Feast of the Ascension

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Why is the Feast Day of the Ascension so important, as well as worthy of Holy Mother Church’s faithful observance? — As we heard in our Epistle and Gospel Lessons, forty days after His glorious Resurrection, while His disciples were looking on, “JESUS was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1.9a). — Holy Mother Church is obligated to venerate her LORD on the Feast of the Ascension, not just because of the circumstance behind the event, but also because of its meaning. The Ascension recalls Christ JESUS’ perfect triumph over the Devil; the Day JESUS opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers, having overcome the sharpness of death, as we say daily in the Te Deum laudamus, found in the Morning Office of the Prayer Book. (pg. 10) This, the LORD did, all in His divinity, for it “was not possible that He should be holden by death” (Acts 2.24). Yet, it was by His Humanity, in His flesh, that JESUS opened the passage to Heaven’s Kingdom for all believers, so that those with the faith of Abraham could follow, liberated, in His train.   

Being the GOD-MAN without blemish or sin, it could only be because of His blessed flesh that the Gates of Heaven would allow themselves to be opened. And it was at the Day of Ascension that they were opened; opened for those who sleep in Christ, and for us who will, one day, sleep in Him. For by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, JESUS is vindicated by GOD the Father. His vindication through the Holy Spirit, as “the Head of the Body, the Church; Who is the Beginning, the firstborn from the dead; [was vindicated, exactly] that in all things, He might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1.18). And by His preeminence, the royal distinction to be ascended up as the Mediator of GOD and Representative of men, was His, that He might open the Gates of Heaven for us, (Chrysostom+). Therefore, the Church appoints the twenty-fourth Psalm to be read this day as illustrative of this fact: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? It is the LORD strong and mighty, even the LORD mighty in battle” (v. 8).   

This Feast Day of the Ascension also gives the Church the distinct hope, above all other members of the human race, that if we put our faith and trust in JESUS Christ as the King of Glory and Savior, all-merciful, then our flesh might, with Christ, as our Collect states, to Heaven, “thither ascend.” — One of the most theologically important meanings of the Ascension, is that Christ JESUS, taking the first-fruits of our nature upon Himself, then abused; then dead, but now resurrected; now glorified – He carries our humanity in Himself, up to GOD the Father. By His Ascension, that Firstfruit hath made the whole stock of humanity (if they will turn unto Him and believe His Gospel), sanctified. For the Father hath highly esteemed the Gift that Christ hath brought unto Him, both for the worthiness of Him that offered it up, and for the purity of the Offering. So satisfied was Father GOD that He received the Gift with His own hands, setting It at His Right Hand to reign in coterminal glory until all of His enemies be made His footstool. (cf. Ps. 110.1)  

To underscore the importance of this theology of the glorification of the Human Nature assumed by Christ JESUS, let us ask this question. — What Nature was it that GOD the Father said, ‘Sit thou on my right hand?’ — It was to the same nature that He had formerly said, ‘Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.’ — This polemical dichotomy of GOD the Father’s judgment of humanity in the person of Adam, and the Person of JESUS, shows how the ascending Gift of Firstfruits in Christ’s humanity went far beyond the original loss in Adam’s humanity. Paradise was the place where the gift given to Adam fell; the Cross is where the Second Adam won it back. — The Day of Christ’s Ascension is the Day JESUS took redeemed humanity to the Father as a Gift for His glory in Heaven. Thus, all things now being finished in His Flesh, when Christ ascends home, all flesh could then be made brand new.    

Upon this occasion, the LORD JESUS Christ was careful to lead His disciples two miles north, to Bethany, where He then ascended up into heaven in their sight. This was to show them what they had heard Him say, enigmatically, that night in which He was betrayed: “I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you (St. John 16.8).   

Thus, in the Ascension JESUS not only leads captivity captive by opening the Gates of Heaven to humankind, He (being the Firstfruit of our nature), also ascends through those Gates to send the Comforter, as He promised, to the Church. The Feast of the Ascension is a most holy Day, because it also highlights the Church’s anticipation of a new birth and a new law, that is to come by the power and working of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity – the Holy Spirit – the LORD and Giver of Life. — Moses led the captivity of Israel from the bottom of the Red Sea up to Mount Sinai, liberating GOD’s people from the bondage of sin and death, which the slavery and bondage in Egypt is a type. And from the heavens atop Mt. Sinai where Moses ascended, he brought Israel back the gifts of GOD: the Law, the Priesthood, but above all, the Ark of the Covenant to be the pledge of GOD’s presence amongst them. In JESUS’ ascension, as St. Paul understands it, JESUS led the captivity of souls bound by the law, sin, and death, captive unto heavenly liberation, and gave His gifts to men (cf. Eph. 4.8). JESUS, being the Mosaic Archetype, ascended into the heavenly Tabernacle to give renewed and realized Israel (that is the Church), the gift of His Spirit. And it is the Spirit, as JESUS promised, Who writes the Royal Law of Love on our hearts (cf. Jer. 34.34), washes us with a better washing than that of the Red Sea (cf. 1 Cor. 10.1), edifies us with His unity and faith by giving us the office of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers (cf. Eph. 4.11), and is that New Covenant pledge of Real Presence, that JESUS will never leave us nor forsake us.  

And if this was not enough, there is yet another reason that this Feast of the Ascension is glorious unto Christ’s Church. As the eighth Psalm begins – “O LORD our Governor, how excellent is thy name in all the world; for Thou has set Thy glory above the heavens!” (v.1). — At the Ascension, GOD the Father set JESUS’ glory above the Heavens; ascending from earthly humility to heavenly glory. This made His Name wonderful in all the world, for at first, JESUS thought it not robbery to be equal with GOD, so He made Himself a servant, so as to share in our human nature. (cf. Phil. 2.6-7). That is, before He ascended, He descended so low that for a time He was so vilely repudiated that He was cursed and hung on a tree (cf. Gal. 3.13). Yet, for His faithfulness, being made in the likeness of men and humbling Himself to obedience to death on the Cross, GOD hath given Him a Name which is above every name. For at this Name (which the prophet Jeremiah tells us, is The LORD our Righteousness), every knee should bow, and every tongue confess (even all Principalities and Powers in Heaven and Earth), that JESUS Christ is LORD to the glory of GOD the Father. (cf. Phil. 2.8-11).   

Thus, the Ascension is also the occasion of the resplendent exaltation of JESUS as LORD and King over all of creation. For in JESUS, Shiloh has come (cf. Gen. 49.10); the Lion of Judah has roared; the sting of death has been halted; the victory of Hades, overcome. And seeing the Ascension on the other side of the disciples’ view, Daniel paints this picture from his night vision.  He says, “I saw One like the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven, coming to the Ancient of Days, [who is the Father]. And the thousand thousands, along with the ten thousand times ten thousand that ministered before the Throne of Heaven, brought the Son of Man before the Father. “And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, languages should serve Him: and His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7.14).  

The Feast of the Ascension is not only about the Firstfruit of redeemed and glorified humanity opening the Gates of Heaven and presenting Himself to the Father, thereby leading captivity captive, nor is it only about the expectant hope of the sending of the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost to the Church. It is also about the blessed glorification of Christ as the King of Kings and LORD of LORDS. — The most glorious aspect about the Ascension is that it is our Great GOD and Savior’s coronation to the role, title, and responsibility, as Isaiah calls Him: “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty GOD, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9.6) And by His Coronation, realized in the Feast of the Ascension, we know, as His witnesses have testified (not loving their lives to the death) (cf. Rev. 12.11), that “of the increase of His Government and peace, there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon His Kingdom, to order it, and establish it with judgment and justice, from hence forth, forevermore. For the zeal of the LORD has accomplished this” (Isaiah 9.7).      

The Psalmist, in his twenty-fourth psalm, would like us to imagine the scene that has been laid out for us on this Feast of Ascension in the following way. — A Choir of heavenly Angels going before the LORD JESUS, knock, as it were, at Heaven’s gates, singing: ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.’ Desirous to know who this esteemed Personage is, the other Angels in Heaven sing the next words: ‘Who is this King of glory?’ — The first angels that waited upon our LORD, reply: ‘The LORD strong and mighty, even the LORD mighty in battle; see the truth we speak by the prisoners that he has led captive in His triumphal train with Him. Therefore, as we have said, ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors’ which were never yet opened to human nature, and where never man has yet entered in, that is, until JESUS, the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world, enters in, by His own Flesh and Blood.   

Presenting the Firstfruit of redeemed mankind to the Father, leading captivity captive, sending the Holy Ghost, the Comforter to the Church, and coronating Christ JESUS to His necessary and rightful place at the Father’s Right Hand  as The LORD our Righteousness, with a just Kingdom of peace that will never end, this is why we celebrate and rejoice on this Day of JESUS’ glorious Ascension. — Thus, let us pray that along with His Universal Church, militant and glorified, that GOD may grant us His grace, that in heart and mind, we may likewise thither ascend with JESUS the Christ, and there, with Him, continually to dwell. Amen. 

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* This entire homily is adapted from: Sparrow D.D., Anthony. “A Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England.” Accessed 13 May 2026. lectionarycentral.com/ascension/Sparrow.html