Then He Went Up Into the Sky
May 18, 2023 - Good Friday
Today is Ascension Day, on which Christians in Western churches recognize and remember the ascension of Christ. After his resurrection and hanging out with the disciples for forty days, the gospel writers tell us that Jesus ascended into the sky. Two of the accounts are below.
Mark 16:19-20 | Acts 1:6-14
The ascension of Christ is often an after-thought. There is the resurrection - kind of a big deal. And then there is Pentecost, also well-known. But forty days after the resurrection and ten days prior to that spirit-filling day, Jesus of Nazareth spent his last day on earth. It’s this departure that has the Church waiting for him to come back again.
His ascension is as much about Christ’s Lordship as it is a disappearing act (way more, actually). It follows that he has taken his place with God.
Mark 16:19-20
After the Lord Jesus spoke to them, he was lifted up into heaven and sat down on the right side of God. But they went out and proclaimed the message everywhere. The Lord worked with them, confirming the word by the signs associated with them.
Acts 1:2b-14
Before he was taken up, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus instructed the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed them that he was alive with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days, speaking to them about God’s kingdom. While they were eating together, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised. He said, “This is what you heard from me: John baptized with water, but in only a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
As a result, those who had gathered together asked Jesus, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?”
Jesus replied, “It isn’t for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. Rather, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them. They said, “Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.”
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem—a sabbath day’s journey away. When they entered the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. Peter, John, James, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James, Alphaeus’ son; Simon the zealot; and Judas, James’ son— all were united in their devotion to prayer, along with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Prayer1
God,
Whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things:
Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.
Adapted from the first contemporary collect for Ascension Day in the Book of Common Prayer