Just another day?

Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:6-11

What’s special about next Thursday, 21 May?

You might be tempted to reply, “Not a lot! – especially with this pandemic lockdown in place.” And I have every sympathy with you: next Thursday looks like being, well, just another day.

But wait a minute. In the Christian calendar next Thursday is in fact quite significant: it is Ascension Day, the day when the church remembers how the risen Jesus was taken up bodily into heaven.

Let’s get the sequence of events clear… Jesus was crucified – that’s Good Friday. Three days later (counting inclusively) he rose from the dead – that’s Easter Day. For forty days he appeared to his disciples. At the end of that period he was “taken up into heaven”, or ascended. Then ten days later he poured out the Holy Spirit on the church – that’s Whitsun, or Pentecost.

And next up? He “will come back” – that’s the Second Coming, or the “Parousia”. (Which could be tomorrow, so we’d better be ready!)

Luke describes the Ascension twice – once, very briefly, right at the end of his Gospel, and secondly, in more detail, here at the beginning of Acts. Why does he seem so keen to stress this event? After all, none of the other Gospel writers describes it, and in the rest of the New Testament it’s simply taken for granted.

Perhaps the main reason is because the ascension demonstrated to the disciples that Jesus’ earthly ministry really was now over. For forty days they have seen him from time to time, and that must have been truly wonderful; but now they must get it into their heads that they won’t see him any more – not until he returns in glory.

Taking the New Testament as a whole, Jesus’ departure suggests at least two things.

First, the disciples have a job to do.

Before he left them, Jesus gave them the promise of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), the promise fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. But he also made it clear that “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In other words, their job was to make known far and wide all about Jesus – his life, his teaching, his miracles, his sacrificial death and his victorious resurrection.

If these extraordinary things are true, then they need to be made known! And that is the disciples’ commission – and ours too, of course, as we today follow in their footsteps.

We read that, as Jesus was taken up, the disciples “were looking intently up into the sky”. To be honest, I can’t say I entirely blame them – after all, they were experiencing something pretty remarkable! But the two angels who appear seem to give them a bit of a telling off: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?” As if to say, “The time for sky-gazing is over! Now is the time for rolling up your sleeves and getting to grips with the job Jesus has given you to do!”

I think we today should also take those words to heart. Throughout the centuries there have always been Christian people who have been what you might call sky-gazers – people, for example, who have occupied themselves trying to work out the date of Jesus’ return. They have generally been regarded as cranky and fanatical (especially when their predictions have proved false).

I trust none of us are like that. But there is a danger that we can become, as the saying goes, “too heavenly-minded to be any earthly use”. We busy ourselves with doctrinal arguments and discussions, forgetting that Jesus has given us a job to do, the job of making the good news known by word and by deed. This world needs the gospel! – and who is to proclaim it if not you and I?

The other thing that Jesus’ departure suggests is that he too has a job to do.

 You might say, “But surely his work is done! As he died on the cross didn’t he cry out ‘It is finished’?” Yes, of course – that is, the work of dealing once for all with our sins.

But Jesus isn’t idle in heaven! No, the New Testament makes clear that he is actively involved with his Father in the ruling of the universe. And in particular, he is exercising a ministry on behalf of us, his people: the role of high priest. Paul sums it up well in Romans 8:34: he is “at the right hand of God… interceding for us”.

This is far too big a subject to go into now. I can only suggest that you follow it up by reading carefully through the Letter to the Hebrews, where it is a major emphasis.

What matters is this: The ascended Jesus is faithfully fulfilling his role on our behalf; are we faithfully fulfilling ours on his?

Come to think of it, there’s quite a bit to get to grips with on Ascension Day, isn’t there…!

Jesus, my great high priest,/ Offered his blood and died;/ My guilty conscience seeks/ No sacrifice beside:/ His powerful blood did once atone,/ And now it pleads before the throne. Amen.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748