Into The Sky
Last Thursday was a normal day. It was sunny (well, here anyway), most of us went to work and went about our business with no thought as to what Thursday really was. Usually, Thursdays are so overshadowed by ‘humpday’ of Wednesday and the glowing aspirations that Fridays bring. And even though this past Thursday was no major Holiday – it was a special day in history. Did you miss it?
Thursday May 15, 2010 was Ascension Day.
What is Ascension Day you ask? Well, that’s the day that marks the ascension of Jesus. Forty days after the celebration of Easter (the resurrection of Jesus), the church from all over the world holds in remembrance this Holy day.
Luke 24:49-53 says, “I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God“.
Though the ascension of Jesus doesn’t seem as momentous as the resurrection, it is! Often times, people treat these two events as one in the same but that isn’t the case. After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared repeatedly to eat with them, talk with them and instruct them as to the ministries they would lead and the deaths that some of them would face. Jesus was, in fact, more human than they had ever fully realized and it was this Holy body, this divine person that they would hold near as they lived and died to proclaim His Kingdom.
As the disciples watched, Jesus was taken up into the clouds – the bible says that they were looking intently into the sky 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” (Acts 1:9-11). In His resurrected body, Jesus ascended to heaven, fully human, fully divine and entirely glorified!
On this day – the day of Ascension, the work God had completed for Jesus was finally completed. This Ascension was a living, breathing, public declaration of His dying words on the cross: It is Finished.
*Because of the ascension, the incarnation is not a past event. Because of the ascension, we know that the incarnate Christ who was raised from the dead is sharing in our humanity even now. And just as the men in white informed the disciples, so we carry in our own flesh a guarantee that Christ will one day bring us to himself. It is for these reasons that N.T. Wright affirms, “To embrace the Ascension is to heave a sigh of relief, to give up the struggle to be God (and with it the inevitable despair at our constant failure), and to enjoy our status as creatures: image-bearing creatures, but creatures nonetheless.
Truly, Ascension Day, a holy day falling inconspicuously on a Thursday in May, is the bold declaration that we are not left as orphans. In the same post-resurrection body he invited Thomas to touch, Jesus is accessible to the world today. He ascended with a body, he shares in our humanity, extending his own body even now, and he is coming back for those in bodies. Christ is preparing a room for us, and we know it is real because he himself is real. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
Blessings to all,
Parts of this devo should be credited to Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
