The Disciples Look Up into Heaven (Luke 24:44-53)

 44 Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. 47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ 48 You are witnesses of all these things.49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” 50 Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. 52 So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. 53 And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God.

The psychology of seeing Jesus disappear into heaven can’t have been easy for his disciples – they had lost him once to the crucifixion and now they were going to lose him a second time to heaven. They had spent three years together before Jesus’ crucifixion and there was history and friendship between them, which was about to come to an end. The disciples were not able to see how things would unfold in the future and therefore it would have been natural for then to want things to carry on, as they were – who wants to say ‘goodbye’ when it means that things are going to have to change.

Jesus is clear about the reasons for his ascension. It is the way that things were always going to be. "To say ‘it is written’ (vv 46 & 47) is the equivalent of saying, "It has been God’s plan all along.’ It is not a new development, but had always been God’s purpose for His people. The idea of "fulfilment" (v 44) means that while this event is unexpected and even the message may appear radical, it is perfectly consistent with what the Old Testament says about God. Jesus cannot be rejected because he is some new deity, or brings some new teaching. He is the very embodiment of the God to whom the Old Testament Scriptures bear witness.

Luke goes to great effort to establish the continuity between the God of the Old Testament and this revelation in Jesus and he makes as great an effort to establish that his followers continued the work of Jesus after his ascension. Luke’s correlation of the departure of Jesus so closely with the giving of the Holy Spirit serves to underscore the continuity of Jesus’ ministry with the work of the church. There are three stages of God’s revelation outlined in Scripture. The first stage is God the Father in the Old Testament; this gives a glimpse of God as powerful, passionate and holy. The second stage is God the Son (Jesus Christ) in the New Testament; this gives a glimpse of God as redeeming, restoring, loving and liberating. Finally there is God the Holy Spirit in the church; this gives a glimpse of God as energising, revealing and inspiring.

During his life on earth Jesus was present in one way and after his ascension he is present in another. Jesus’ power and influence spills over through the Holy Spirit into peoples’ hearts and minds and God become all the more accessible because of it. There is no longer the need for people to travel to where Jesus was at one particular time because all they would need to do was to repent and believe and then they would be as real to them as if he were standing there in front of them. It is a startling thought that the disciples were better off with Jesus in heaven rather than as a walking, talking, and living breathing man among them.

Christian theology always tells us something of God at the same time as giving us insights in how to live our lives and the transformation from the crucified Jesus to the risen Lord is the genius of the Christian faith. It means that we have a belief structure and a way of living that is good at death and endings. It is a subversive, transforming message about a suffering God: a crucified man dead on a tree that offers hope and forgiveness to the world.

The Ascension of Jesus challenges us to be good at endings and not to cling onto things. Situations that we might see as failures could in fact be transitions to something fresh, new and different. If a plan does not work, a friend leaves to go and live somewhere else, or a project finishes it does not always mean that something has gone wrong.

The Ascension of Jesus reminds us that we are ‘only passing through’. We are pilgrims on a journey. Just as Jesus’ earthly life was temporary, came to an end, and he ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, so also our lives here are temporary, will come to an end and we will meet God in the next life.  The Ascension of Jesus reminds us to travel light and in all of our busyness not to forget what life is all about. 

All is well
and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well.
(Julian of Norwich