Up but not away
A Sermon for Ascension Sunday, 1 June 2025
Primary Texts:
Acts 1:1-14
Rev 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17: 20-26
We have an amalgam of Sunday readings this morning – the first reading (Acts 1:1-14) is the one that is assigned for the Sunday after Ascension (which this is) and the Gospel (John 17:20-26) is for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, which this is too. These two readings work quite well together; the Acts reading gives an account of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, 40 days after his resurrection (we would miss out on this if we’d gone wholly with the readings for Easter 7), and the passage from John’s Gospel (from Easter 7), though it reports on an address by Jesus before his crucifixion, is, first and foremost, a farewell speech which helps us understand the significance of the Ascension – namely, that it is a reunion of the Son with the Father, and a prelude to the disciples’ ultimate union with both.
The account of the Ascension of Christ that we heard this morning (Act 1:1-14) is the fullest account of that event in the Bible, and the one that determines the timing of the church’s celebration of Ascension – 40 days after the Resurrection. The other account of the Ascension is found in Luke’s Gospel (written by the same author), right at the end of that work (Luke 24:50,51). In that account, the Ascension took place late on Easter Sunday evening or possibly Easter Monday – not 40 days after the resurrection. It was around that time that the couple who had met the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, returned to Jerusalem. There they discovered that Jesus had appeared to Simon (Peter) some hours earlier, and, as Luke puts it, ‘while they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ (Luke 24:36). He went on to eat with them and teach them and promise them the gift of the Holy Spirit before ‘he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them [and] [w]hile he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.’(Luke 24:50,51). ‘Done and dusted’; resurrected and ascended in about 24 hours.
This is an intriguing discrepancy, and one that scholars haven’t come to a consensus on. That probably doesn’t matter too much, because there is agreement, after all, that Jesus, after his resurrection – and before Pentecost – left this earthly realm, returning to the Father who sent him. Whether it was 1 day or 40 days after his resurrection doesn’t add or take away from the significance of this extraordinary transition whereby Jesus, in his risen humanity and divinity, returned to the one who sent him (the Father), completing the union of humanity to God that had begun at his conception and charting a path that we, as Christ’s disciples hope to move along as well, in the fullness of time.
That pathway is spoken of, or alluded to, quite frequently in John’s Gospel (John 3:13 “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man”; John 6:62 “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?”; John 20:17 “ Jesus said to [Mary Magdalene], ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.). And the pathway is quite evident in the gospel passage this morning (John 17:20-26) which is part of an extended theological speech, over four chapters (John 14-17), that Jesus gave to his closest disciples following his washing of their feet and their final meal together.
By chapter 17 his speech becomes a prayer directed to the Father. In the course of that prayer, Jesus reveals some important insights into the relationship that exists between him, his Father and his closest followers. A priority in the relationship is given to the Father – his disciples were the Father’s, and they were given to him by the Father (John 17:6) – but it becomes clear as Jesus’ prayer goes on that the Father and Son work in concert (17:8) and are in one communion with believers, “All mine are yours,” he prays to his Father, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.” (John 17:10).
Importantly (for us), in this morning’s extract from the latter part of the prayer, we see that Jesus’ desire is that all future disciples will enjoy this close relationship with the Father and him: ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,…’ John 17:20. He prays that ‘they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…’ (John 17:21) and he goes on to emphasise the unity that his disciples must aspire to, pleading a little later that his disciples may be ‘completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’ (John 17:23).
As a piece of reflection on God and the relationships that exist between God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and Jesus’ followers this is rich material to contemplate, speaking as it does of the divine drive towards the unity of all things in God – a unity that ought to be evident among God’s people on earth as well as in the hereafter.
One of the striking things about Jesus here is his willingness to acknowledge the priority of the Father not in a glib way but with respect to that part of his life where he, personally, had exerted 100% effort, at great cost to his own comfort and safety. That outstanding work had brought together a large number of devotees, twelve of whom Jesus had gone to great lengths to develop as leaders of the new society he preached about. Still, for all that hard graft, worry, prayer, teaching, etc, Jesus never lost sight of the fact that those people were attracted to him, and that his ministry flourished, because God the Father was the initiator of it and that the key to its continued success lay in Jesus’ conformity to a project that was, indeed timeless.
So perfect was his acceptance of that mission, that, paradoxically, in his humanity he manifested God fully, so that meeting Jesus in the flesh was actually a meeting with God. We can learn something very important from that; if we are interested in increasing God’s presence in the world ourselves, selfishness and ego must yield to service and obedience to the will of God. Then the unity between the Father, the Son and believers will be at its strongest. The ascension of Jesus into heaven, in unbroken communion now with the Father, is a prelude, if you will, to the communion that will ultimately be had between the Father, the Son and all who have surrendered to God.
The Book of Acts, from which we have heard so much this Easter, is the account of the effectiveness of human surrender to the Father’s majesty. We stand in awe of disciples who responded positively to the grace of God for which Jesus’ prayed, and who, despite human weakness and setbacks, continually set God and God’s mission as the highest priority in their lives.
We are their legacy, and I am quite sure that in heaven their prayer for our effectiveness in carrying this mission forward unites with that of our Great High Priest, Jesus. This mission progresses to the extent that we recognise ourselves as bit players in a work that began before time itself and will have its consummation in God’s good time. In the meantime, our unity with one another strengthens as we imitate Christ’s willingness to let go of self-serving desires and live solely for God. That unity is not something that Christians can conjure up through political horse trading (Lord knows, we’ve tried that and failed). Instead, it comes from God, and develops as we commit ourselves, heart, mind, soul and body to God.
Individuals and groups who enter into that commitment, even if they don’t share all the same views on theological issue, will, nevertheless, find themselves drawn together, working together, and effective as agents of peace and justice in this world, and have every hope that in the world to come they will be grafted more fully into God in heaven where our Saviour reigns, perfect in his humanity and his divinity.
Tony Surman