Credo: A 12-part series on the creed
Editor's note: This article is the sixth of 12 in a new series on the Creed by Deacon Matthew Newsome. Explore the series.
We have reached the halfway point of our year-long exploration of the Apostles’ Creed with the sixth article: “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
As a new Christian, the ascension of Jesus often puzzled me. I understood the importance of the Resurrection. As St. Paul rightly says, if Christ is not raised, then our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:17). But wouldn’t the truth of the Resurrection be easier to demonstrate if Jesus stuck around for future generations to witness? Imagine if our Lord kept office hours in Jerusalem! Wouldn’t it solve so many problems if the Son of God could be directly consulted any time doctrinal questions arose? I never denied the reality of Christ’s ascension, but I did wonder at times just why Jesus had to leave.
JESUS REMAINS WITH US
Of course Jesus didn’t leave – not really. He promised the disciples that He would be with us always, until the end of time (Mt 28:20). We see this promise fulfilled in the Church, and most especially in the Eucharist. In this sacrament Jesus is truly present with us at each Mass and in the tabernacles of every Catholic church on the planet. Jesus’ Presence is much more widespread now in the sacrament than when it was limited to a human body. As it is, I can spend time with Jesus in the Eucharist any time I like – whereas my chances, as one among 1.4 billion Catholics, of a personal meeting with a non-ascended Jesus in His Jerusalem headquarters would be minuscule.
Still, it is tempting to think certain things would be easier if the human Jesus were still around to lead the Church directly. But this is a false assumption. The fact is that even if there were a 2,000-year-old Messiah walking the earth today, people would still disbelieve, just as they disbelieved after witnessing with their own eyes the multiplication of the loaves, the healing of the blind and lame, and even the raising of the dead. As Jesus foretold in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man: “If they will not listen to
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead” (Lk 16:31).
Jesus told His disciples, “It is better for you if I go” (Jn 16:7). After He said this, He promised to send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Nine days after His Ascension, Jesus made good on His promise by sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We will speak more about the Holy Spirit later in this series. For now, let us look at Christ’s Ascension itself.
WHY WAS JESUS LIFTED UP?
The Ascension of the Lord is recorded in Mark’s and Luke’s gospels, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles, which says that Jesus “was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). The only description the gospels offer is that Jesus was “taken up to heaven” (Mk 16:19 and Lk 24:51). Having risen from the dead, Jesus now rises even further to sit at God’s right hand (Mk 16:19). To sit at the ruler’s right is to sit in the place of honor and power. Thus Jesus takes His rightful place as the eternal Son of the Almighty God.
The fundamental reason why Jesus didn’t take up long-term residence on this earth is that He doesn’t belong in this fallen world any more than He belonged in the tomb. He belongs in heaven! He descended from heaven for the same reason He descended into hell – for our benefit, out of sheer love for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).
That same passage in John’s gospel tells us that “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert (a reference to Numbers 21:9) so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (Jn 3:14). This “lifting up” refers not just to the Crucifixion, when Jesus was lifted up on the cross, but to His Ascension, when He is lifted up into heaven. In chapters eight and nine of the Letter to the Hebrews, the biblical author speaks of the high priest offering worship in the sanctuary of the Temple. This earthly sanctuary was but a symbol of heavenly realities. In Christ we have the fulfillment of this symbol. By taking “His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,” Christ our High Priest has taken His place as “a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up,” where He lives forever as our intercessor.
HIS DESCENT, ASCENT ARE LINKED
The Ascension of Jesus and His Incarnation are inextricably connected. Scripture says that “no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man” (Jn 3:13; Eph 4:8-10). These two events – Christ’s descent and ascent – are part of the same salvific action. We cannot ascend to God ourselves, so God descends to us in order to lift us up to heavenly glory. In other words, the Incarnation is not so much about God coming to earth, but enabling man to go to heaven. Christ’s ascension flows from this as the capstone of this heavenly trajectory. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, “Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we, the members of His Body, may live in the hope of one day being with Him forever” (CCC 666).
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.
Credo: A 12-part series on the creed
Editor's note: This article is the fifth of 12 in a new series on the Creed by Deacon Matthew Newsome. Explore the series.
In last month’s installment of our ongoing series, we explored Jesus’ passion and death. This month we take a look at the fifth article of the Apostles’ Creed, which states that Jesus “descended into hell” and that “on the third day He rose again.”
I once read an article written by a non-believer who smugly thought she had stumbled upon a hidden fact that the Church would prefer to keep hidden: that Jesus went to hell. The author assumed “hell” to be the place of the damned, which she interpreted to be inconsistent with Christian belief in a sinless Jesus. To her this was a “gotcha” moment. Of course, this is no news to practicing Christians who routinely recite the Apostles’ Creed. But that doesn’t mean many aren’t confused on this point. It does sound odd to say that Jesus, the divine Son of God, descended to hell. What does the Church mean by this?
Jesus Christ and Him Crucified
“Hell” in this instance does not refer to the place of the damned, the principal characteristic of which is eternal separation from God. Such could never be the case with Jesus. But the word “hell” did not always have this narrow meaning. In the case of the Apostles’ Creed it is used as the English equivalent of the Greek “Hades” or Hebrew “Sheol.” These terms referred to the realm of the dead, without any judgment as to their condition.
Prior to Christianity, a common (though not universal) Jewish understanding of the afterlife was that the souls of all the departed went to a realm they called “Sheol.” The righteous would have a good experience there, while the unrighteous would suffer; thus justice would be rendered. We see this illustrated in Christ’s parable of Lazarus and the rich man, where the rich man suffers torment for his lack of charity while poor Lazarus is comforted in the bosom of Abraham (see Lk 16:19-31).
By saying that Christ descended into hell, we affirm the truth that Christ in fact died. Since He possesses a full human nature, Jesus has both a human body and a human soul. When the body is so damaged by injury, age or disease that it can no longer give expression to the soul, the soul and body separate. This is the theological understanding of death, and this is what happened to Jesus on the cross. Jesus did not swoon or fall into a coma only to be later revived. The fact of Christ’s death is an essential prerequisite to belief in the resurrection. This is why St. Paul insisted on preaching “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” to the Corinthians (1 Cor 2:2). For, as he explained, if Christ did not truly die, then He was not truly raised; and if Christ was not raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14).
The Third Day
The underscoring of the reality of Christ’s death is also at least part of the significance of the three days Christ spent in the tomb. First, a clarification is warranted about the nature of the phrase, “three days.” Jesus was not dead for 72 hours, which is how most modern English-speakers would naturally understand the phrase. He was buried in the afternoon of Good Friday and rose from the dead sometime before dawn on Easter Sunday. At most this may add up to a day-and-a-half. Why, then, do we say that Jesus was buried for three days?
According to the common first-century Jewish reckoning of time, if something occurred during even a part of the day, it was attributed to “the day.” Thus Jesus died on Good Friday (day one), was dead all of Holy Saturday (day two), and remained dead for the early hours of Easter Sunday before He rose (day three).
On one level, the three days Jesus spent in the tomb are a fulfillment of scriptural prophecy. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus refers to “the sign of Jonah,” saying, “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Mt 12:39-40). But the three days also had a more immediate significance that would have been understood by all who witnessed the resurrection.
Given how difficult it can be to determine if a person is truly dead, especially without use of modern medical technology, a folk belief arose among the Jews that a person was only known to be truly dead when three days had passed. This helps us to understand why Jesus delayed until the fourth day to travel to Bethany to raise Lazarus (Jn 11:1-44). To demonstrate His authority over death, Jesus wanted it to be clear that the one being raised was fully dead and not only “mostly dead” (to borrow a phrase from “The Princess Bride”).
Likewise, Jesus’ resurrection on the third day manifested His complete authority over death. Death could not hold the Author of Life. By freely laying down His life (Jn 10:18), Christ did not succumb to death, but forced death to succumb to Him.
As “the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25), Christ rose victorious over death, but He did not win the victory for Himself only. Just as the gates of hell (“Hades” or “Sheol”) cannot stand against Jesus, they will not stand against those who are members of His Body, the Church. Because death no longer has power over Christ (Rom 6:9), those who die with Him can be confident of also rising with Him (Rom 6:9, 2 Tim 2:11). Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:20), not the last, and the scriptures attest that He will be the first of many brethren (Rom 8:29). To be among those who share in His resurrection is the hope of every Christian and the joy behind every “Alleluia” we sing.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University. He is the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.