Ascension Day and a happy providence

 During our Morning Prayers today one of the Psalms we happened to read as part of our regular rotation was Psalm 41, which has this passage:

9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
10 But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

In John 13:18, Jesus quotes Psalm 41:9 referring to Judas, who will betray him. But the heel image comes from Genesis 3:

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

So Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is a demonic parody of Christ’s victory over Satan, but in spite of what looks like a victory for the few days Christ is in the tomb, the enemy cannot triumph over him.

Today is Ascension Day. For forty days after his resurrection Christ appeared in the flesh to his disciples, and then, as the Apostles’ Creed says, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

O Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ
ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things:
Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his
promise, he abideth with his Church on earth, even unto the
end of the ages; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in
glory everlasting. Amen.