The human desire for freedom has spiritual roots. Christ Jesus' life and teachings point to a liberty so glorious that the human mind can barely fathom it, and his ascension demonstrates the ultimate freedom. The final record we have of our Master and Way-shower is his ascending above all earthly bondage. Yet he had tested every bond and broken through to incontestable liberty.
Enoch and Elijah had left earth apparently without passing through death. But the Bible records Christ Jesus as enduring the crucifixion, facing the bonds of death, proving them incapable of enslaving him, and then ascending, through spiritualization of his consciousness.
Jesus' resurrection returned him to the presence of others, though he remained freer than a human has ever been and exercised greater control over his experience than anyone else ever has. He was able to keep his identity for a time from two disciples as he walked and talked with them on their way to Emmaus. The Bible notes, "Their eyes were holden that they should not know him."Luke 24:16. Material walls offered no obstruction to him. We read in John, "When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst."John 20:19. Later, he was free to provide breakfast for his disciples, apparently without laborious process. And after a period, called in Acts forty days, his spiritual sense lifted him above any earthly yearnings. He must have foreseen that his Messiah mission would accomplish its purpose of saving the whole world, and that his personal presence was no longer needed.
The Bible is notably sparse in its descriptions of the departure of Enoch and Elijah. Consider, "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."Gen. 5:24. Also, "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."II Kings 2: 11. And the account in Acts of Christ Jesus' ascension simply states, "While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."Acts 1:9. It is almost as if these writers were saying, The human mind cannot conceive such freedom; we cannot see beyond matter's delineation, beyond bondage.
Freedom—ascension, not absorption
Though we cannot perceive ascension with material sense, Christ Jesus' ascension shows us that it brings freedom from matter's bondage, and not loss of identity. "The spiritual body, the incorporeal idea, came with the ascension,"Miscellany, p. 218. Mrs. Eddy writes in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. And an earlier article in the same book states, "In Science, we learn that man is not absorbed in the divine nature, but is absolved by it." Further on in the paragraph we read, "Think not that Christian Science tends towards Buddhism or any other 'ism.' Per contra, Christian Science destroys such tendency."Ibid., p. 119.
Ascension, then, is not absorption into some nebulous spiritual ether, but a freeing from bondage. "The encumbering mortal molecules, called man, vanish as a dream; but man born of the great Forever, lives on, God-crowned and blest,"Miscellaneous Writings, p. 205. Mrs. Eddy writes. Ascension indicates an absolute state of being, free from imperfection, complete and whole. The real man, our true spiritual individuality, has never descended into bondage of any kind. Only a mortal needs to accept and gain liberty.
The ladder of ascension, though, is always set up. Its top may be out of our sight, but the next rungs up are clearly visible, offering sure footing for immediate steps out of mortality. Today we can surrender some belief in matter's reality, give up some disappointment that would deny Love's totality and actuality, forsake some indulgence of sense-originated sin. Each spiritually progressive day is ascension into greater freedom. Remember what was said of Enoch's daily life: He "walked with God."
Ascension not to be perverted
Though we may be tempted to believe otherwise, there is no other way to ascend than through daily regeneration, and by being in the service of God, helping and healing our fellowmen. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible points out, "The perversion of the true Christian meaning of the Ascension by the heretics in Paul's congregations (especially Corinth and Philippi), as well as by subsequent Gnosticism, focuses attention upon the need to clarify the meaning of the Ascension also for our day."The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1962), I, p. 246. Today, such perversion may take the form of believing that there is no need for us to walk with God in daily deeds, since Christ Jesus' ascension is our ascension, too; that his victory over matter prevents us from having to struggle out of matter; or the mistaken view that accepting Jesus as our Saviour gives us the same human status as Christ Jesus.
A friend, speaking of someone who felt he was living above earth and in the ascension, remarked gently but wryly, "You should see how much he loves chocolate cake." The incongruity of believing that we have ascended beyond earthly woes, while partaking of earthly delights, is obvious. Sometimes spiritual immaturity will argue that because the divine Science of God's allness has been revealed, there is no cross to bear. We need to see clearly that in ascension we reach an absolute state where there is final freedom from all suffering and no need for healing. But as long as we see a need anywhere, or rely on false pleasures, we are committed as Christians to addressing that need and exchanging that pleasure for genuine spiritual satisfaction. We will ascend when we no longer have pain or pleasure in matter or depend on it for our identity. And not until.
In the third chapter of Philippians, especially the latter part of it, Paul touches on this issue. After making it clear that he knows he has not yet attained perfection, he says, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."Phil. 3:13, 14.
Surely this "prize" is freedom to forsake material selfhood, to be what man really is, Christlike, the perfect and immortal child of God. ''In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood," Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "and that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence of the reality."Science and Health, pp. 292-293.
Progress toward finding "the real essence of manhood" demands an honest appraisal of just how spiritually based and motivated is our daily "walk." "One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem,"Mis., p. 356. Mrs. Eddy reminds us. We need not despair of those experiences. Rather, they point toward upward footsteps.
Celebrating ascension
While Christendom has special days and ways for honoring the birth of our Lord, his crucifixion and resurrection, are we celebrating his ascension? Do we see what an impact it has on our own lives and our future? Are we earnestly contemplating and striving toward overcoming materiality, not through death, but by way of the freedom of spiritual ascension?
Science and Health draws a contrast between our Master's last supper before his crucifixion and the last breakfast—that meal he prepared for his disciples before his ascension. "His gloom had passed into glory," the textbook states, "and his disciples' grief into repentance,—hearts chastened and pride rebuked." In the next paragraph we read, "This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists commemorate. . . . They celebrate their Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight."Science and Health, pp. 34-35.
We celebrate his ascension as we break free from material beliefs and fleshly ties, as we accept the liberty of our spiritual heritage and our relationship to one another as that of children of the one divine Parent. Such celebration is part of our ascension and is shown forth in harmony and in surer healing—healing accomplished through spiritual means only. Mrs. Eddy wrote her Church in 1901, "Let us remember that the great Metaphysician healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves, which obeyed him through spiritual ascendency alone."Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 19.
Spiritual ascension is the way of freedom from all bondage, the Christly way—the only way. And because we have the way and promise of ascension, we can cultivate any legitimate desire for freedom until it is fulfilled. True freedom, gained through walking with God, never impinges on the rights of another; rather, it helps secure them and forwards spiritual progress.
Elijah said to his young disciple, Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee."II Kings 2:9, 10.
Elisha did see by means of spiritual sense. He received of the spirit of Elijah and expanded the prophet's mission. Might we not expect that as we make an effort to see—to better understand—our Master's wonderful way-breaking career, including his ascension, we will receive of his Christly spirit and be able to carry on his healing mission, even to accepting the challenge of doing the greater works?
And we will ultimately prove all men—each and every one of us—to be spiritually free.
