Ascension Sunday

^†   

Before He departed, JESUS, on the Day of the Resurrection, met Mary Magdalene in the Garden, just outside the Tomb. Discovering that it was the LORD, Mary moved towards JESUS to touch, (as some translations read, “cling”) to Him, but He would not permit it. He said to Mary, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father and to My GOD and your GOD’” (St. John 20.17). Such words and actions from the risen LORD would have set off many thoughts and questions in Mary, and in The Twelve, after Mary informed them of this interaction upon the occasion of His resurrection from the dead.  

In JESUS’ command to His followers, He was directing them, who undoubtedly wanted to cling to Him, celebrate Him, and make Him King in Israel, to look for something more significant – more meaningful for their redemption and the redemption of the world- than simply an earthly fiefdom or ethnic kingdom of the Jewish state. To this point, the LORD says, “Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father,’  that is, ‘I would not have you come to Me as to a human body, nor yet recognize Me by fleshly perceptions – [to temporal provinces, realms, and domains]:  I put thee off for higher things – [for everlasting spiritual things; JESUS seems to be saying.] I prepare greater things for thee: when I have ascended to My Father, then thou shalt handle Me more perfectly and truly, for thou shalt grasp what thou canst not touch and believe what thou canst not see.’”¹     

What is it that Mary, The Twelve and the other disciples, to whom Mary would carry her message, could grasp yet not touch – could believe in, but could not see? — What is it? — I would propose that it is the Kingdom of GOD in Christ. — The Kingdom! — The Kingdom that JESUS spoke about before and after His Resurrection. (cf. Acts 1.3) The Kingdom of which The Twelve were most hopeful to see in their generation, such that the Apostles questioned the LORD in Acts 1.6: “LORD, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” — “The Twelve, (minus one), thought Christ would restore the Kingdom to Israel, that is, that He would make the ethnic nation of the Jews as great and considerable among the nations as it was in the days of David and Solomon, of Asa and Jehoshaphat; that, as Shiloh, he would restore the scepter to tribal Judah. (cf. Genesis 49.10) Instead, JESUS came to set up His own Kingdom, and that the Kingdom of Heaven, but not to restore the Kingdom to temporal Israel — an earthly kingdom – [an ethnic kingdom of which only the appropriate biological race could participate.]²  Do you remember what JESUS said during Passion Week; how His Kingdom is not of this world’s economy, but is of another economy. When speaking to Pontius Pilate, our LORD said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (St. John 18.36). This is why, when the Jews wanted to take JESUS by force and make Him King after the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, JESUS “departed again to the mountain by Himself alone” (St. John 6.15). 

The Kingdom of GOD and His Christ. What is it? Can we describe it? — If someone were to pass you on the street and say, “Dear Christian, what is the Kingdom of GOD?”, what would you say? Can you describe it? Can you locate it? Do you know when it is? Do you know how it is? — It is certainly something we should know rather well. That is because, we are supposed to seek it first in our Christian-walk (cf. Matt. 6.33); we pray to the Father that it will come on earth as it is in Heaven (cf. Matt. 6.10); it was the thing that JESUS warned the Jews to repent in preparation for (cf. Matt. 4.3); it was the thing that JESUS spoke most frequently about in His parables (cf. Matt. 18.23); it is the thing that we have been translated into by the Father, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1.13); and it is the thing that JESUS, at His glorious Ascension was coronated to rule over forever and ever – Amen. Daniel the prophet speaks of the Kingdom of GOD in Christ when he sayeth, “It is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away … and which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7.14), and which the prophet Isaiah sayeth, ‘its increase shall have no end, and it will be established with judgment and justice from henceforth and even forever.’ (cf. Isaiah 9.7). 

We gain our first look at the Kingdom that JESUS promises to establish forever, in the book of Exodus. There, in the nineteenth chapter, GOD ALMIGHTY, speaking to Moses, says, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Exodus 19.4-6). The Kingdom of GOD in Christ is the faithful people of GOD, the gloriously redeemed remnant of Israel of the Old and New Testaments. In modern parlance, the Kingdom is Holy Mother Church, the Bride of Christ. And the fullness of the Kingdom was constituted when JESUS Christ was coronated the King of that Kingdom, forty days after His powerful resurrection, when He ascended into Heaven to sit at the Right Hand of the Father in glory.  

Upon His glorious Ascension, “JESUS sat on the right hand of GOD: sitting in a posture of rest, for now he had finished His work, perfectly, thus, His is a posture of reigning. For, now, He has taken possession of His Kingdom; He sits at the right hand of GOD, which denotes the sovereign dignity He has advanced to, and the universal agency He is entrusted with, now. — Now, JESUS is glorified with the glory He had before the founding of the world.”³ And the Kingdom that our LORD now rules and reigns over, are those people, corporately, in Heaven and on Earth, who have put their trust in Him. Those people previously made captive to sin and death, who have now been made captive to JESUS’ Royal Law of Liberty and everlasting life, being led captive to a new hope in a new Kingdom. 

We are accustomed in the history of our Western Civilization, to see kingdoms rise and fall, but always being established at the behest of the governed. — Even in our founding documents, the Framers confessed: “That to secure the rights [of a free people], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”⁴ Yet, the Kingdom of GOD is not constituted, run, or governed at the behest of the people. It is created, organized, and sustained by GOD. As we read in Exodus nineteen, GOD said to Israel, “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” GOD elects His own people – they do not elect Him, and those who are elected are to obey His Kingdom rule, power, and authority. And if they do, they are called by GOD: “a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” 

And these holy people and kingdom of priests who are the elect of GOD, must have the faith of Abraham. The members of the Kingdom of GOD in Christ, do not necessarily have the same ethnicity as Abraham. St. Paul says in Romans 9, “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel … This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of GOD, but the children of the Promise are counted as offspring.” (Romans 9.6 & 8). — The Promise is Christ, and as St. John sayeth: “To all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of GOD” (St. John 1.12). These children are “the household of GOD, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Timothy 3.15). The Kingdom – something beyond all reckoning – beyond human thought or understanding – something we can grasp but not touch – believe but cannot see, fully, is the mysterious visible and invisible Church.  

The Kingdom is GOD’s people, and in Christ, because Abraham’s physical descendants rejected their King, save for a faithful remnant, small but true, we believers who have received Christ and call upon His Name as our King, we, sayeth St. Peter, are now called “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for GOD’s own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once we were not a people, but now we are GOD’s people; once we had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (2 Peter 2.9-10). 

But the conditions for participation in GOD’s Kingdom have not changed – “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine”, sayeth the LORD. Therefore, beloved, “I urge you as sojourners and exiles [in this world], to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify GOD on the day of visitation” (2 Peter 2.11-12).  

Some will argue that Christ’s Kingdom is not yet consummated, or that His Kingdom is for a future age of a millennial period. Yet, the Bible teaches that Christ’s Kingdom is now, because His Bride, the Church, is His Kingdom and JESUS has the entirety of her government on His shoulders (cf. Is. 9.6). For the angel Gabriel told Mary, “And the LORD GOD will give to JESUS the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom, there will be no end” (St. Luke 1.33).  

Forty days after His resurrection, the time of transition in Holy Scripture, JESUS transitioned from earth into Heaven, and “who, [even now], is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8.34). The Scriptures give us a picture of this wonderful and beautiful scene, where JESUS ascends bodily into the sky, and is received by the Cloud (cf. Acts 1.9). The Feast of the Ascension marks this austere and holy occasion. The occasion is for the Kingdom, the people of GOD, to glorify GOD and to recall just who is our King, and to examine our minds, hearts, and bowels to see if we are staying true to the voice of our Good Shepherd and keeping His covenant in love. If we are, it is because He is in us, and we in Him. Thus, citizens of the Kingdom, good people of St. Mark the Evangelist Church, as an ancient father of the Church has said: “Let us rejoice with spiritual joy, and let us with gladness pay GOD worthy thanks and raise our hearts’ eyes unimpeded to those heights where Christ is [sitting King Supreme. Let our minds thither ascend]. For minds that have heard the call to be uplifted must not be pressed down by earthly affections, they that are fore-ordained to things eternal must not be taken up with the things that perish; they that have entered on the way of Truth must not be entangled in treacherous snares, and the faithful must so take their course through these temporal things as to remember that they are sojourning in the vale of this world, in which, even though they meet with some attractions, they must not sinfully embrace them, but bravely pass through them, [for the sake of our King and the glory of His Kingdom.]”⁵  Alleluia, Christ the LORD has ascended into Heaven with all power and authority which has been given to Him because He has overcome sin and death by His Cross and Resurrection. O come, let us adore Him. Amen. 

1 ChristianClassicsEtherealLibrary.org. “On the LORD’s Ascension, II Leo the Great; (Sermon LXXIV in Volume 12 of NPNF, Series 2).” Accessed 28 May 2025.  www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212/npnf212.ii.v.xxxviii.html scrBook=Acts&scrCh=1&scrV=11#fna_ii.v.xxxviii-p13.3.        

2 Henry, Matthew. BlueLetterBible.org. “Commentary on Acts 1.6.” Accessed 29 May 2025. Commentary on Acts 1 by Matthew Henry. 

3 Henry, Matthew. BlueLetterBible.org. “Commentary on St. Mark 16. Accessed 31 May 2025. www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Mar/Mar_016.cfm?a=973019

4 The United States Declaration of Independence, 1776. 

5 LectionaryCentral.com. “On the LORD’s Ascension, II Leo the Great (Sermon LXXIV in Volume 12 of NPNF, Series 2).” Accessed 31 May 2025. www.lectionarycentral.com/ascension/Leo2.html.