ACC ~ Mark 16 v19 - 20

OVERVIEW:

The ascension confirms what the resurrection evidences demonstrate: that Jesus is the one Lord and creator who rises from the dead and ascends to receive his kingdom (IRENAEUS). The same Son who descended also ascends to heaven (TERTULLIAN). The heavenly span transcends earthly categories of space (AUGUSTINE). The God-man abides with us in our hearts on earth, even as he abides with the Father in heaven (BEDE). As God he is omnipresent, while as man the ascended Lord now dwells bodily in heaven in the same form of flesh in which he lived (AUGUSTINE). Our poor human nature is taken up to heaven with him above angels to the throne of God (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, LEO THE GREAT). Healing, comforting, feeding, giving drink, delivering captives—these are continuing works of the ascended Lord (APHRAHAT).

16:19a | Taken Up into Heaven

WHAT THE ASCENSION CONFIRMS

IRENAEUS: As he finishes his Gospel, Mark [1] concludes: “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” [2] The ascension confirms what had been spoken by the prophet: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.” [3] Thus God who was announced by the prophets is truly one and the same as God who is celebrated in the true gospel, whom we Christians worship and love with the whole heart as the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things within it. AGAINST HERESIES 3.10.5. [4]

[1] This passage, often thought to be a later addition to Mark, was regarded by Irenaeus as the received Markan text in the late second century.

[2] Mk 16:19.

[3] Ps 110:1.

[4] AHR 2:39-40; ANF 1:426.

WE ASCEND WITH HIM

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: He dies, [1] but he makes alive [2] and by death destroys death. [3] He is buried, [4] yet he rises again. [5] He goes down to Hades, yet he leads souls up, [6] ascends to heaven, [7] and will come to judge the living and the dead, [8] and to probe discussions like these. ORATION 29, ON THE SON 20. [9]

[1] Cf. Mt 27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46; Jn 19:30.

[2] Cf. Jn 5:21.

[3] Cf. 2 Tim 1:10; Heb 2:14.

[4] Cf. Mt 27:60; Mk 15:46; Lk 23:53; Jn 19:41-42; 1 Cor 15:4.

[5] Cf. Mt 28:6; Mk 16:6; Lk 24:6; Jn 20:8-9; 1 Cor 15:4.

[6] Cf. Eph 4:8-9; Ps 68:18.

[7] Cf. Mk 16:19; Lk 24:51; Acts 1:10-11.

[8] Cf. 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5.

[9] TLG 2022.009, 20.31-34; FGFR 260*.

OUR HUMAN NATURE IS CARRIED UP

LEO THE GREAT: And so while at Easter it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy, our present rejoicing is due to his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up in Christ above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond those heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from our sight of everything that is rightly felt to command our reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold. … It was in order that we might be capable of such blessedness that on the fortieth day after his resurrection, after he had made careful provision for everything concerning the preaching of the gospel and the mysteries of the new covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven before the eyes of his disciples, and so his bodily presence among them came to an end. From that time onward he was to remain at the Father’s right hand until the completion of the period ordained by God for the church’s children to increase and multiply, after which, in the same body with which he ascended, he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so our redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments. Our faith is nobler and stronger because empirical sight has been replaced by a reliable teaching whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high. SERMON 74.1-2. [1]

[1] Cetedoc 1657, 138A.74.13; JF B 60-61*; CCL 138A, 455-57.

16:19b | He Sat Down at the Right Hand of God

STEPHEN’S VISION

TERTULLIAN: It is the Son, too, who ascends to the heights of heaven, [1] and also descends to the inner parts of the earth. [2] “He sits at the Father’s right hand” [3] —not the Father at his own. [4] He is seen by Stephen at his martyrdom by stoning, still sitting at the right hand of God, [5] where he will continue to sit, until the Father shall make his enemies his footstool. [6] He will come again on the clouds of heaven, just as he appeared when he ascended into heaven. [7] AGAINST PRAXEAS 30. [8]

[1] Cf. Jn 3:13.

[2] Cf. Eph 4:9.

[3] Cf. Mk 16:19; Rev 3:21.

[4] As an expression of his eternal sonship.

[5] Cf. Acts 7:55-56.

[6] Cf. Ps 110:1.

[7] Cf. Acts 1:9-11; Lk 24:51.

[8] Cetedoc 0026, 30.17; ANF 3:627*.

WHETHER RIGHT HAND IS A LITERAL REFERENCE

AUGUSTINE: While such things are mystifying if we take them in a carnal sense, we may be warned thereby to think of them as ineffably spiritual. For this reason, even if we think of the Lord’s body, which was raised from the tomb and ascended into heaven, only as having a human appearance and parts, we are not to think that he sits at the right hand of the Father [1] in such a way that the Father should seem to sit [literally] at his left hand. Indeed, in that bliss which surpasses human understanding, the only right hand and the same right hand is a name for that same bliss. LETTER 120, TO CONSENTIUS. [2]

[1] Cf. Mk 16:19.

[2] Cetedoc 0262, 1201.34.2.3.717.7; FC 18:312*. Heaven’s directionality transcends our categories of space. Our language always falls short of its reality.

WHILE SITTING IN HEAVEN, HE IS OMNIPRESENT

AUGUSTINE: Do not doubt, then, that the man Christ Jesus is now there whence he shall come again. Cherish in your memory and hold faithfully to the profession of your Christian faith that he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, [1] and will come from no other place but there to judge the living and the dead. He will so come, on the testimony of the angel’s voice, as he was seen going into heaven, [2] that is, in the same form and substance of flesh to which, it is true, he gave immortality, but did not take away its nature. According to this fleshly form, we are not to think that he is everywhere present. We must beware of so stressing the divinity of the man that we destroy the reality of his body. It does not follow that what is in God is in him so as to be everywhere as God is. The Scripture says, with perfect truth: “In him we live and move and are,” [3] yet we are not everywhere present as he is, but man is in God after one manner, while God is in man quite differently, in his own unique manner. God and man in him are one person, and both are the one Jesus Christ who is everywhere as God, but in heaven as man. LETTER 187, TO DARDANUS 10. [4]

[1] Cf. Mk 16:19; Col 3:1; Heb 1:3; 10:12. If Jesus is bodily in heaven in the same form of flesh in which he lived, how can he be everywhere?

[2] Cf. Acts 1:10-11; 2 Tim 4:1.

[3] Acts 17:28.

[4] Cetedoc 0262, 187.57.3.89.6; FC 30:228-29*.

DEATH HAS NO DOMINION

AUGUSTINE: Having vanquished the devil by the resurrection, he sits at the right hand of the Father, [1] where he dies no more, and death no longer over him shall have dominion. [2] ON THE PSALMS 72.8. [3]

ASCENDED LORD, COMING LORD

PRUDENTIUS:

Hail! Thou king of all the living;

Hail! Thou judge of all the dead, [4]

At the right hand of thy Father,

Thou art throned in highest power, [5]

And from thence just judge of sinners,

Thou shalt one day come again.

HYMN 9, A HYMN FOR EVERY HOUR. [6]

[1] Cf. Mk 16:19.

[2] Cf. Rom 6:9.

[3] Cetedoc 0283, 39.71.8.37; NPNF 1 8:329.

[4] Cf. Acts 10:42.

[5] Cf. Mk 16:19.

[6] Cetedoc 1438, 9.106; FC 43:68.

PRESENT ON EARTH WHILE AT THE FATHER’S RIGHT HAND

BEDE: Because he who was taken up into heaven is both God and a human being, he remains on earth with the saints in the humanity which he took from the earth, but in the divinity with which he fills earth and heaven equally he remains “all days, even to the consummation of the world.” From this it is understood that even up to the end, the world will not lack those in whom there will be divine abiding and indwelling. Nor should we doubt that those struggling in this world will deserve to have Christ abiding in their hearts as a guest, and will abide with Christ in his kingdom after the contests of this world. Nevertheless we should note that the divine majesty, while existing everywhere, is present in one way to the elect, in another to the condemned. It is present for the condemned in the power of [God’s] incomprehensible nature, by which he knows everything, the most recent happenings and the former ones, understands [human] thoughts from afar, and foresees all the ways of each one. [1] It is present for the elect in the grace of his benevolent protection, by which he draws them, guiding each one individually by his present gifts and chastisements to the possession of their future inheritance as a father guides his children. EXPOSITION ON THE GOSPEL OF MARK 2.8. [2]

[1] Cf. Ps 139:2-4.

[2] Cetedoc 1367, 2.8.99; HOG 2:72-73*.

16:20 | The Lord Confirmed the Message by the Signs That Attended It

CONTINUING SIGNS ACCOMPANYING FAITH

APHRAHAT: Let us draw near, then, my beloved, to faith, since its powers are so many. For faith raised up [Enoch] to the heavens, [1] and overcame the deluge. [2] It caused the barren to bring forth. [3] It delivered from the sword. [4] Faith raised up from the pit. [5] It enriched the poor. [6] It released the captives. [7] It delivered the persecuted. [8] It brought down the fire. [9] It divided the sea. [10] Faith cleft the rock and gave to the thirsty water to drink. [11] It satisfied the hungry. [12] It raised the dead and brought them up from Sheol. [13] It stilled the billows. [14] It healed the sick. [15] DEMONSTRATION 1.18. [16]

[1] Cf. Gen 5:24; Heb 11:5.

[2] Cf. Gen 7:1—8:22.

[3] Cf. Gen 21:1-3; Heb 11:11-12.

[4] Cf. Gen 22:1-9; Heb 11:17, 34.

[5] Cf. Gen 37:28.

[6] Cf. Mk 12:42-44.

[7] Cf. Heb 11:27-29.

[8] Cf. Heb 11:27-29.

[9] Cf. 1 Kings 18:38.

[10] Cf. Ex 14:21.

[11] Cf. Ex 17:6.

[12] Cf. Ex 16:15.

[13] Cf. Heb 11:35.

[14] Cf. Mt 8:26.

[15] Cf. Mt 9:2, 22; Mk 2:5.

[16] PS 1/1:41-43; NPNF 2 13:351*. Healing, comforting, feeding, giving drink, delivering captives—these are continuing evidences of the work of the ascended Lord.