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The Thursday just gone is the time in the churches year when we mark Jesus’ ascension to heaven. It’s not the biggest day in the churches year, but it is useful to stop and look at it.
It’s an amazing story at the end of Luke, and the beginning of the book of Acts: One minute Jesus was eating with his disciples teaching them about the coming Kingdom, the next he was taken up to heaven before their very eyes.
The disciples were left looking up to the sky, when a couple of angels came on the scene and said: “why are you looking up at the sky?”
They had just got used to being with the resurrected Jesus, and now they had seen him ascend in front of them! A lot to take in! It almost seems a bit harsh for the angels in white to chastise them for that doesn’t it? But it’s actually an immediate reminder for them: Jesus was not above them, in ‘heaven in the sky!’ When Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space he reportedly said “I don’t see God up here!”
He meant it cynically, but he was right! Jesus did not ascend somewhere above us, but rather he was no longer constrained by our dimensions of time or space: he is not in heaven far removed from us.
We know that God’s Kingdom, his rule and reign are coming. Heaven is not far and distant: Rather than being present in a small part of Palestine, Jesus was now showing his disciples that his Kingdom was not just for Israel but for all.
Celebrating Jesus’ Ascension reminds us that although Jesus is no longer physically with us, the reality of his rule and reign come ever closer...
He is alive and present in our lives and in our world!
Have a great week,
Tim
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weekly news sheet sunday 20 may (16)