Did Jesus simply vanish? Did his body merely become glorious? Or did something actually move?
The seventeenth-century Leiden theologians pressed exactly these questions — and the reasoning they offer is unexpectedly sharp.
‘He is not only going to the Father, but leaving this world’ — which can only mean a real change of place.
The Manner of It
14. The manner of Christ’s ascension was real, bodily, as the whole gospel-history testifies; it was not only some ‘disappearance’ into thin air before the eyes of the disciples, as the Ubiquitarians1The Ubiquitarians, a 16th-century Lutheran theological party associated especially with John Brenz, held that Christ’s human nature partakes of Divine omnipresence, and so is present everywhere — including, crucially, in the Eucharist. See Synopsis of Purer Theology, 28:30; Boer and Faber eds., 324-25. imagine. For that is how Christ would have ascended before he actually did ascend, since he was miraculously removed from the disciples’ sight on several occasions even before he truly ascended into heaven, as can be seen from Luke 24:31. Nor is it the glorification of Christ’s body itself, because even before his suffering Christ was transfigured for a time (Matt 17:2). If so, it would follow from this that he had ascended into heaven for a period of time and then came down again, before his actual ascension. All of this is nonsense and obviously foreign to the manner in which Scripture speaks.
15. Also the kinds of expressions that Scripture everywhere employs for this ascension of Christ into heaven prove that this ascension was true and real. Mark 16:19 has ‘he was taken up into heaven;’ Luke 24:51: ‘he was carried up into heaven;’ Acts 1:9: ‘he was taken up on high,’ and verse 11: ‘This same way you have seen him go into heaven.’ And so the apostle says in Heb 9:12 that our High Priest ‘entered into the holy place once and for all.’ But according to [the Ubiquitarians] he would have entered heaven more often, in fact whenever he (in their opinion) appeared on the earth and then disappeared again.
Why the Argument Is Sharp
Follow the reasoning in paragraph 14, because it’s a neat piece of work.
If the ascension were merely a vanishing, then Jesus ‘ascended’ every time he disappeared from view during the forty days — which Luke 24:31 records him doing. And if it were merely the glorification of his body, then he ‘ascended’ at the Transfiguration (Matt 17:2) and came back down again.
Both readings produce absurdities. Which leaves the plain sense: a real, bodily departure to a real place, once.
And verse 24 states: ‘For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands, which was only a copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself now to appear before his Father’s face on our behalf.’ Indeed, in John 16:28 Christ testifies that he is not only ‘going to the Father, but that he is leaving this world’ — which can only be taken to mean a real change of place.
16. However, it does not therefore follow that if this ascension were a real change of place Christ required a vast amount of time to complete his journey to heaven … how much less a space of time did the now immortal and glorified body of Christ require to be drawn by his Divine power from earth up to heaven, which is what Scripture testifies occurred as the apostles were looking on (Acts 1:10).
Did Anyone Go With Him?
17. Some debate whether Christ ascended into heaven all by himself or actually with a retinue in attendance, and in triumph. … They are of the opinion that those saints who arose from the dead along with Christ (in Matt 27:53) also ascended into heaven with him, like witnesses and partakers of his life-giving resurrection. … But as this place permits also other orthodox explanations, we prefer to reserve judgment on this point. Yet we do not doubt that Christ’s entry into heaven, as in what happened at his birth, was filled with glory and congratulation of the celestial spirits (Psa 68:18; Dan 7:13).
Note the restraint in that paragraph. Renowned theologians hold a view; the text permits other readings; we prefer to reserve judgment. That’s a model worth copying whenever Scripture is less explicit than our curiosity would like.
Two Errors Corrected
18. However, over against the papal theologians we deny that the souls of all the fathers who had died before Christ’s ascension had been kept in some otherworldly Limbo until this time and only then did Christ himself set them free and bring them over to heaven. For there is not any reason and also no place in Holy Scripture that gives proof of this. We have shown the contrary that Enoch and Elijah were transported to heaven, as 2 Kgs 21:1 and 11 assert with so many words. And Christ, long before his death, promised that there would be ‘a reward in heaven’ (Matt 3:10 and 12) for all who suffer persecution for the sake of righteousness; and to the robber who was hanging on the cross, he promised that ‘on this same day he would be with him in Paradise’ (Luke 23:43).
19. And even though it states in the Acts of the apostles that even after his ascension into heaven Christ sometimes appeared to his disciples, and particularly to the apostle Paul, we nevertheless deny that his body was therefore actually outside heaven, because those appearances were either in a trance, or in dreams, or as the heavens were opened. But Scripture expressly testifies that Christ himself will remain in heaven until he come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 3:21, and the ending of Phil 3, and elsewhere).
Four Fruits
20. There are many great fruits of Christ’s ascension. For with his entry he opened the heavenly sanctuary for us (John 14:2; Heb 9:8); he ensured the hope of our future inheritance in our head [Christ], and our being seated with him in the heavenly place (Eph 2:6). He obtained for us the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (John 16:17); and lastly, by his power our hearts and desires are lifted up into heaven, so that we no longer seek the things that are on earth but the things which are in heaven (Col 3:1-3).
Four things, then. A sanctuary opened. An inheritance secured. The Spirit poured out. And our affections redirected.
That last one repays special attention, because it’s the most practical. The ascension doesn’t only change where Christ is. It changes what you want.
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- 1The Ubiquitarians, a 16th-century Lutheran theological party associated especially with John Brenz, held that Christ’s human nature partakes of Divine omnipresence, and so is present everywhere — including, crucially, in the Eucharist. See Synopsis of Purer Theology, 28:30; Boer and Faber eds., 324-25. ↩︎