“…where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (RSV, Matthew 18:20)

It is St Luke who tells us that Our Lord appeared to his Apostles at intervals during the 40 days following his Resurrection on Easter Day.  As a result of those appearances the Apostles were convinced by the conclusive evidence of their own eyes and ears of two facts.

First, that his body which had been nailed to the Cross and laid to rest in the tomb, had been transformed and raised to a supernatural level of existence, and that in that new and higher life he could now appear to them at will, not as a ghost, but in the undiminished fullness of his personality.

And secondly, they knew that, whether they saw him or not, he was with them.  So on Low Sunday, doubting Thomas found that the Risen Christ knew all about his declared disbelief of Easter Day.  “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing” (RSV, John 20:27).

The time had now come, however, for Jesus to make clear to the Apostles that they could no longer expect to continue seeing him as they had been doing since Easter Day, and it was for this reason that, at his last Resurrection appearance, he took his leave of them in so dramatic a fashion.

On what we call Ascension Day he appeared to them in Jerusalem and led them out of the city to the top of the Mount of Olives.  There he gave them their final commission to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation.  Then, lifting up his hands he blessed them, and as he did so, he went up from them towards the sky, and while they watched, a cloud of divine light and glory enveloped him and they saw him no more.

Thus Jesus returned to that supernatural life of God which surrounds us on every side and from which he had come when he was born in Bethlehem.  As the Creed puts it, he came down from Heaven and ascended into Heaven; and yet in using such terms we do not mean that he travelled from one place to another, any more than when we speak of someone coming into a person’s life, or of individuals going back to their former way of life.

But the Ascension on the Mount of Olives was more than a leave-taking indicating the conclusion of the Resurrection appearances; it was also a symbolic action designed to teach the Apostles something about the character of that heavenly life which he now entered.

Jesus did not go up towards the sky because Heaven is “up above” or “out there” in space.  Heaven is simply where God is seen, and so no physical distance is involved.  The manner of his leave-taking was a practical and effective expression of the common metaphor which pictures status, and fortune, and happiness and goodness in terms of up and above.  Thus we speak of individuals who have come up in the world and are at the summit of their powers.  Similarly, we talk of high spirits and lofty principles.  So, by going up from the Mount of Olives towards the sky, Our Lord taught the truth that he was returning to Heaven, which is in every way a higher and happier life, and better life than that which we have on earth.

And because Heaven is where God is seen, it is close at hand.  As St Paul said, in God “…we live and move and have our being…” (RSV, Acts 17:28).  That is why Our Lord before his Ascension into Heaven could give his Apostles the unqualified assurance, “…lo, I am with you always…” (RSV, Matthew 28:20).

And from then onwards he was always present with them because they were always in his Presence.  So came true one of the most remarkable utterances which Our Lord made during his earthly life, “…where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (RSV, Matthew 18:20, our emphasis).

There are two other occasions in the Gospel record when Jesus is spoken of as being “in the midst”.  The first was on Calvary where, as St John tells us, “…they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst” (King James Bible, John 19:18, our emphasis).  Yes, the same Jesus who was raised again from the dead was once in the midst of this world’s suffering and pain, and himself shared it all to the full.

And that experience remained unforgettably part of him after his Resurrection, as he made plain to his Apostles on Easter Day when, as St Luke tells us, he “…himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself…” (RSV, Luke 24:36,39, our emphasis).

So today Jesus is still in the midst of his own as the Lord who suffered before entering his glory.  And that fact is supremely and uniquely true of the Eucharist.

For, as the Risen Christ came and stood in the midst of his Apostles that first Eastertide, and showed them his hands and his feet, so today after the Consecration in the Eucharist does he come in our midst in his Risen and Ascended Body, and showing those same scars to his Father, presents us as his own people whom he died upon the Cross to save.

Thus the Risen and Ascended Jesus, who still stands in our midst today, is the same Jesus who was once in the midst of this world’s pain.

And it is that fact, as well as his sharing in our human nature, which makes him kin with us, and which, in all our troubles and sorrows, assures us of his infinite understanding and his infinite compassion.

Collect for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

“God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us
    to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever”. (1)

Reference

1.© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England (2004) Common Worship Collects and Post Communions in Contemporary Language.  Available from:
http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/texts/collects-and-post-communions/contemporary-language/lenteaster.aspx (Accessed 15 April 2013) (Internet).