The conclusion to Luke’s Gospel helps us answer two important questions. Where is Jesus? And in response to this, where are we meant to be?
Where is Jesus?
The simple answer is that he is ascended. He is now in heaven. It’s that little, overlooked but crucial day in the Church calendar, perhaps because it falls in the middle of the week on a Thursday. We know the big hitters, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost but 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection is “Ascension Day.” I probably only knew about it growing up because I went to a CofE primary school and so each year, we were matched off up the road to the church one Thursday each year.
And we might miss it skimming over a few words as we get to the end of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus is blessing his disciples, and even whilst he was doing that, “he left them and was taken up into heaven.” Luke fleshes this out a bit more in Acts 1.
Why does this matter? Well here are five vital implications that otherwise we would miss out on.
First, he is in heaven, seated on the throne, his work is done. One of the things that fascinates me about Luke’s Gospel is the way that we aren’t just hearing Jesus’s story but Luke is telling us bigger stories and those bigger stories are in turn intended to point us in to Jesus’ story. So, in the early chapters, Jesus retraces the Exodus, testing in the wilderness and entering into the promised rest of the land. In Luke 24, he shows how the how of Scripture was pointing towards his death and resurrection. Here, we see him showing what god does when he completes his work. In Genesis 1, we are told that God rested on the seventh day, not that he needed a break and a nap but that like a king, he sits enthroned, ready to delight in and receive the worship of his creation.
In the same way, we are told in in Hebrews 8:1 that Jesus has “sat down”, that he is exalted, seated in heavenly places. His work of salvation is now complete and we are truly a new creation in him.
Second, he is in heaven, he intercedes for us. Jesus had risen bodily from the dead and now he bodily ascends to heaven. For all kinds of reasons, we are not meant to think that the God part of him decoupled. Hebrews 7-8 again emphasises that this means, if we have the man, Christ Jesus in heaven, then we have our mediator, our high Priest representing us before the Father.
Third, we are raised up with him. Ephesians 1:3-14 makes this point, that spiritually we are seated with him. This means that if he is exalted above all hostile powers and authorities and we are with him that we have nothing to fear.
Fourth, The Spirit has been sent Jesus, in John had told his disciples that if he was going ahead of them, that he wouldn’t leave them alone. He ascended to Heaven and then sent the Holy Spirit, 10 days later meaning that God indwells each of us, all around the World. The asceniosn means that God is present with his people in an amazing way that he wasn’t before.
Fifth, the promise was that just as Jesus had departed, in the same way, we could look forward to his return. He have sure and certain hope that he is coming back and this links to our sure and certain hope of resurrection. We aren’t just going to float off into the clouds in spirit form. We will be with Jesus in his new creation because he is fully God and fully man.
Where are we in response to this?
We best answer this by seeing what happened with the disciples. They were to be found in the Temple, worshipping God. In fact, specifically, they were worshipping Jesus. The resurrection and ascension combined to leave them in no doubt about Jesus’ identity as God.
We too should be drawn to worship, this is meant to be our place in the story, praising, delighting and giving thanks to the one who has saved us and conquered death. A further implication, not immediate to this passage is that if we have received the Holy Spirit then as well as worshipping, we should be witnessing, trusting in God’s power and presence with us.
Conclusion
To what extent is your life shaped by joy in this truth? To what extent are you seen to be worshipping him?
Faithroots 