
The Promise of His Presence
At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said this to the eleven disciples:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the close of the age” (Matthew 28.18-20).
The Gospel of Luke ends in a seemingly different way:
“And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God (Luke 24.49-53).
In Matthew, the Lord promises that He will never leave His disciples. In Luke, He “parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”
Is this a contradiction? Certainly not, but it is what Orthodox theologians call an “antinomy” — i.e., something that only seems to be contradictory from our limited point of view as creatures, but is not in God’s infinite and transcendent Love.
The principal Orthodox hymns of the Feast of the Ascension resolves this apparent contradiction::
“You ascended in glory, O Christ our God; You delighted the Disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through this blessing they were assured that You are the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world” (Ascension Tropar).
“When You fulfilled the plan of salvation for us and united all things on earth to those in heaven, O Christ our God You ascended in glory, never leaving us, but remaining ever present. For You proclaimed to those who love You: ‘I am with you and no one else has power over you’” (Ascension Kondak).
It is the “promise of the Holy Spirit” that solves this apparent contradiction. The Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ even greater, without limit, and fulfills Christ’s promise to never leave. It is by the Spirit that fulfills the wonderful, powerful promise in this most glorious Kondak: “I am with you and no one else has power over you.”
Christ's Request After Ascension
Christ is now at the right hand of God the Father: “The Lord said unto my Lord: sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psalm 109.1 LXX). The Apostle Peter quoted this verse in the very first Christian sermon that was preached on Pentecost (Acts 2.34-35). He explained what had just happened at 9 am that very morning: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this which you see and hear” (Acts 2.33).
At the Ascension, Jesus presented His redeemed humanity to the Father: “Then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of the creation) He entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but HIs own blood … Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself, without blemish to God” (Hebrews 9.11-12, 14).
In the mysterious and silent ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost, this was the request that the Son made to the Father for the sending of the Spirit. “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever” (John 14.16). “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16.7).
Christ Reigns Through the Holy Spirit
It is by the presence of the Holy Spirit that Christ is with us, and that He reigns.
The reign, the kingship, of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ is the present reality.
The present reign of Jesus Christ, Who is sitting at the right hand of God the Father, is a central theme in the preaching of the Apostles in the Book of Acts. In fact, the present reign of Christ is the central theme and theology of Acts.
Here are the Apostle Peter’s words in the second Christian sermon, which he proclaimed immediately after he and the Apostle John healed a man lame from birth near the Temple gate that was called “Beautiful”:
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3.19-21).
Jesus is Personally (i.e., “hypostatically”) in heaven at the right hand of God the Father “until the times of restitution” — this refers to the Parousia, the Second Coming of the Lord, when finally God “will be all in all.”
The Subjection of the Enemies
The Apostle Paul writes of this present reign, of what the Lord is doing at the right hand of God the Father until that moment at the end:
“Then comes the end, when He [Christ] delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. ‘For God has put all things in subjection under His feet’” (1 Corinthians 15.24-27).
The present reign of the Ascended Lord is the constant process of Jesus Christ, the Son of God seated at the right hand of God the Father,“putting all His enemies under His feet.” It is the ongoing process of “All things being put in subjection under Him.”
The Apostle Peter said in his sermon at the Beautiful Gate that the prophets in the Old Testament had spoken of this present reign.
The most important of these prophecies is by King David: “The Lord said to my Lord: sit at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool” (Psalm 109.1 LXX).
It is extremely significant that Jesus Himself quoted this very verse in response to the Pharisees, who were challenging His theology and His authority: “If the Messiah is the son of David, then why does David call his son the Lord?” (Matthew 22.45).
There is a most important clue here as to the character and meaning of Jesus’ “politics,” the character and meaning of His power — Jesus is identifying His own divinity and authority in the context of Love! He had just spoken of the two greatest commandments — to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and … you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22.37, 39).
The only answer to this riddle, of course, was that Jesus was already eternally existing as the Son of God. But the even higher truth, that David only saw glimmers of, was that after the Gospel events of the Incarnation — including His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension — was that He would be reigning at the Divine Right Hand until all His enemies would be put into subjection under His rule.
The Apostle John writes poetically and apocalyptically of this rule:
“He Who conquers and Who keeps My works until the end, I will give Him power over the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod of iron” (Revelation 2.26-27).
The Ways of Jesus’ Reign
How should this Reign be understood? What character is it?
I should tell you that there are more than a few these days who take “Reign” in entirely worldly terms. For them, they take what they know of the world’s power, violence, and domination, and they extrapolate those sinful patterns onto the Lord Himself.
As a particularly grotesque example, there is a so-called “Rod of Iron Ministry” that is growing by leaps and bounds in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Tennessee. Led by the son of the infamous Sun Myung Moon, this cult states explicitly that the present reign of Christ is a reign of violence and physical warfare.
One of the leaders recently said “We believe that the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of armed citizens, so we believe that everyone in the kingdom should be armed.” The very weapons that were used in mass shootings in Uvalde TX, Buffalo NY, and Tulsa OK are carried in weddings and brandished in “church” services in this cult (which has recently welcomed as keynote speaker a candidate for governor of Pennsylvania).
I’m not exaggerating or being unreasonable. This cult is only one example of a rising tide in American culture — a tide of violence, racism, domination, and authoritarian power.
It is a “heterodox” and heretical falling away from Biblical Christianity that has forgotten all about the Jesus Who washed the feet of His disciples, Who called Himself gentle and forbearing, Who called His followers to meekness and peacemaking, self-denial and Cross-bearing.
The Apostle Matthew makes this clear in his Gospel:
“Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20.25-28).
Popular Misinterpretations
Nothing changed when Jesus ascended into heaven. The “self-pouring-out” and servanthood character of Love continues and will always be so, even after the Parousia, Jesus’ Second Coming. For this is the “personality” of the Body of Christ that can only be like the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ Himself. This is always and only the very order of the New Jerusalem. This is the civic life of heaven — “My life for yours.”
This is a radically different “political theory,” so much upside-down from the realpolitik of the “wars and rumors of wars” of the world.
And this is most important — especially in a time when the Name of Jesus is being abused by so many who want to assume violent power, domination, and oppression as “Christians”:
There will never be a time — at present or in the future — when Christ and His Body will wage violence and domination. Christ’s power will never — forever — be characterized by violence and extermination.
This goes against the too-popular idea that most have about the End Times, when the Lord comes back. They like to imagine that when He comes back, He will be completely different from the humility and meekness of His First Coming. This time, they say, He will come back to take revenge. And He will satisfy the demands for vengeance of all His followers who had been disadvantaged or put down by the world.
This demand for vengeance is not only unbecoming and immature. It is only contrary to the self-denying, servanthood character of Christ’s Reign. Such an expectation of Jesus (that we hear from the likes of Hal Lindsay and the ridiculous Left Behind series by Timothy LaHaye and Kirk Cameron), when He comes back, “to pay back the sinners just what they deserve,” is exactly the same as what many of the Jews wanted from the Messiah in Jesus’ First Coming.
Protestant pre-millennialists are fond of quoting this passage from the Apostle John’s Apocalypse:
“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed which no one knows but himself. He is clad in a robe dipped in[a] blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed him on white horses. From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19.11-17).
This particular passage is one of the chief reasons why Revelations is not read in the services of the Orthodox Church. It is so easy and common to be grossly misinterpreted. On the face of it, it looks militaristic, violent, and triumphalist.
But Revelation was written by the Apostle John as a source of encouragement to his fellow persecuted Christians. It was deliberately written in apocalyptic language, and thus it is certainly not to be taken literally — i.e., in a simplistic, superficial, “plain reading of the text.” This terrible Bible Study mistake is precisely where so many protestant pre-millennialists go so wrong in their End Times prophecy teachings.
Jesus Conquers Only by Love
Since the Spirit conducts the Presence of the Reigning Christ, then it is up to us to voluntarily participate -- in synergy -- with the Spirit's indwelling. Our work is not sufficient, but it is certainly necessary, for the Presence of Christ to be actualized in our own life.
This is the "talent" that the Lord gives us in our lifetime. This is the work by which we shall be judged.
Suffice to say that our own self-aggrandizement in domination, wealth, and power, our own penchant for violence, our own extremist acts, are all opposed to the presence of the Holy Spirit. We thus resist our own theosis. We participate -- in the satanic egoism of violence and domination -- in the spirit of antichrist.
The true "politics of Jesus" admits no such egoistic spirit. His realpolitik is the politics of feetwashing -- as it was, is now, and ever shall be.
In the above passage from Revelation, the Returning Jesus is described as having a “sharp sword issuing from His mouth with which to smite the nations” (19.15). It should be obvious that this is figurative language, as a literal reading is ludicrous.
The “sword” is the overwhelmingly persuasive Word of the Lord. Now matter how dark the world, no matter how sinful the sinner, Jesus’ persuasive Gospel will, at the end, utterly overcome all selfish argument, the original sin of satanism.
The Godmanhood of Jesus, out of Trinitarian Love, is so beautiful, so good and true, that every creature will, by the end, freely bow and freely confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That, and nothing less, is the “sword of the Lord.” That is the light of the world that is the “flame of His eyes.” That is His crucified Love, which is why He is wearing “a robe dipped in blood.” That is His outpouring Grace and Victory, which is why He wears the diadem.
That is why He is called Faithful and True.
Satan and all the powers and authorities of the fallen world and of the Antichrist can only be dislodged by kenosis, by the Christological pouring out of self by self-denial and the servanthood of love (Philippians 2.5-11).
So we pray. So we work and witness. So we love.
In the Mean Time
So until that Day, the Last Day, we have faith. This is exactly, in the context of the Loving Servant, Jesus the Divine and Feetwashing Friend, how we should understand His curious words “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him” (Mark 11.23).
The “mountain” Jesus is referring to is much bigger, much harder than a physical and literal mountain. It is much bigger than personal obstacles (which is the usual interpretation of this verse).
The “mountain” here is nothing less than the very powers and principalities that are being made into the footstool of Jesus.
These “mountains” — no matter how monstrous and depressing — are always moved by the conquering power of Love Divine.
I wish we would pay more attention to the New Testament than to political speech on TV and rallies — power that counts on violence, hatred, anger, and extremism. The Apostle Paul knows the true character of the greatest power, which is Divine, the conquering ways of Love:
“For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10.3-5).
We Christians — who recognize Jesus in our neighbor’s face and act like Him — live in the world and love the world (because “God so loved the world”), we witness to the world as Salt and Light as the world is now, not as we want the world to be. We do not run away from the world, as is the fashion of some popular Christian and even Orthodox writers today. We do not engage in extremist partisan politics to demand that people become more familiar, more agreeable to our political tastes. We do not clamor for powerful Strong Men who will make us feel safer.
Jesus’ Present Reign as the Ascended Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father, is a Reign of meek and humble love. He washes our feet now as He once washed His disciples’ feet in the Upper Room, and He always will.
He does so because the Trinity is just that way — each Person giving away Self completely to the Others.
And we are called to do the same.
And the world will know that we are Christians only by our love.
We have no King but Jesus. He alone is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
— Fr Jonathan Tobias, Ascension 2022