You know when I was a kid, I remember I had a children’s bible. It was full of pictures. I loved paging through the bible, looking at the different scenes, particularly those in the Gospels of Jesus doing great things, and even the picture of him on the cross and of the empty tomb. It was so fascinating to me. There was even a picture of the scene we had this week. I remember Jesus ascending into the clouds. I remember thinking, as a child, that was kind of the end of the story. In my child’s understanding, I figured Jesus was only present for a certain time and then he went away. Then as a sort of consolation prize, he sent the Holy Spirit to keep the Apostles company and to help them remember Jesus.
In that way of thinking, the Gospel story is like any other child’s story. There is a beginning and an end. And we want to say, 'And they all lived happily ever after.' In that childlike understanding of the story of our savior, Jesus came to save us, and he died on the cross, and some people told stories about him rising from the dead. And then he ascended into heaven and resides in some far-off place, distant from us, and we are left with the Holy Spirit to remind us about him. And then some two thousand years later, people remember this great preacher and miracle worker who lived a long time ago and is simply a model for what we should do.
You see that understanding of the Gospel very simply makes Jesus a nice historical figure. It relegates Jesus to the many historical figures that we remember. In our own country, we recall the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart. So often we make Jesus into one famous historical figure among many. We make our faith simply into following someone who was great and someone we should imitate. We put Jesus into a far-off place in a far-off time. We think being a disciple of Jesus simply means when we have a challenge, we should just ask, “What would Jesus do?” And yes, it is a good practice to see Jesus as a model on how to live. After all Jesus shows us how to be fully human, but we can’t limit him to a mere historical figure, for that says his ministry was for only basically a few years in a time long gone and in a far-off place.
Jesus ascended to heaven not to take his place on the Mount Rushmore of famous religious figures. As the head, Jesus went to rule over the rest of his body. The body, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ has still very much been doing his ministry for two thousand years and will continue doing it both now and forever.
- The Servant
