Ephesians 1:15-23

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is Ephesians 1:15-23 (ESV modified):

¹⁵ For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸ having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might ²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come; ²² and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things for the church,²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

This is one long, breathless sentence in the original Greek. Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that he prays constantly for “the Spirit of wisdom” to lead them to a clearer and more profound understanding of God’s love for them and of the divine power that is at work in them. God’s “power toward” them, Paul writes, is no less than the power that “raised [Christ] from the dead and seated him at [God’s] right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” This is a good place to start our Ascension Day meditation.

When Christ ascended to heaven in the dazzling glory cloud, he was not rising to a kind of heavenly retirement after thirty-some often painful years on earth. He was exalted to an active reign over all things, empowered to advance the kingdom of God despite the darker sources of “rule and authority and power and dominion” that still stood in the way (c.f. Eph. 6:11-12). Moreover, as we learned yesterday, the ascended Christ took on this cosmic task “on our behalf” (Heb. 9:24).

He reigns on our behalf because he is still human. God’s intention, all along, had been that humanity would serve God by ruling over creation with loving care and wisdom (Gen. 2:5-8; Psalm 8:5-6; Heb. 2:5-8). But it hasn’t turned out that way. Fallen human beings have exploited God’s creation for their own benefit. But now, in the person of the exalted Christ, one human being finally governs all things wisely and in love. He does so in the service of God and on behalf of all humanity. Christians are called to follow Christ in his care for creation no less than in his command to “make disciples of all nations.” In both tasks, we still have a long way to go, but we can be encouraged by the promise that our brother, who reigns over all things, is “with us always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

Christ also reigns on our behalf in the sense that he does so for our benefit. When God received Jesus into the divine glory cloud and exalted him to heavenly power, it wasn’t to a kind of eternal sinecure (a job that pays well but requires no work), but to “put all things under his feet and [give] him as head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23). The divine and human Christ now works for the good of all things, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his body, the church.

This doesn’t mean that all is already as it should be. Much that is dark still resists (but can never overcome) the light of Christ’s rule. Paul writes elsewhere that Christ “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26). The ascension of Christ marked the beginning of Christ’s reign. His return will announce his victory over all enemies, including death itself. We live in the in-between time, when the perfect divine and human ruler is already in power, but the restoration of all things to the way they should be is far from complete.

 In the midst of a global pandemic, we are called to live in faith that our brother, the ascended Christ, now reigns over a broken (but under repair) world on our behalf; that, whatever else may happen, our eternal life (and our own eventual welcome into the presence of the glory cloud) is not in jeopardy; and that the exalted Christ will in the end make all things well. Our call, too, is to work alongside Christ in whatever ways, small or large, that we can, to advance the kingdom of God “on earth as it is in heaven.” It’s also wise to remember that “love is patient” (1 Cor. 13:4), that our loving God is endlessly patient, and that one of Christ’s first acts after his ascension was to send his Spirit to bear the fruit of patience in us (Gal. 5:22).

Your brother in Christ,

Max