In 1925, Pope Pious XI introduced “The Feast of Christ the King” into the liturgical calendar. It came on the last Sunday of October which, metaphorically speaking, is the no-man’s land of the church calendar. In 1970, Pope Paul VI moved the feast to the final Sunday before Advent. Catholics, of course, recognized the new holy day, but so did many other Christians around the world.

The problem, as N. T. Wright points out, is that the church already had a feast day of Christ the King. It is called Ascension Day, which is being celebrated as I write this column. The new feast divests the ancient one of some of its meaning, relegating Ascension Day to a kind of going away party for Jesus.

That is not how Christians should think of the ascension of Christ. It was not the departure of the world’s helper but the installation of the world’s king. At the ascension, Christians ought to celebrate the fact that Jesus is already enthroned as the world’s king. The children’s Sunday School pictures that show Jesus hovering in the air ought to go on to depict him sitting on a throne.

The story of the ascension is told in the Book of Acts, which is a history of the church’s first few decades. It was written by St. Luke, who was a friend and coworker of the Apostle Paul. For Luke, the ascension was not a forlorn occasion when the church said goodbye to Jesus. It was the exciting time when the church was sent on a mission by its king.

This is something the church has often missed, and perhaps even more so since its recent juggling of feast days. Jesus Christ is not waiting to be king. He has already been installed on the throne and as king he has already sent his people on a mission.

If we do not recognize this truth, we will never understand the Book of Acts, nor the biblical story of which it is a part, nor the role that twenty-first century Christians are expected to play. To grasp the message of the Bible, we much appreciate the crucial concepts of king and kingdom.

In the first paragraph of the Book of Acts, St. Luke writes that the risen Jesus spoke to his apostles, the church leaders he had chosen, about the kingdom of God. The biblical hope of a good kingdom, of God’s kingdom, did not become irrelevant with Jesus’s death and resurrection. It was the primary subject of Jesus’s conversation with his leaders even after the resurrection.

In the last sentence of the Book of Acts, we find the Apostle Paul still talking about the kingdom of God decades after the church was founded. The technique of raising a topic at the beginning and again at the end of a section of literature, whether a short passage or an entire book, is known as an inclusio. It implies that the text is about that topic. Luke wanted readers to know that his book is about the kingdom of God and its king.

The kingdom theme is writ large across the pages of the Bible. It begins with God taking his throne and assigning his noble stewards – human beings – the responsibility to rule over the earth. But this kingdom is thrown into anarchy in Genesis 3 and the rest of the Old Testament explores the hope that the good kingdom will be restored. By the end of the Old Testament, however, it still seems far away.

The New Testament opens with the stirring announcement that “the kingdom of God is near!” Jesus declares, “The Kingdom of God has come upon you!” and he sends out his emissaries to proclaim its arrival to everyone who will listen.

The ascension of Jesus means the long-awaited kingdom has been established. Nevertheless, as Jesus himself taught, the kingdom awaits a still greater fulfillment upon his return and the elevation of his people. On Ascension Day, the church celebrates what happened when Christ ascended to the throne, what is happening now through his reign, and what will happen when he returns for his people.