Looking up!
The time between the resurrection
and Pentecost is interrupted by Ascension, in the traditional church calendar,
the time when Jesus was taken into heaven. Before this we have had many
resurrection appearances. (a bit like the last time Dorothy appears in the Golden Girls!)
In Mathew it is as if the forty
days are condensed between Easter and Pentecost. The disciples are told to go
to Galilee, where Jesus blesses and commissions them, as witnesses to the ends
of the earth, to make disciples and to teach. The promise is given that Jesus
will be with them always.
In Mark there is a similar
commission and a resurrection appearance when the eleven disciples were eating.
Miracles will accompany them. Then Jesus was taken from them.
The story is similar at the end of
Luke and again the commission to preach to the ends of the earth and the
promise of the Holy Spirit. He disappeared from them at Bethany and they returned
to Jerusalem praising God.
In John there is no account of the
ascension, only the commission to Peter and the promise to the beloved disciple
John
At the beginning of Acts the
disciples are waiting in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
has rejected the earthly restoration of Israel. Again there is the commission
to be witnesses. And then he was taken from them by a cloud. Two angels told
them to return to Jerusalem a sabbath’s days journey. And there’s the promise
of Jesus return.
After the ascension the disciples
and go back to the upper room, a familiar place, a place of security at a
strange and unsettling time. Peter takes on the yoke of leadership and Matthias
joins the apostles as they have now become.
The stories are linked by key
points, the commissioning to be witnesses to the ends of the earth, the promise
that Jesus is with them, the promise of the Holy Spirit when they return and
wait in Jerusalem and the promise of a return. During the time of waiting the
motley band are united and unified.
What does the story mean for us?
There are many times in our lives when we lose what is most precious to us. At
these times we go back to old haunts, to people we trust to find our bearings.
We feel life has taken a wrong turn. There is a loss, an absence, a grieving
and a return.
In our story however there is the
loss of Jesus in bodily form, his resurrection appearances which are a comfort
and a shock to the disciples, then his loss again and the charge to wait. I
would be confused-wouldnt you? Then there is the commission, to tell the story,
to baptize to make disciples, when they are in a state of shock. They have the
promise that he is with them however and that they are to be “clothed on high”.
And so they do wait. They can do little else. They put their house in order and
they wait.
The lifting up of Jesus on the
cross is a healing for the nations and so we enter a new time in the life of
Jesus. Through his death and resurrection he represented God to us and became
the mediator between God and us, healing interceding, redeeming. So now on his
journey he is on his way to heaven and to a share in Gods authority. So what
does the story of ascension have to teach us?
Its difficult to look up and down
together. We have glimpses of heaven, which lift us and remind us of our
heavenly calling. This ensures we don’t get bogged down by what’s happening to
us, that we cant see the wood for the trees. We need to take time to look up
otherwise we will get bogged down with the mundane and petty. We need to create
spaces where we look up otherwise we wont reflect that higher calling on our
lives.
As a church we too need to look up,
to let go off the things which drag us down to earth and to look to God, to
grasp the commission we have been given to make disciples, teach and heal. We need also to put our house in order
and then we need to wait for God, to be clothed from on high, in the certainty
that God will send the Holy Spirit to help us and we need to be constantly praying.
