I haven’t written on my personal journey for a while so I thought it was time I offered some of my current theological explorations up for dissection.
In a nutshell, the aspect of the New Testament story that is gripping my attention at the moment is the ascension of Jesus. And the reason why, is that I have been confronted once again with unresolved tensions between my Cosmology and my Christology, tensions that come to a head in that event.
The problem is this: I affirm the resurrection of Jesus. I affirm that in their original Jewish context, the writers of the New Testament could only have had one thing in mind when the used the word resurrection, and that is, the transformed continuity of Jesus in this world. I agree with N T Wright that there were far more appropriate words and phrases they could have used if ghostly survival was what they “really” meant to talk about. I also agree with N T Wright that the origin of the New Testament emphasis on the uniqueness of Jesus is hardly explainable if ghostly survival was what was “really” in view.
In line with this I also affirm the writers of the New Testament had transformed continuity in this world in mind when they spoke of the resurrection of Israel, when they spoke of the return of Jesus, when they spoke of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Again, I do not accept that the earth was to be left behind in their view.
But tension arises when I come to the gap between physical resurrection and physical return, when I come to the intermediate state. For it is one thing to speak of us experiencing a ghostly intermediate state (for we have not yet been resurrected), but it’s another thing altogether to speak of Jesus experiencing it (for he has been resurrected). And it seems that I am left with one of two choices when I get to this point. Either (1) the ascension of Jesus amounts to temporary disincarnation or (2) the ascension of Jesus amounts to continued incarnation in heaven. And while the first option conflicts with my Christology, the second conflicts with my Cosmology.
This doesn’t overly bother me. I have learnt from past experience that apparent paradoxes often dissappear once looked at in the right way. But I am still in that space where I have not yet learnt to look at it in the right way. So the tension remains.
Interesting eh? Anyway, I think a hint of the resolution lies in the appearance stories of Jesus. For when I look at the narratives afresh the thing that jumps out for me is that Jesus did a lot of phasing in and out even before the ascension. But I am still not seeing clearly and this space some related questions pop up. For instance, what does it mean to speak of “Our father in heaven” when God is everywhere and cannot be contained by the heavens? I realize some of that is poetic but I feel pulled to re-examine it again in light of my current explorations.
I imagine some rather interesting insights await me at the end of this process. Not least because the question in focus here is, what is Jesus doing now, in between.
Curious Christian 
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