Did Jesus literally ascend to heaven?

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Did Jesus literally ascend to heaven? In my view, the answer is, quite simply, no. Logically speaking, I think it makes no sense that it could have happened as described. As John Spong likes to point out, if Jesus had ascended at the speed of light, he would still be moving through space and he would not have even left our own galaxy. There is simply no way that the act of ascension would transport Jesus from earth to some heavenly realm outside of our current universe of space and time. The point, of course, is that the ascension story as depicted in the Bible presumes a three-tiered conception of the universe (heaven above the earth, then the earth, then the real of the dead below) that is incompatible with modern science. We know more about the universe than the New Testament authors did. And it makes sense to understand these biblical writings in that light.

In an online article on the subject, Marcus Borg points out that Luke actually presents two ascension stories that are mutually inconsistent with one another, thus suggesting that even that author didn't take the whole 40 days thing too seriously. He goes on to make the same general point that Spong has made:

What we do know, of course, is that heaven is not literally "up." Therefore, we legitimately cannot imagine Jesus literally moving upward into the sky on his way to heaven. Something else must be meant.
Clearly the ascension story can only be appreciated for its deeper, non-literal value. As Borg puts it,

And so I turn to the rich metaphorical or symbolic meanings of the story of Jesus' ascension. For Christians in the past and now, it meant and means that Jesus is now with God, indeed "at God's right hand" and "one with God." These affirmations have two primary dimensions of meaning. Like the traditions of ancient Israel and Judaism, they are religious and political, spiritual and social.

First, Ascension Day proclaims the lordship of Christ. To say that the risen and ascended Jesus is "at God's right hand," a position of honor and authority, means "Jesus is Lord." In the first century, when kings and emperors claimed to be lords, this claim had not only religious but also political meaning. To say "Jesus is Lord" meant, and means, that the Herods and Caesars of this world were not, and are not.

Second, because the risen and ascended Jesus is "one with God," he (like God) can be experienced anywhere. Jesus is no longer restricted or confined to time and space, as he was during his historical lifetime. Rather, like the God whom he knew in his own experience, he continues to be known in the experience of his followers.

To use language from Matthew's Gospel, for Christians the risen and ascended Christ is Immanuel--"God with us."

In my view, the non-literal ascension represents the culmination of a non-literal resurrection in a mythological account. I believe that neither the physical resurrection stories, nor the ascension to heaven, were historical events that could have been recorded at the time by video cameras, had they existed. Both events can be appreciated for the deeper truths about the experience of Jesus after his death, as interpreted by his followers (which is to say that experience plus interpretation equals mystical religious faith). These metaphorical stories can convey something of the interpretation of this experience. The early followers of Jesus believed that through Jesus, God is with us. And that is the important point of the biblical message--not that these stories literally happened.

11 comments:

JP said...

Interesting. Question for you, I can understand the symbolism behind it but let me ask you: If Jesus (literally) was ascended into heaven, would that change how you view things? Would that change how you view Jesus or the "character" of God?

Mike L. said...

Your observations are very good. I like what both of those authors say on the subject.

OneSmallStep said...

The problem I would have with taking the ascension literally is that it's written from the three-tiered perspective, as you said. Even Acts has a cloud passing over, hiding Jesus from sight. So if taken literally, the only way for it to make literal sense comes across as though heaven were directly above us, in the clouds somewhere. I think they were more using the literal sense to get the metaphor across, in that Jesus did go directly to heaven after being resurrected.

Mystical Seeker said...

JP, interesting question. I don't believe that I could even conceive of taking the ascension story literally because to me it just makes no logical sense. So I guess answering the question that you posed would be difficult for me to do.

SteveW said...

The idea that Jesus is now like God and can be experienced everywhere goes along way toward the idea that "in Him we live and move and have our being".

The idea that He is omnipresent speaks of Him being in us all, without the need for us to "invite" Him in. Does He truly fill all things?

Interesting post.

BTW, I found you through JP's post.

Ruth said...

There 's a church in England (I think it's at Walsingham) that depicts the ascension rather comically, with two little pink feet hanging from the ceiling!

I don't know whether you'll feel inclined to discuss this, but I'm pondering what is the purpose of prayer, and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, and the thoughts of other readers of your blog too.

Cynthia said...

One of the difficulties of interpreting passages such as these is that we don't have many modern (or post-modern) mass religious experiences to compare. The ones we do have come more from cults and religious fanatics.

Most religious experiences are individual. When was the last time you witnessed a large group of people saying to one another "God was in this place" and really meaning it?

OneSmallStep said...

There's another way to look at this: before we can answer if Jesus literally ascended into heaven, don't we need to first have an idea of what 'heaven' refers to?

Unknown said...

i don't think we can conclude we know the heavens very well when some theorise that the heavens are expanding. when infinity means both big and small. the simple logic is define heaven and prove God wrong. Do you think everything has a beginning and end.Define the absolute beginning place or time. if yes compute infinity

Unknown said...

I wound up here after just being a smartass, and asking Siri “When Jesus ascended to heaven, did he travel at one constant speed, or did he speed up as he got farther away?”.

Imagine my delight when the first paragraph observes that Jesus moving 417,000 times faster than the fastest Batman wouldn’t even be out of our galaxy yet... lmfao.

I’ve thought many times about this nonsense, and aside from the fact there is no single speed he could take off at, without being utterly laughable, the whole “ascended” thing kind of gives away this is the labored imagination of a terrible bullshitter.

I’d like to think if I were the son of god, I would have some cooler, albeit more modern effects for my transition to the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

Sheesh, it’s almost hard to comprehend so much MAGIC, with out a teensy bit of RAZZLE-DAZZLE.

As a CARPENTER myself, I am disappointed there weren’t at least PRACTICAL effects worthy of a mention.

Unknown said...

Stay focused and know that you are right where you belong. You are never alone and are waking up to the knowledge that this is the dream of how you have already ascended.