This coming Sunday we celebrate the Ascension. As I’ve often noted, “celebrate” seems like an odd word in relation to the memory of a departure, particularly the departure of the Savior of the world, the Son of God who was the most important human being to ever walk upon the earth. Yet remember and celebrate we do, not only because it is just what happened, but because it is the Ascension of Jesus which paves the way for what we celebrate the following Sunday, the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
The first Covenant church of which I was a part, the one in South Bend, Indiana, had a large mural of the Ascension in the narthex. It was probably the first large church painting done by beloved Covenant painter Warner Sallman, more famous for his oft-repeated “Head of Christ” portrait depiction of Jesus. The Ascension painting in South Bend had been the altar piece in a previous church building. The newer building in which I first saw it was designed in part to preserve and display the mural. How that painting was and is cherished speaks to the importance of the Ascens
ion in the Christian heart and mind.
The image I’ve pasted here is, of course, no less and no more “historical” than Sallman’s very white portrayals of Jesus. It simply displays again the wide-spread Christian desire to picture and imagine this event and hold it in our collective vision.
I’ve often preached the Ascension from the more detailed account in Acts 1 or from the epistle lesson in Ephesians 1:15-23 which dwells on Christ reigning from heaven now that He has ascended. Yet this year, as I contemplate my soon retirement and departure from this congregation I’ve served for nearly 29 years, I am drawn to the Gospel lesson, Luke 24:44-53, and to the interesting direction of Jesus which appears both in it and in Acts 1:4, the command for the disciples to stay, to remain in Jerusalem until they are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Those verses, Acts 1:4 and Luke 24:49, set up what seems to be a possible conflict with the narrative of the other Gospels. In Matthew and Mark, the disciples are told to meet the risen Jesus in Galilee, far from Jerusalem. In John 21 we find a long account of them actually meeting Jesus along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke makes the disparity feel even greater by a narrative flow which leaves one feeling it all happens, including the Ascension, on Easter day, which we know cannot be, even by Luke’s own account in Acts 1.
So the simple answer to the quandary is that a period of time has elapsed between Jesus’ Easter appearance to His followers in Luke 24:36-43 and the events and sayings of verse 44 and following to the end of Luke’s Gospel. The command to “stay” comes after the resurrection appearances in Galilee.
In both Luke and Acts, that “stay” carries with it a reason for doing so, a promise of blessing to come, after Jesus’ departure. In Luke 24:49 it is, “until you have been clothed with power from on high.” In Acts 1:4 and 5, it is the explicit promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. As I considered the text this time, that blessing which follows staying was upon my mind. It seems like it may still apply to followers of Jesus, a need to remain in place for a while in order to see the power of God, the Holy Spirit Himself, arrive.
Of course, here I am leaving soon, but, with absolutely no credit to myself for the fact, I have stayed here in Eugene a relatively long time. And I absolutely believe that I have witnessed blessing and the power of God to do great things which I would not have seen had I left sooner.
As I reflect on it all, that command to stay may still have something to say to me. A wise Christian friend counseled my wife and me to make no big changes, no moves or other large decisions, until a year after retirement, to simply stay in place and discern what God might have in store for us next.
Likewise for the congregation I serve. Though I have absolutely no say in how they proceed, it would seem like wisdom for them not to rush into finding an immediate replacement, but to take their time, wait upon the clear leading of the Holy Spirit, and find that same blessing of staying and waiting.
So the Ascension is speaking to me this year of the power in what immediately follows, staying in place for a time and waiting for the Holy Spirit to show up. May the Lord continue to give that Ascension blessing to His people, real staying power.