Homily on the Ascension of Christ
By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani
By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani
The Ascension of Christ is a supernatural event. The testimony of this historical event is found in Holy Scripture.
Specifically, the description of the Lord's Ascension is found in the Gospel according to Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel writes: “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass, while He was blessing them, that He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, having worshiped Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen” (Luke 24:50–53).
The Acts describe: “And He said to them (the Lord): ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ And when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was lifted up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into heaven while He was going, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said: ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same manner as you saw Him going into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away” (Acts 1:7–12).
Of the other Evangelists, only Mark writes: “After He had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God” (16:19).
As an event, the Ascension of the Lord took place near Jerusalem, in the region of Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, specifically forty days after His Resurrection. The Lord appeared for forty days in various places to His disciples. But after His final appearance and conversation with them, He took them from Jerusalem and led them “out as far as Bethany,” where He ascended before His disciples into the heavens.
We also have indirect references to the Ascension in other passages of the New Testament. The most important is the one that records the Lord's words to Mary Magdalene: “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and tell them: ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’” (John 20:17). Indeed, the verb “I am ascending to My Father” is in the present tense and indicates that very soon He was about to ascend into heaven. We also find mention of the Ascension in the First Epistle to Timothy by the Apostle Paul, where he writes: “He was received up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16), and in the words of the Apostle Peter, who writes: “Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God” (1 Pet. 3:22).
The witnessed Ascension of the Lord, attested by many passages of the New Testament, is also confirmed by the dogmatic teaching of the Church, specifically by the seventh article of the Creed, where it is declared: “And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.”
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More specifically, interpreting the divine Scriptures, we learn that while Christ was teaching and guiding His disciples with eternal words and teachings, and while they were seeing Him, hearing Him, and following Him, the Lord quietly began to separate Himself from them and, with divine majesty, began to ascend toward heaven. This is the Ascension, and this is the event that we celebrate, solemnly commemorate, and honor with beautiful hymns. Amazed, perplexed, and astonished, the disciples watched this ascent of their divine Teacher and beheld with profound reverence the ineffable grandeur of the Lord's rising. Then a radiant cloud concealed Him from their eyes, and they felt a great joy and sweetness in their souls.
It is noteworthy that Christ led His disciples out in order that they might become eyewitnesses of His Ascension. The disciples had not seen Him rising from the tomb because His Resurrection would be proven through His appearances. But regarding the Ascension, they would have had no other proof of this event — that is, of His ascent into heaven — if they had not been present. The disciples and the others who were there at that moment saw the Lord ascending into heaven and the cloud serving as a royal chariot. However, they did not see the Lord ascending for a long period of time. Just as at the Resurrection they did not see the beginning but only the end, so now they saw the beginning of the Ascension, but not its completion. Moreover, it was unnecessary for them to see the beginning of the Resurrection, since they saw the tomb empty and the Lord Himself alive before them. But they could not follow the Ascension to its end because human eyes were not capable of seeing farther into such heights.
For this reason the two angels, clothed in shining white garments, said to them: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
At that moment the Lord “lifted up His hands and blessed them.” We should note how important this detail is, because the blessing of the Lord as High Priest is a blessing that concerns all believers, since the disciples represent all of us. The text says: “And it came to pass while He was blessing them,” which means that the Lord was continually blessing them and continues even now to bless us. There is no holier reality than to remain continually under the blessing of the Lord.
Furthermore, the phrase “He parted from them” signifies an ever-increasing separation that culminates in His departure and ascent into heaven — not, of course, in flight. Christ had to ascend into heaven because, as He Himself had said, otherwise the other Comforter, the Paraclete, would not be sent to us. “It is to your advantage that I go away,” He said a few hours before His arrest by the Jews, referring to the bodily separation that would occur temporarily through death and definitively through His Ascension into heaven. The immediate consequence of vital importance, because of which it was beneficial for the disciples that the Lord should ascend, was the descent of the Holy Spirit. “For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you” (John 16:7).
With the Ascension, therefore, we have the final event of the Lord's earthly presence and the beginning of His exaltation into divine glory. In the Acts of the Apostles another verb is used for the event of the Ascension: “He was lifted up.” That is, He was raised from the earth gradually and entered into His glory, and “sat at the right hand of God,” precisely because He was equal in honor, enthroned together with, and sharing the same glory as God the Father.
What is important, however, is that as the co-eternal Son and Word of the eternal Father, He never ceased to exist at the Father's right hand. Now, however, He ascends as the God-man, bearing inseparably united with His divinity His deified human nature, which He assumed through His Incarnation.
“He was received up in glory,” and this triumphant event declares that the Lord also exalted human nature. And indeed, He Himself assured us that faithful Christians would also be there near Him, as He told His disciples before His death: “That where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). Likewise, in His High Priestly prayer before His sacrifice, He beseeched His Heavenly Father: “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me” (John 17:24).
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Thus, the feast of the Ascension signifies that we have a future. A future of theosis. We too are accepted into divine glory. The heavens are not closed. Christ opened them to us and honored us by allowing us to enjoy the divine gifts of His greatness and love for mankind. Behold the richness of divine love! Where the Lord entered through His Ascension, there He also points the way and desires that we, the faithful of all ages, should enter as well. And because Christ, the Head of the Church, is now in eternal glory, the Apostle Paul speaks of the future glory that the Lord has prepared for the members of His Church as though it were already an accomplished fact. He writes: “He made us sit together in the heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6), that is, He has seated us together with Him in heavenly glory. Therefore, through His Ascension, Christ also raised us up to the throne of divinity. He raised us up not locally but spiritually, in manner and condition; He exalted human nature, glorified us, and granted us theosis. Everything is now sanctified. As the God-bearing Fathers say, our Lord Jesus Christ raised “the whole of humanity into the heavens.” Saint Athanasios the Great says: “God became man in order to make Adam god.” He began the salvation of man on earth in the cave of Bethlehem and now brings him into glory “in the heavenly places.”
And Saint Gregory of Nyssa writes in his homily On the Ascension of the Lord that “the mystery of death has now been completed, the victory over the enemies has been accomplished, the trophy raised against them — the Cross — has been lifted up, and He who led captivity captive has ascended on high, He who gave life and the kingdom, these good gifts, to mankind” (EPE, vol. 11, p. 45).
Likewise, Saint John Chrysostom says in his first homily On the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “Do you not see this distance between heaven and earth? But let us begin from below. Do you not see how great is the distance from Hades to the earth, and from the earth again to heaven, and from heaven to the highest heaven, and from there to the angels, the archangels, the heavenly powers, and even to the very throne of God? Through all this distance and to this height He raised the human race” (EPE, vol. 36, p. 215).
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The Ascension, consequently, is the culmination of this redemptive journey toward the complete renewal, restoration, and incorruptibility of human nature. From the day of the Ascension, man is no longer merely an inhabitant of this earth. He is a citizen of heaven. He participates in the heavenly commonwealth. He becomes a partaker of the divine nature.
This feast is truly glorious and exalted. It surpasses human understanding. Indeed, the Lord raised the firstfruits of human nature to the eternal Father, and the entire human race received grace and abundant blessing through the ascended Jesus Christ.
Therefore, our prayer is this: May all of us become worthy to meet the Lord “in the clouds” when He comes again from heaven with all the angelic powers, and may we enjoy blessed glory and everlasting joy. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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