Better than chocolate | Heaven will be intoxicatingly delightful.

Within the context of our "Come to the Table" series, I invite you to join me and spend time on an overlooked but essential event in the Christian liturgical calendar today, tucked between Easter and Pentecost. Ascension has become one of my most cherished treasures, because it speaks of a hope that is certain, and a future that is glorious. First, Ascension means that a human body is present in the Throne Room of God right now - that is Jesus Christ today. His incarnation made Jesus a member of humanity; His Ascension made His membership permanent. I cannot wrap my head around this, but one thing I can do is fall on my face to worship in awe and wonder.
The corollary to Ascension, Pentecost, means that the Spirit of God is present in human flesh right now - that is you and me today. Ascension and Pentecost tell us that Christ reconciles God to man in His own body. He declares at Pentecost our ultimate reality: “on earth as it is in heaven!” He declares at Ascension the corollary, “in heaven as it is on earth!” Just as He was God on earth, He is now human in heaven. Just as He prayed as God on earth for us, He prays now as our Great High Priest in heaven for us. Ascension and Pentecost are Jacob’s ladder, a two-way relationship of body and spirit, earth and heaven, reconciled in One.
Upon His ascension, Jesus, in His glorified human body, received from the Father the Holy Spirit, whom He sent to us to inhabit our own not-yet-glorified bodies. Heaven will be intoxicatingly delightful. So unbearable for our current bodies, in fact, that we will be given brand new, glorified bodies - like Christ’s - so that we can withstand the intensity of delight and pleasure that awaits us. Our heavenly bodies will be like a chocolate masterpiece to our current cocoa-pod bodies: similar, but unimaginably more glorious. From starter seed to perfected fruit. We have yet to experience heavenly chocolate, so we struggle to see its connection to our humble cocoa pod-like current body. It is ultimately a matter of time. We are the “body of Christ” - it means in some real way we are in the Throne Room with Him already. It is ultimately a matter of space. Good thing heaven is beyond time and space.
Jesus described His ascension to Mary Magdalene as His going “to my Father and your Father; to my God and your God.” (John 20:17). This is astounding. Jesus is irreversibly identifying with us: His Father is our Father; His God is our God. It means, in essence, that He represents God to man, and man to God: this is the role of the Great High Priest. Had Jesus not ascended to heaven, he could not officiate as our Great High Priest right now, fulfilling at least three primary missions for the church age: interceding for us, teaching us to pray, and making things above real for us. Let’s unpack, seeking continually the things that are above.
First, Jesus is interceding for you right now. In John 17, considered by many as the “Holy of Holies” of the New Testament, He gives us a glimpse into His current prayer on our behalf. If you want to know how Jesus is praying for you right now, read John 17 again. And again. Jesus prays that we be one with Him as He is one with the Father. Unity with Christ means unity of purpose and life - living like He lives, praying like He prays and, one day, ascending like He ascended.
His present intercession provides the continued effectiveness of His redemptive mission. He maintains His victory by the word of His mouth - in prayer to the Father even now. He bears forth into each one of us, members of His body, the deliverance He accomplished on the cross. He manifests the victory He obtained. His unceasing intercession gives our prayers a power we never had before. Which means, secondly, that Jesus teaches us to pray. He speaks through our prayers; we become the vessels to speak on earth His intercession in heaven, by the Holy Spirit. In Him we join the never-ceasing, never-failing prayer-conversation constantly weaving before the Father. In other words, what He prays passes through us, and what we pray passes through Him. Mind-boggling.
And thirdly, He makes it all real to us in experience. His birth, life, death, and resurrection secured our destiny and effected our reconciliation with God. And now He wields His limitless intercessory power to make this reconciliation real and personal to each one of us, members of His body. He is the head, we the body: which means we cannot be separated from Him, since death is abolished. Ascension teaches this: Where He goes, we go; where He is, we are; that is heaven. Pentecost teaches this: where we go, He goes; where we are, He is: on earth, as it is in heaven.
Just as Acts 1:6-11 describes Ascension from Earth’s perspective, Daniel 7:13-14 describes it from Heaven’s perspective: “Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.” Jesus is this Son of Man, and He is...