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4. No One Has

Ascended into Heaven

The prophets of Israel gave to Western Civilization its orientation toward the future. They were the ones who diagnosed the need for a radical change from the status quo and predicted that this change would come in the future. Traditional societies were anchored in the annual natural cycle. Life was to be lived in conformity with the constant repetition of the vital cycle in nature. The prophets freed time from the notion that it is bound to the cycles of nature with their constant returns to the beginning. They conceived time as a horizontal line into the future that would bring The Day of the Lord and The Kingdom of God. To live is to hope for That Great Day, not to reenact the past ad infinitum in yearly festivals.

Rather than to think of life as grounded in time and history, Plato taught that to live in the accidents of time and its changes is to live anxiously, lacking a footing in reality. To live authentically is not to become but to be. To live wisely is to anchor one’s life on that which is, not on the things that are constantly becoming something else. To live is to escape the world of becoming in time and take hold of the things that are eternal. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to gain knowledge of the things that are in the higher spheres of the chain of being. The scaffolding of life is not in time but in space. About the things that exist in time and are constantly becoming something else one may have an opinion. To know is to have grasped intellectually the things that are, that are not changed by time. Truth should not be confused with opinions about material things. The truth only exists in that which is eternal, that is, in ideas.

As a Mediterranean nation, the Jews of Jesus’ time were thoroughly Hellenized. Even if the common people may not have known Plato’s philosophical work, and may not even have known his name, the Hellenistic world was permeated with a popular version of Plato’s thought. This meant that the prophetic vision, which instilled hope in a future when communion with God would be possible as God’s kingdom became a reality and God’s throne was located on Mount Zion, was not predominant. Within a Hellenistic culture Jews explored the mystical avenues used by Hellenistic mystery cults, and Merkabah Judaism developed its own version of how to ascend to the heavenly spheres in order to get in touch with the divine realities that are eternal.

Jewish Merkabah mysticism established ways of ascending to the heavenly spheres and anchoring one’s life on the things that really are. Not surprisingly, Elijah’s chariot (2 Kings 2:11) became the vehicle of choice for those who wished to ascend to the heavenly regions and thus escape from the anxieties of life in the changes brought by time to those living in matter. Even the human body was an impediment to the ascent to spiritual realities. That trips to heaven provided knowledge of heavenly realities is also in evidence in the Revelation of John the Theologian. He reports to have ascended and been admitted to the very room where God’s throne and God’s entourage are to be found. There he learned things that were sealed, were to remain secret, until the proper time (Rev 4:1 – 6:1). The apostle Paul confesses to having ascended to the third heaven and to Paradise. There he was told things “that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (2 Cor. 12:1 – 4).

In Platonic terms reaching the higher spheres and seeing and hearing things that are secret can only be realized by the soul, or the intellect, the mind. In the Hebraic traditional culture the body is essential to any form of life. Matter is not ballast that must be discharged by those who wish to reach higher forms of reality. It is essential to any living thing. Thus Paul, a Jew to the core, as an intelligent citizen of the Hellenized world, having achieved an ascent to Paradise, wonders whether he was in the body or out of the body during this journey to the world above. To a Platonist the body would constitute a disqualifying impediment. An apocalyptic Jew like Paul had difficulty conceiving how he could make a trip to heaven without his body. Admirably, Paul admits his ignorance as whether he made the trip in the body or without it (2 Cor. 12:3).

The gospel According to John has some passing references to the need to wait for the future and its drastic changes. This gospel makes five references to “the resurrection in the last day” (6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24). The predominant perspective in this gospel, however, is not temporal; it is spatial, vertical and challenging. “No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven” (3:13). The admonition is not “to watch and wait,” as in the synoptic gospels, or the letters of Paul. According to John does not advise having patience, or resignation until the Day of the Lord. It also contradicts all those who claim to have ascended to the heavenly spheres. The flat declaration that “no one has ascended to heaven” must have been quite shocking, both for the mystery religions whose devotees were initiated for these journeys and for a Judaism, whether apocalyptic or mystical, that also prepared people for journeys to the realms above.

While affirming that no one has ever ascended to heaven, According to John cites one exception to the rule. The One Sent by the Father, who descended from heaven, has also ascended into heaven. In other words, the one who descended to the world “below” has ascended to the world “above” from which he came. For those who are from below it is impossible to ascend. Only he who descended from “above” has ascended.

The world above and the world below are also designated “the spirit” and “the flesh.” These two realities are, apparently, mutually exclusive. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit” (3:6). Since human beings are born of the flesh, they belong to the world below; therefore, it is impossible for them to ascend. The Father’s purpose in sending his Son to this world was to open up the world above, where eternal life is the norm, to those born below. In other words, the Son of Man descended only to ascend. His authorization to ascend resides in his origin in the world above. Those from below are, on this account, destined to die and remain below.

In a confrontation with “the Jews” during the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus says to them: “I go away, and you will seek me but die in your sin; where I am going you cannot come .… You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I told you that you would die in your sins” (8:21 – 24). To have been born below, to have been born of the flesh, is to have to die in one’s sins. The mission of the Son is to “become flesh” (not to “be born in the flesh”) ( 1:14) to release the constraints that separate the world below from the world above. The basic fact of life below has been altered. Eternal life, the norm of the world above, is now available in the world below since the one who ascended into heaven has opened the world above to those living in the world below.

Of course, in the opinion of “the Jews” Jesus’ origin is from below. They know perfectly well who his parents are. They ask themselves, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” (6:42). Knowing that even his disciples are perturbed by his claim to have descended from heaven, Jesus asks them: “Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” (6:62). Apparently his ascent will be more extraordinary, more spectacular, more revealing than his descent. His ascent is the exception.

Every reader of this gospel must answer the question “the Jews,” almost pleading, ask him: “Who are you?” (8:25). Pilate asks the more specific question: “Where are you from?” (19:9). Frustrated by Jesus’ silence, Pilate threatens him: “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you, and authority to crucify you?” With this claim to authority the evangelist highlights the irony of the situation. Jesus now informs Pilate: “You would have no authority over me unless it had been given you from above” (19:10 – 11). As a person in the world below Jesus may be subject to the power of Rome. His precarious standing before Pilate, however, is in reality authorized by the Power that comes from above. His death below is not the triumph of the power that has its sources below. He belongs to the world above, as he said, “I am from above” (8:23).

In spite of the persistent efforts of “the Jews” to kill him, they cannot achieve their purpose because Jesus cannot die stoned by “the Jews.” He must die the Roman way, by crucifixion. His exit from the world below must be an ascent, an elevation. The Son of man must be lifted up. “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am” (8:28). The question of “the Jews,” “Who are you?” here receives its answer, “I am.” If his incarnation was his descent, his death is to be his ascension. The post on which he will be “lifted up” is the road on which he will journey to heaven.

The turning point in Jesus’ ministry is precipitated by some Greeks who provide a contrast to the attitude of “the Jews” who neither see nor believe. When Jesus finds out that some Greeks have said: “We wish to see Jesus” (12:21), he reacts by announcing: “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified” (12:23). Then he explains: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (12:32). The narrator then explains: “He said this to show by what death he was to die.” As could be expected, those who heard Jesus’ explanation did not understand it. They asked: “How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up?” (12:34). The lifting up of the Son of man is not an option; it is a necessity. He “must be lifted up,” or, as said by Pilate, “crucified” or, as Jesus said it, “glorified.” He is the exception who is glorified by his ascent to heaven.

In this gospel these words describe the completion of Jesus’ mission. He accomplishes it by returning to the Father “crucified,” “lifted up,” “glorified.” This is the way by which he returns to the world above from which he came. As Jesus says, “I came from the Father .… and [I am] going to the Father” (16:28). Those who know this know who he is and where he is from.

This is known by faith. Only faith makes it possible to recognize the Father as the origin and the destiny of the One who dies “lifted up” and in this way ascends to where he came from. Faith, however, must always rest on an object. Faith must be on something specific. Faith cannot be based on a mist without contours and attributes. It is not a feeling, or an intuition without specificity. The Son of Man must be crucified to provide the object faith requires. Therefore, when the Greeks express the wish to see Jesus, he knows that the hour for him to become the object on which faith is to be tested has arrived. Only when he is “lifted up” can he “draw all men” to himself. He is to be lifted up “so that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

The central metaphor of According to John is offered by Jesus to Nicodemus: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (3:14). The image of Moses lifting up a post with a bronze serpent on it as a way of giving life to the Israelites who were dying in the desert bitten by serpents (Num. 21:9) is given as the best way to understand the crucifixion of Jesus. The bronze serpent in the wilderness was not itself the effective antidote against the venom of the desert reptiles, it was, rather, the vision of the lifted shining object that counteracted the poison.

The central theological text of this gospel is not 3:16. It is 3:14 – 15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Human beings don’t need to ascend to heaven. They received life by seeing the one who ascended, who was lifted up. Thereby they receive eternal life. Those who according to Merkabah Judaism ascended to the realms above expected to see there things about which they could not speak after their return to earth. By their ascent they had gained esoteric information which they could not share. According to John makes the point that those who see the Son of man lifted up receive eternal life, rather than new knowledge. As a result they are to become witnesses of life. They must share their life with others and thus promote life. This gospel offers in this way an argument against those who claim to be in possession of visions or revelations that give them esoteric, secret knowledge.

This is the Gospel of the gospel According to John: to believe in the One who was lifted up to show the love of the Father, from whom he came and to whom he is going, is to be drawn to the one who ascended. To believe in the one who was “lifted up,” the only one who “ascended into heaven” is to “be born from above.” What Jesus provides believers is not knowledge, but life, even while living in the world below.

In the dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus informs him that it is necessary for him to “be born anothen.” Once again we encounter here the irony of this evangelist. Anothen is a Greek word with double meanings. The context alone can tell us how to understand it.

As is to be expected in a dialogue in this gospel, what Jesus says is misunderstood by his interlocutor – it does not matter with whom he is speaking. Nicodemus imagines that he must be born again “from his mother’s womb,” what nonsense! Jesus is telling him that he must be born from above of “the Spirit” (3:5). This is necessary because those who are from below, those who are of the flesh, live in a world where death is the ultimate certainty. Birth from above is the birth of faith, and the Son of Man came to provide the definitive object on which faith must rest. What women and men must see is not what they are anxious to see in journeys to the higher spheres. Seeing the Son lifted up brings about a birth “from above.” The higher spheres are not opened to those who climb on Elijah’s chariot, as Merkabah mysticism promised. Eternal life, the life of the higher spheres is accessible now only because the ascent of the Son on the cross.

The Prologue has already said it in a nutshell: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:12–13). Here we are told different ways to be born below and one way to be born “from above” (anothen). Since we live twenty centuries later it is difficult to distinguish with any certainty the three ways one can be born from below. I can offer only tentative suggestions.

To be born of blood may refer to birth from a tribal marriage. To be born of the will of the flesh may refer to birth from a passionate sexual encounter. To be born of the will of a husband (andros) may refer to birth from the need of the husband to have descendants, particularly among those with a tribal mentality. These are the ways in which people are born in the world below. Those who believe in his name, those who see the Son lifted up, are empowered, authorized children of God, because, as a matter of fact, they are “born of God.” Such are no longer from below. They are born of the Spirit, born from above. In the same way in which a flag lifted up on its pole draws together a people and constitutes it a nation, the Son of Man lifted up on a cross draws toward himself all who believe and constitutes them “born of God.”

Those who are born from above, even while in the realm below, are not confined to the realm below. Their faith makes them live in eternal life. Only those whose origin is from above can participate in the glory of the one who was lifted up and glorified. The cross that lifts up the Son offers the object on which faith must rest. The object of faith is not doctrinal knowledge. It is seeing the Son on the cross ascending to the Father who sent him. The Son who is lifted up is the way, the only means of access to the heavenly regions. As a means of transportation that makes possible the ascent to the Father who causes us to be born from above and gives us eternal life, Elijah’s chariot is no competition to the Son of Man who was glorified on a cross.