Today, Thursday, May 1, is Ascension Day. Acts 1 tells us that 40 days after Easter, Jesus gathered His disciples, gave them some instructions, and ascended into heaven. When I was a child (in the “old” days), Lutheran churches would have worship services this evening to mark the Ascension.
The question I have to ask about today is: was Christ’s Ascension an end or a beginning? You might want to split the difference and say, “both,” and that may be true in some ways, but what is the Ascension, primarily, a beginning or an ending?
The Bible gives a few clues. It is interesting to me that the Gospels don’t actually mention the Ascension. The books of the bible devoted to telling about the earthly ministry of Jesus, leave off what seems to be the end of that ministry. Luke and John don’t consider it at all, while Matthew seems to allude to the Ascension, but doesn’t actually say that Jesus ascended. Only Mark has a one sentence summary of the Ascension and this verse happens to be found in what is called the “spurious ending” to the book of Mark. In short, the smart money in the world of Bible scholars is on the fact that Mark never wrote the last 11 verses of his book and never mentioned the Ascension.
Acts 1:1-11 is the only detailed account of Christ’s Ascension and Luke (who wrote Acts) put the Ascension right at the beginning of his story about the early years of the Christian church. I don’t think the placement of this story is an accident and I believe it is significant.
The significance of the Ascension as a beginning is that Jesus was telling His disciples that the work of establishing God’s Kingdom on earth was now theirs under the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was not going to establish His complete reign on earth only 40 days after His resurrection. It would take more time than that, but we shouldn’t worry about how much more time it will take.
The Ascension tells us to get to work completing what Christ began on earth. That’s also why Jesus, only moments before He would bodily leave them, told His disciples that they will be His witnesses. So, as a disciple of Jesus in the 21st century, my witness is part of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth today.
I will have to wait for another devotion to completely unpack the whole idea of being a witness. I came across one working definition I like: “an evangelistic confession of faith.”