In the Gospel reading for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, series B in the 3 year series, there was a line that I caught yesterday. I am sure that I heard it before but it never struck me until I was reading it in worship in the early service here at St. Paul's, Troy. It is John 6:62. The lead up to this is that Jesus is telling the disciples that He is the bread of life. There is the discussion about eating His body and drinking His blood (to which there is the ongoing debate about what He means. I fall on the side of the fence that He is talking about the Lord's Supper. ). All of this is following the feeding of the 5,000 and the people wanting to make Him the Bread King and the topic of manna in the wilderness. You can get a feel for that when Jesus says, "This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died." (John 6:58 ESV).
So what is the verse that struck me? The disciples (not just the 12 but the crowds that had gathered around him) said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it." (John 6:60 ESV) It was difficult for them to understand and take hold of what Jesus was saying. Folks today still struggle with the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in, with and under the bread and wine in the Supper. There are those who find it difficult to understand and don't really want to listen to it.
Then Jesus says to the disciples, "Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" (John 6:61b-62 ESV) What if you saw the Son of Man ascending to heaven, the place He was before? There will be some of those standing there that day who would indeed see Jesus ascend into heaven. How would that be so difficult to accept and understand?
In the ascension we see that Jesus did not come to set up and earthly kingdom but that He ascended to take His place at the right hand of the Father, to that heavenly, eternal kingdom. The disciples continued to look for the worldly Messiah, the One who would set up the earthly kingdom. In Acts, right before the ascension, they even ask Jesus, (as I read it I always think of them asking in breathless anticipation), "Are You going to set up the kingdom now? Are you going to get rid of the Romans? Are you going to make Israel great again?" Yes, I am paraphrasing, but that seems to be the thoughts they were having.
When Jesus doesn't set up an earthly kingdom but instead ascends into heaven, it could have been very confusing for them. Just like they struggled to understand the bread of life discussion, they were going to have to face the ascension discussion. What does it mean? Why did Jesus ascend? Why are the Romans still here?
The ascension, seeing the Son of Man ascending to heaven, would be confusing and difficult thing for them. And I think it is for us too. Today, many churches, and many Christians, don't even think about the ascension and what it means. Ascension Day services, if they are held any longer, tend to be sparsely attended. Folks don't have time for such a service. My opinion? I think it is because we don't understand the ascension. So like other things that are hard to get our mind around, we just ignore it. The whole Real Presence discussion gets pushed off to later since it is difficult and may cause some problems. In the same way, the ascension gets pushed off because it is difficult to understand and may cause so discomfort.
The disciples had no clue what Jesus meant that day when He said this. I often wonder if they thought back to this time when they were in Jerusalem those 10 days between the ascension and Pentecost. John must have had this in his mind for some time because it came out in the writing of this gospel. Maybe he had connected the dots by then, or maybe he hadn't.
Just sitting here thinking on a Monday morning. Blessings on your day.
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