Ascension Day took place last Thursday. This is a traditional festival of the church when Christians throughout the world remember that Jesus was taken up into heaven, forty days after he was raised from the dead. It’s not one of the big Christian festivals, like Christmas and Easter, and it often gets overlooked, but it marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry and represents the start of a new era; an era that is still ongoing today.
During the week, a relative of mine sent me a few thoughts he had come across about the ascension. It included this very memorable line: ‘Jesus needed to be uploaded into the cloud so that people all over the world could access him.’
It doesn’t capture everything about the ascension, but it does highlight one of the main points. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, he was only accessible to the people who were physically present to him. Jesus impacted a lot of lives this way; all the people he taught, forgave, challenged, and healed. Now, in his ascended form, Jesus is no longer limited by bounds of time and space, and as a result he’s able to impact the lives of even more people throughout the world. If I upload a picture to the cloud, I can access it wherever I am in the world. Likewise, I can pray to Jesus wherever I am; I can hear his voice in the Bible; I can go to a church service anywhere in the world and know that I am worshipping Jesus there.
Personally, I find this very encouraging. Jesus isn’t living it up in glory while I’m slumming it down here on earth. Quite the opposite, as it happens. Jesus is very much with us, and very much at work among us. Each and every day he is feeding us, sustaining us, forgiving us, supporting us, and blessing us. This is only possible because of his ascension.
Much more could be said about Ascension Day, but there is a little starter to get you thinking!
God bless.