Hiding in Plain Sight: Ascended and Still With Us

Today is my birthday. No need for confessional of age, the Good Lord knows my number, but as with any year that comes there is always a sense of review and assessment. In fact I often take the promises, goals and prayers I make on my birthday with more gravity than I do the standard New Year’s Day intentions. There is something about commemorating when you truly began your journey on God’s earth and using that as a marker that feels more potent. This year, my birthday falls on Ascension Day itself (more of my personal story later) and I get to share it with the commemoration of Jesus’ last, until he returns again, appearance on the planet.

 (Painting: Ascension, Jesus Mafu, 1973)

Luke Chapter 24 is a redux of not being aware that Jesus is not only presently present in our lives but is already walking with us and working through us; if we would only pause and allow our unbelieving hearts to be opened and our dulled spirits to be enlivened. The chapter commences with the resurrection, and the women coming to the tomb, seemingly to improve the scent of what would have now been a putrid body. But the tomb is empty with two angels asking the women:

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words.”             Luke 24:6-8

Three years of living with God incarnate, of hearing him preach and witnessing miracles, had vanished in the tumult of a week in which they had seen the authorities of the day, try, condemn and murder Jesus. The fact that they had returned to the tomb expecting to see a dead body, implies they  had maybe only half-believed Jesus’ claims, even when accompanied by signs and wonders.  It was only when the angel offered a quick reminder of what Jesus had said verbatim, that they responded and had their faith reignited. As I consider my own walk, I realise I too often go into auto-pilot mode especially when results to the contrary seem more fantastical and unlikely by the half minute or even the passing year. If this is in any way you, press in to the verses above that indicate Jesus is alive and with him all of our hope and prayers are too. 

However, the story does not end there, as the men, when the women shared what they had seen did not believe. On the road to Emmaus we are given a classic example of the average believer’s walk:

“One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked.“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.” Luke 24:18-21

On some levels, Jesus must have been tickled at the ‘quick update’ provided by Clopas, but again the lack of faith, even when faced with Jesus walking among them having risen from the dead (as promised,/prophesied/talked about – delete all or none), must have been a tad annoying.  When I think of Jesus joining the disciples on the way to Emmaus, I am reminded of the truth that we serve a Lord who is both creator of the universe and a companion. He is interested in being with us on every step of the journey, witnessing the drudgery and the mundane, asking questions  but more to the point reminding us that everything is in hand,  because as Clopas himself says Jesus is ‘powerful in word and deed before God’. Today, I am reminded that as I type, double checking verse references, hoping the tone in this post is the perfect combo of ‘profound but not too preachy’ that Jesus is walking right beside me.

“While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” Luke 24:51

The Ascension itself is swift in this account, a more fulsome passage in Acts gives the occasion more situational details and is clearly the inspiration for many of the artistic representations that have been produced since:

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, 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 into heaven.” Acts 1:7-11

However, in both accounts there is a suddenness in activities but with Jesus dispensing love, favour and comfort to the end. In Luke he ascends whilst blessing them; in my mind’s eye, I picture a steady stream of heavenly blessings flowing forth even as he fades from physical sight, and, in the passage in Acts, Jesus promises the receiving of the Holy Spirit. However, more importantly he imparts a strong decree that it is not the job of the believer to know the exact whys and wherefores of his return, but rather it is our job to be witnesses in our present circumstances until he returns.

So as promised some Ascension Day happenings that I can be thankful for right this minute: I submitted my final full manuscript of my first book, Heaven In Your Handbag for editing and publication on Ascension Day. I had the pleasure and privilege of dining with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the simply stunning Traveller’s Club in Pall Mall, again on you guessed it, Ascension Day. I got a new job after over year being jobless.com and fearing this would always be my lot, on Ascension Day and finally, random, but this one’s for the fashionistas out there,  found and bought the last size 38 at the final store I visited of Gucci of a sandal I had spent two months saving for. 

Try doing your own Ascension Day record and be marvelled at the wonders of His Grace. And to all those looking up to the sky for Jesus to come through big-time in your life on certain long prayed for issues: Know that he is both seated at the right hand of the Father and right next to you, counseling, guiding, interceding and best of all loving you every day to eternity.