I wonder how you’re feeling as we enter Lent. Some years, at least some part of me dreads this season that can feel heavy and hard. Other years I look forward to the intimacy of walking toward the cross with Jesus. This year, Lent feels like it fits. With so much violence and injustice in the world, it already feels to me like we’re in some combination of a desert and a war zone, so I’m feeling a sort of relief in acknowledging what is and being even more intentionally with the One who has felt that darkness to the full and made it out the other side, bringing life and hope and promise with him. There’s a certain rightness in having a season to explicitly pray the reality of our need and sin and pain and plead for mercy, declaring our helplessness to fix what is wrong in ourselves and in the world apart from God’s intervention.
Lent + Ascension?
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been reading Ross Hastings’ new book,The Glory of the Ascension. In one way, this week in which we’ve stepped into the season of Lent seems like a strange time to share what I’ve been savoring from this book. We’re in Lent, after all, not celebrating Ascension Day or even the season of Easter. In another way, the timing feels perfect for at least two reasons:
First, it was the joy awaiting Jesus that gave him the motivation to endure the cross (Heb 12:2). Part of that joy, I think, was being face to face with his Father once again, hearing his Father’s “well done,” being seated with Him on the throne and given the name that is above every name (Phil 2:9-11). Another part of that joy is being united to us. (How incredible!) As we walk with Jesus toward the cross through these weeks of Lent, nothing is more fitting than to fix our eyes where he fixed his: on the joy and glory that awaited him and awaits us—union with God through our ascended Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Second, Lent invites us to take an honest look at our own hearts, our own need for Jesus. But we can only have the courage to do that if we remember that we have a living, loving Saviour who not only gave his life for us during his time on earth, but still gives his life to us as he sits at the right hand of his Father, interceding for us. In our need, we have an eternal advocate who knows what it’s like to be human, has safely completed the journey through this earthly life himself, and is now praying for us and blessing us, holding us safe in himself, and guaranteeing a wonderful outcome for those who are in Him.
As Ross Hastings points out,
[A]lthough the atonement was completed when Jesus sat down, the church’s salvation was not yet completed and will not be until the consummation of all things. The writer [of Hebrews] reflects this when he states, “Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely [right on to the end] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb 7:24-25).
In other words, when Jesus ascended, he shifted from his work of achieving our atonement to applying our atonement as he continues to pray for us.
Hastings again:
[T]he enacting of atonement, objectively speaking, was finished when he ascended and sat down. However, subjectively speaking, the application of the atonement would constantly be needed throughout the church’s corporate life and all through the personal life of each believer.
In Lent, we’re called to confront the reality of our need and of the brokenness within and around us. But not to wallow in it. We face the cross and feel the pain while also keeping our eyes on Jesus who has proven that death doesn’t have the last word. It’s that combination of seeing both our need and our Saviour that allows us to turn to him more fully and with deeper love, resting in his unending commitment to us.
The author of Hebrews brings together both the cross and the ascension in this wonderfully encouraging challenge:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10: 19-23)
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P.S. If you want a bit more encouragement, you can read the first chapter of Ross Hastings’ The Glory of the Ascension here (https://www.ivpress.com/the-glory-of-the-ascension). The title of that chapter? “Why the Ascension Matters for Everybody and Everything.”
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
