ASCENSION DAY

…he left and was taken up to heaven.
(Luke 24:51b, Contemporary English Version)

Ascension Day is observed forty days after Easter Sunday.  The day marks Jesus’ glorious ascension into heaven “where he rules at God’s right side” (Colossians 3:1).

The disciples see Jesus being “taken up into a cloud” (Acts 1:9).  The two men who suddenly appear tell them that Jesus will come back in the same way that they had seen him go (Acts 1:11).  Clouds are a sign of God’s presence and activity.  A cloud took Jesus from the disciples’ sight; a cloud overshadowed the disciples who witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration (Luke 9:34); a cloud covered Mount Sinai when God appeared to Moses (Exodus 24:15-18); and Jesus said that the Son of Man would return “coming in a cloud with great power and glory” (Luke 21:27).

The account of Jesus’ ascension and final instructions to the disciples is recorded in Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11.  The Luke account seems to be a compression of what is recorded more extensively in Acts.  Acts 1:12 identifies the location of Jesus’ ascension as the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem; Luke 24:50 places the event at Bethany, a village along the eastern side of the mount.  But both accounts concur that the missionary work is to begin in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8) and then spread outward throughout Judea, Samaria and “everywhere in the world” (Acts 1:8).

In the more extensive Acts narrative, three promises are given: 

1.    the coming of the Holy Spirit (1:4,8a);
2.    the spreading of the Good News to the ends of the earth (1:8b); 
3.    and the return of Jesus (1:11).

Ascension Day ushers in a ten-day waiting period – an “in between” time – a time to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and for the promised “power from heaven” (Luke 24:49).  Just as the disciples were admonished not to continue standing around “looking up into the sky” (Acts 1:11), so too is the Church called to turn its gaze from the clouds toward where it is called to serve and to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name until that glorious day when Jesus returns (Luke 24:47).

All of you nations, clap your hands
and shout joyful praises to God.
God goes up to his throne,
as people shout and trumpets blast.
Sing praises to God our King,
the ruler of all the earth!
Praise God with songs!

(Psalm 47:1, 5-7, Contemporary English Version)