Resurrection and Ascension are inseparably connected. Jesus does not
rise to share again in the ills and weariness of humanity. Risen, 'He
dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.' 'He died unto
sin once'; and His risen humanity had nothing in it on which physical
death could lay hold. That He should from some secluded dimple on
Olivet ascend before the gazing disciples until the bright cloud,
which was the symbol of the Divine Presence, received Him out of
their sight, was but the end of the process which began unseen in
morning twilight. He laid aside the garments of the grave and passed
out of the sepulchre which was made sure by the great stone rolled
against its mouth. The grand avowal of faith in His Resurrection
loses meaning, unless it is completed as Paul completed his 'yea
rather that was raised from the dead,' with the triumphant 'who is at
the right hand of God.' Both are supernatural, and the Virgin Birth
corresponds at the beginning to the supernatural Resurrection and
Ascension at the close. Both such an entrance into the world and such
a departure from it, proclaim at once His true humanity, and that
'this is the Son of God.'
Still further, the Resurrection is God's solemn 'Amen' to the
tremendous claims which Christ had made. The fact of His
Resurrection, indeed, would not declare His divinity; but the
Resurrection of One who had spoken such words does. If the Cross and
a nameless grave had been the end, what a _reductio ad absurdum_
that would have been to the claims of Jesus to have ever been with
the Father and to be doing always the things that pleased Him. The
Resurrection is God's last and loudest proclamation, 'This is My
beloved Son: hear ye Him.' The Psalmist of old had learned to trust
that his sonship and consecration to the Father made it impossible
that that Father should leave his soul in Sheol, or suffer one who
was knit to Him by such sacred bonds to see corruption; and the
unique Sonship and perfect self-consecration of Jesus went down into
the grave in the assured confidence, as He Himself declared, that the
third day He would rise again. The old alternative seems to retain
all its sharp points: Either Christ rose again from the dead, or His
claims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and His character
irremediably stained.
But we may also remember that Scripture not only represents Christ's
Resurrection as a divine act but also as the act of Christ's own
power. In His earthly life He asserted that His relation both to
physical death and to resurrection was an entirely unique one. 'I
have power,' said He, 'to lay down my life, and I have power to take
it again'; and yet, even in this tremendous instance of
self-assertion, He remains the obedient Son, for He goes on to say,
'This commandment have I received of My Father.' If these claims are
just, then it is vain to stumble at the miracles which Jesus did in
His earthly life. If He could strip it off and resume it, then
obviously it was not a life like other men's. The whole phenomenon is
supernatural, and we shall not be in the true position to understand
and appreciate it and Him until, like the doubting Thomas, we fall at
the feet of the risen Son, and breathe out loyalty and worship in
that rapturous exclamation, 'My Lord and my God.'