
So,
except for raising a couple of people from the dead — who then had to die again
— the day-to-day life of Jesus might have been pretty much like our lives.
And
like all of us intelligent people, he must have occasionally felt ill at ease
with ignorant villagers;
he might have soared
like an eagle except for those turkey disciples.
If
only the religious leaders knew more scripture and if the civil leaders were
not leftovers from the royal court,
if
he hadn’t been born in the wrong time at the wrong place, he might have
succeeded more.
Second question: What did all those years accomplish?
Jesus
saw the world as a battle between his Father and Satan.
So,
he spent a lot of time and energy exorcising demons.
That
looks like a strange strategy to us.
His
main message was the Kingdom of God.
But
he wasn’t dead a few years before that project was put on the back burner by
his first followers.
They
had their own agenda of survival in a secular culture.
And
his followers are still doing the same thing.
Jesus
thought of himself as dying for his friends in faithfulness to his Father.
Later
theologians have tried to explain how one person’s death could make up for all
of humanity’s sins
and
what it might mean to be reconciled with God.
But
whatever the life and death of Jesus meant to his Father, to us it means that
God has experienced our pain and joy and dreams and disillusionments.
God
now realizes what complex, improbable lives we lead.
Last question: What now?
Jesus
could have decided that he had done what he came to do; that whatever he did or
did not accomplish was a matter for the records;
that
he had done all he could do, and the rest was up to God.
Pretty
much the way we feel.
But
not entirely.
Most
people have a desire to leave some kind of a legacy: a family, a foundation —
some continuation of their life that would somehow vindicate their existence, carry on their project.
Jesus
had that same desire, magnified to divine intensity.
But
if the sin of the world has been forgiven,
if
humankind has been reconciled to God,
what is there left to do?
Ah,
there’s still that pesky “Kingdom of God” that keeps getting tabled because of
more pressing business.
When
will we learn that the Kingdom is our agenda?
When
will we learn that, if we pursued that, everything else would fall into place.
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