Today is Ascension Day, forty days past Easter.  My brother put up one of those icons of Jesus getting swooped up today, complete with footprints on the rock. 

The more I study the Ascension, the more I realize that, at least in the eyes of Paul and the Gospel writers, the Resurrection and Ascension were two parts of the same event.  (In John, Pentecost’s there, too.)  How many times does Paul say something to the effect of “Jesus was raised and seated in authority over everything else”?  It’s quite frequent.  See Ephesians 1:20-23, especially.  Jesus gained the authority, it seems, over everything in his death and resurrection, and then came into his throne at the Ascension.  Thus, in our discussions of the Resurrection, we naturally must flow into the Ascension for our theology of the Resurrection to be complete.  And of course, an Ascension without a Resurrection is just nonsense - at least as long as the crucifixion did its job. 

This means that Jesus the Messiah’s victory over death, sin and the devil was part and parcel of his rule over all powers and authorities - “not only in this age but in the age to come” (Eph. 1:21, NRSV).  This is the day we can declare his kingship over all the other authorities in our lives - governments, families, the weather, etc.  He’s not just ruler over the age to come, but he has been made ruler over this present age as well. 

For us, this means that the world is even more in out-and-out rebellion against him, and we are to be responsible participants in his new way of life. 

Praise God for the Ascension!