Ascension Day预览

The Coronation of the Liberator

You can find all kinds of religious pictures of the crucifixion, but also of the resurrection as well. One of the most famous eastern orthodox icons of the Resurrection, is the one in which you see the risen Christ standing on the doors of Hades. The keys are everywhere and the people from the old world, the world before the Flood, are liberated. It is a glorious picture that tries to show a reality of all that happened outside the field of human vision around the death and the resurrection of Jesus. 

"He went and preached to the spirits in prison,  who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water." (1 Peter 3:19-20). What it all is exactly, I do not know. But in the way the story has been passed on, it is rather clear that there is a layer beneath that what you can see. 

Moreover, Ascension appeared to be an even bigger and more glorious celebration than what the quick reader sees. Ascension is a coronation day, a deliverance celebration. It is the celebration of the glorious entry of the king who has personally liberated the prisoners. He returns from the triumphal procession through hostile territory. Imagine the great military parades of the armies after the victories. Think of film scenes in the Narnia films or for example of the coronation celebration in the final episode of The Lord of the Rings. It is majestic. It is glorious. 

Ascension is a majestic Coronation celebration of the victor, after His victory over the death. Oh, how would the heavenly reality have reacted when they saw the resurrected Christ coming in? Would trumpets have been sounding? Would the choirs of angels have been singing again? Maybe we should hang out the flag at Ascension. The rightful King sits on the throne of the heavenly Kingdom.