Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Acts 1:10-11 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."
ASCENSION ADVANTAGE: WITH A PURPOSE
Once while picking out a bulletin cover, I chose a picture that looked, I thought, very nice. The text on the cover was a Psalm verse praising God and the picture was that of a man standing in the middle of a meadow in the mountains, in what was obviously an attitude of joyful praise to God. The thing that struck me about this picture was that although I thought it a good picture and didn't see anything odd in the man's stance and attitude, I realized that if I saw this exact same scene in real life, instead of thinking "there is a man full of the praise and glory of God," I would think, "What is wrong with that guy?" I have often thought the same thing about the first Ascension Day. We read Acts one and think nothing of it. But how odd it would be to come across a group of men standing on a hillside doing nothing but gazing up into an empty sky. Especially if you asked one of them. "What are you staring at?" and he replied, "This guy I know just disappeared behind that cloud." "Come again?"
Now imagine asking one of those disciples, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Is it convenient or inconvenient that He's gone to heaven?" The disciples must have felt a little like they were stuck in a really bad version of "she loves me, she loves me not." The Messiah is here . . . no wait, He's dead . . . no He's risen . . . nope He left. It's no wonder that they stood there staring into the sky. At that moment for those disciples, surely the answer would have been: it was decidedly inconvenient that He was gone. After all, without Christ, they had absolutely nothing -- and every reason to fear both the Jewish authorities and the Romans.
Then the angel tells them, "He is coming again." Immediately they switch from a group without purpose or reason to a group with the greatest, most urgent purpose: spread the Word to as many as possible before He returns. Christ's ascension is most decidedly a convenient truth, or perhaps to phrase it better, it is most decidedly to our advantage, and yet only because of the promise, "I will come again." Without that promise, it is absolutely inconvenient, but with it everything is transformed for the disciples and us.
