I am writing this on Ascension Day, which marks Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father at the end of His 33 years of earthly ministry, forty days after His resurrection. If you celebrate Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, why not celebrate His ascension? And if you sing hymns of those first three events, why not also sing hymns of His ascension? Every hymnal should include songs to laud all of those liturgical dates. The ascension is not a footnote to His redeeming work, but rather is a high point of His successful completion of the work of triumphing over sin and death. As one writer has said, “it doesn’t mark His retirement; it marks His coronation.”
The Bible presents us with prophecies about all the above mentioned events in Jesus’ life, including His ascension. See especially Psalm 68:18, which Paul quotes in this regard in Ephesians 4:8. And the gospel accounts make it clear that just as Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection were historical, observable, physical, bodily realities, so was His ascension. Jesus did not just disappear into a vapor before the apostles’ eyes. His physical body was translated into the presence of the Father. Read that again. His physical body, the one with nail prints and scars, ascended into heaven.
There are a number of reasons that we deem the ascension to be a highlight (pun intended!) of Jesus’ atoning work. Most wonderfully, it marks the longing of His heart to be once again “home” with the Father, where He had been for all eternity (John 17:5). Second, it marks what we could not observe: His welcome and coronation as the conquering King, having been given a name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9-11). Third, it means that He is now interceding for us night and day before the throne of God (Romans 8:34). Fourth, it assures us that since His physical body was not only raised from the dead and is now forever in heaven, our physical bodies will also be raised from the dead and will continue forever in heaven, with soul and body reunited for eternity after the Second Coming (1 Corinthians 15:53-55). Fifth, it points us to the complete victory He has won so as to give us all the benefits He earned for us as His redeemed and beloved bride (once again in Ephesians 4:8). And sixth, it assures that that since He retains His human nature and physical body for all eternity, He truly is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses now (Hebrews 4:15) and grant us all the comfort and strength by His grace that we need.
That last point is very important. One of the ancient Greek heresies that threatened to infect the early church was the idea that material, physical things are inherently corrupt. Only spiritual things can be pure. That led to the belief that continues even today with some that heaven is a place of spiritual beings, and that when we die, we will once and for all be free from the impurities and restraints of our “discarded” physical bodies. But the Bible is clear that Jesus was not only raised bodily from the dead, but also that it was that very body which ascended into heaven. Therefore, if He has a body there, so will we! Our bodies, which will rest in the grace until the Second Coming, will be raised and reunited with our souls to dwell here with Him in a renewed heaven and earth.
Paul elaborated on all of this in the great “Resurrection Chapter” of 1 Corinthians 15. Just as Jesus’ body was raised as a glorified – but still physical – body, so will ours. Just as Jesus’ physical ascension into heaven was real, not a myth or parable, even so our bodies will be raised as perfect, glorified bodies to be forever with the Lord. It’s Jesus’ ascension that makes that certain for us. We ought to celebrate this with great joy each year.
For Presbyterians, our Westminster Larger Catechism includes these questions and answers about Jesus’ ascension.
Q. 53. How was Christ exalted in His ascension?
A. Christ was exalted in His ascension, in that having after His resurrection often appeared unto and conversed with His apostles, speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and giving them commission to preach the gospel to all nations forty days after His resurrection, He, in our nature, and as our head, triumphing over enemies, visibly went up into the highest heavens, there to receive gifts for men, to raise up our affections thither, and to prepare a place for us, where He Himself is, and shall continue till His second coming at the end of the world.
Q. 54. How is Christ exalted in His sitting at the right hand of God?
A. Christ is exalted in His sitting at the right hand of God, in that as God-man, He is advanced to the highest favor with God the Father, with all fullness of joy, glory, and power over all things in heaven and earth; and doth gather and defend His church, and subdue their enemies; furnisheth His ministers an people with gifts and graces, and maketh intercession for them.
Q. 55. How doth Christ make intercession?
A. Christ maketh intercession, by His appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven, in the merit of His obedience and sacrifice on earth, declaring His will to have it applied to all believers; answering all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.
The words for this ascension song, A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing, come from the pen of “The Venerable Bede,” an English monk born about 672 AD, who was educated and served in a Benedictine monastery. As a teenager, he was one of only two monks who survived a plague in 686 which killed most of the local population. A voluminous author, he wrote numerous commentaries and sermons, which became popular in the Middle Ages. He also wrote works on science and literature as well as poetry and music. His primary claim to fame is his five-volume Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which is why he is known today as “The Father of English History.” He helped establish the dating system we know as A.D. (Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord). He died on Ascension Day, May 26, 735, and is buried in Durham cathedral.
Among the 11 or 12 hymns attributed to him, A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing is the one that has become a classic, and is found in most hymnals among compositions about Jesus’ ascension. Written originally in Latin, it does not have the refined beauty of later Latin writers. This was the time of the infancy of ecclesiastical poetry. His hymns are full of the actual words of Scripture, and in this instance the stanzas virtually narrate the story, including the final words of the angel that we will see Jesus again.
1. A hymn of glory let us sing; new songs throughout the world shall ring:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Christ, by a road before untrod, ascends unto the throne of God.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
2. The holy apostolic band upon the Mount of Olives stand;
Alleluia! Alleluia!
and with His followers they see Jesus’ resplendent majesty.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
3. To whom the angels, drawing nigh: “Why stand and gaze upon the sky?”
Alleluia! Alleluia!
“This is the Savior,” thus they say. “This is His noble triumph day.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
4. “Again shall you behold Him so as you today have seen Him go,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
in glorious pomp ascending high, up to the portals of the sky.”
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
We sing the hymn today to the tune LASST UNS ERFREUEN, from a 1623 Roman Catholic hymn collection in Cologne, Germany during the Counter-Reformation and during the time of the Thirty Years’ War. Ralph Vaughan Williams harmonized the tune for inclusion in the 1906 English Hymnal. It as by this channel that it has become known in Protestant circles. We sing the hymn “All Creatures of Our God and King” to this tune.
Here is an example that will enable you to sing along. Note a slight change in the translation in stanza 4 and an added doxology for stanza 5.