Jesus is risen – this is the essence of our Easter season. But today we recognise that he is also ascended. Ascended where? Ascended to his Father, ascended into eternity.

Wow. Not only was he resurrected from death on the cross, not only did he appear to people after his resurrection, but now we try to understand that he is ascended to his Father. Jesus is like us and yet unlike us. Lived on earth as we do, but now lives through eternity – with us, with our ancestors, with our children’s children.

This is a very big idea. An idea sometimes unfathomable by human minds.

That Jesus was human and also divine.

That Jesus was perfect in a way that makes us uncomfortably aware of our own imperfections. That Jesus lives in eternity and is always ready to make intercession for us.

These are the messages of our reading from the letter to the Hebrews this morning.

These three statements, his divinity, his perfection and his eternal presence with us – they are linked, and, being beyond our understanding, they are basic to our faith.

The writer of this letter to the Hebrews was addressing Christians in Rome. Rome at the time of Emperor Nero, when he persecuted Christians. A time of Roman law which could be changed by the Emperor at his pleasure. A time of uncertain futures for the minority at the time whose faith was in Jesus Christ. We cannot compare our time with theirs, theirs was a distant world in a distant land with rules unfamiliar to us. But we can compare their faith with ours.

Through his resurrection and ascension, Jesus was there with them too, interceding, showing them the power and the simple rightness of faith in God in the face of uncertainty and despair. It is through their continued faith, and that of other Christian groups so long ago, that in our time we have the word of God and the treasure that is faith in Jesus.

We do not need to gaze at the sky to look for the ascended Jesus. He is ascended into eternity and so he is always with us. With those who believe and those who do not yet believe.

SG