Ascension Day
Acts 1:6-11
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’ 7 He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ 9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’
The Ascension does not get much attention when people tell the story of Jesus. But it is important for at least three reasons.
First, there had to be a way for Jesus to return to heaven. Through the last chapters of John, Jesus said numerous times that he was returning to the Father. One of the ways to think about the story Luke tells in his gospel is about the king coming from heaven – and then the king returning to heaven. This return to heaven is the Ascension which the disciples are witnesses to in the passage we just read.
Second, the Ascension puts Jesus at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Jesus as king, as ruler, is the primary way we should think of Jesus in the present moment. Jesus is king, and while the kingdom has not yet fully come (that is part of what the question in vs. 6 is about), Jesus is still king and his kingdom will certainly come. Therefore we live in hope even now, even as we hope for what is yet to be fully revealed.
Third, in the Ascension Jesus invites his followers, us, to join with him in what he is doing in the world. Through the power of the Holy Spirit (vs. 8) we become participants in the kingdom God is building. We live not just looking for his coming again (vs. 10,11), but living life as his witnesses, bearing witness to the world around us, do so in the knowledge that his return is certain and therefore we can be sure that our work for Him will be lasting.
The Ascension helps us understand the moment in which we are presently living, Jesus is king, and we are invited, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to participate with him in that kingdom.
PRAYER:
Almighty God, you sent your Son, Jesus to live among us. We rejoice that He has returned to your right hand. Bring his reign into full reality in our world, so that it might become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.