In first-century Jewish thought, resurrection was not about going to heaven. It was about being raised back to life—bodily, visibly, and justly. The idea wasn’t spiritual survival but divine vindication for those unjustly killed. It was deeply political.
So when Christians claimed that Jesus had been resurrected, they weren’t saying he lived on in spirit. They were saying Rome’s verdict was wrong. Jesus, executed as a criminal, had been raised by God as the Messiah. According to John Dominic Crossan, the author of Paul the Pharisee: A Vision Beyond the Violence of Civilization, the resurrection was a reversal. It exposed injustice and an overturned empire.
This resurrection was a public declaration: God sides with the crucified, not the crucifiers. Let’s discuss this further.
Ascension: The True Seat of Power
Ascension, on the other hand, meant something different and equally bold.
In the Roman world, emperors were believed to ascend into divinity after death. So when Christians claimed Jesus had ascended, they were declaring that he now ruled from heaven, not Caesar.
This wasn’t just about honor—it was about authority. Jesus didn’t just survive death; he was enthroned above it. Crossan explains that this was a direct challenge to the Roman imperial system. Ascension meant Jesus was now King, not by military conquest but by divine justice and love.
Ascension redefined rule from domination to servanthood.
Two Claims, One Revolution
Together, resurrection and ascension formed a revolutionary message.
Resurrection says: “You cannot silence the righteous.”
Ascension says: “You do not hold ultimate power.”
These ideas confronted empire, hierarchy, and violence.
Crossan insists we not collapse the two. Resurrection is God’s “yes” to justice. Ascension is God’s “no” to imperial power. One affirms the worth of the oppressed; the other declares who truly reigns.
Why It Still Matters
Today, resurrection and ascension are often reduced to personal faith or poetic metaphor. But in the first century, they were political theology—a vision of justice, dignity, and divine rule that threatened the status quo.
Jesus didn’t rise to flee the world. He rose to change it.
He didn’t ascend to abandon us. He ascended to redefine power.
For Crossan, reclaiming these beliefs means recovering their original force. Resurrection and ascension are not just about what happens to one man but what happens to the world when power is reimagined through love.Read more in Paul the Pharisee: A Vision Beyond the Violence of Civilization by John Dominic Crossan to explore how these early Christian claims still speak powerfully into today’s systems of violence and injustice.
