Meditation on Luke 24:44–53
Pastor Karen Crawford
Ascension of Our Lord
May 12, 2024
It’s so good to be back with my flock today—after being away two Sundays! It felt like a long time for me. I missed you so much. Thank you for your cards and calls!
My eye surgeries went well. I am seeing better and better, each day—especially the dramatic return of vivid colors and fine details. The shadows are gone! I can see all the expressions on your faces, even the Presbyterians sitting in the back of the sanctuary!
Yesterday, I was looking through the materials that the surgical center gave me with post op instructions and supplies. I found two plastic cards with information about the lens implants, which came from The Netherlands. Each has my name, the name of the surgeon and the surgical center, and the dates of my surgeries.
I have decided to keep the cards, but not for the usual reasons. I put them in my wallet as a reminder of a miracle and Christ’s faithfulness to help me in my time of need. The cards record the procedure that signaled an end of a long struggle with low vision and the beginning of my healing journey.
I will NEVER go back to the way I was seeing before the surgery!! And I am just beginning to realize the changes this will mean—a whole new quality of life. I have been wearing glasses since I was a little girl and contact lenses for 30 years or more. The last few years, my vision could no longer be adequately corrected by glasses or contact lenses. Now, I wake up in the morning, open my eyes, and I can see!
In a way, the implant cards remind me a little of our baptism certificates. Both help us recall what God has done. Baby Mia may look like the same child she was before she was baptized this morning. But she isn’t the same, not spiritually. Nor are we, after the promises we made to help her parents nurture her in the faith. She will never go back to being the child before she was claimed by Christ in the waters of baptism. A former life has ended. A new life, with the Holy Spirit, dwelling inside her, helping and guiding her to become all that God wants her to be, has begun.
There’s no going back!
Ascension of the Lord arrives quietly, 40 days after the Resurrection, but without any of the fanfare of Easter.
If you are looking for the Ascension accounts in the Bible, Luke is the only evangelist to describe it as a specific event. The commissioning scene on a mountain in Matthew 28 implies Christ’s leaving, without any details. The original ending of Mark has no departure, but at verse 19, it says, he was “taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” John’s gospel has a long farewell discourse, and resurrection appearances, but no ascension.
Every time we baptize, install, and ordain, we recite the Apostles’ Creed, affirming our belief in the Ascension. We say, “on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.”
But what does the Ascension mean for us as Christians? John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, shares his thoughts on what God accomplished through the Ascension. “From this (the ascension) our faith receives many benefits. First it understands that the Lord by his ascent to heaven opened the way into the Heavenly Kingdom, which had been closed through Adam. Since he entered heaven in our flesh, as if in our name, if follows, as the apostle says, that in a sense we already ‘sit with God in the heavenly places in him,’ so that we do not await heaven with a bare hope, but in our Head (Jesus Christ) already possess it.” [1]
It’s a curious thing, but even Luke’s account says little about the actual leaving in these 9 verses that close his gospel; only one verse says anything about it. But we find wonderful details in this one verse! It’s the best goodbye ever! Verse 51, “While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” He leaves his loved ones with a blessing and final instructions.
He isn’t telling them anything new, with his last words. He repeats what he has already told them—for our sakes, as well as theirs. Let’s take a closer look at his instructions and consider what they might mean for us today.
One: he tells them to keep studying the Scripture. What Scripture did the disciples have? What we call the Old Testament! Some Christians think we don’t need the Old Testament anymore, and yet, Jesus says we do. He says, “Remember everything I have taught you. How I am the fulfillment of the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms.” He had opened their minds to a new understanding of the Scriptures that they have heard since they were children. His Spirit continues to open to us a new understanding of Scripture for our lives, each day.
And two, he assures them, and us, once again, what all this was for—the Messiah’s suffering and rising from the dead on the third day. This isn’t a random act of terror! We all need to be comforted that God is still in control when bad things happen, and we are frightened or grieving and feel so out of control. The disciples need assurance that God has a plan! The apostle Paul explains in Romans 8:28 how “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes.” This is what Christ’s death, rising, and now ascension has accomplished for the world: “repentance and forgiveness of sins” may be proclaimed in Christ’s name to all the nations.
Something more in his last words helps us with our lives today—and that’s when Jesus tells them what to do RIGHT NOW. We sometimes feel paralyzed, frozen in fear, grief, or anxiety. The worst thing is not knowing what to do next! The disciples must be feeling overwhelmed by all that’s happened, but then Jesus says, “Listen. Stay here. Don’t go anywhere, yet. You are in the right place! I am sending my Spirit to strengthen and help you in your mission to all the nations.” He is saying that to us, as well. “Stay here. My Spirit will guide and strengthen you in your mission, which begins right here, in your faith community.”
Here’s something else I want you to notice. How do the disciples receive and respond to Christ’s last words? This is the amazing part! They aren’t afraid. They aren’t sad, according to Luke. And they will never go back to be the people they were before the Ascension. This sight, this experience, signals a whole new quality of life.
Theologian Fred Craddock says, “The disciples are not dejected and downcast by the departure of Christ, nor do they look longingly back to Galilee and the life they knew before he called them to follow him. Instead, they look for the power from on high, and in this hope, they return to Jerusalem and to the temple, full of joy and blessing God.”
“Luke has come full circle,” he goes on. “He began his gospel with a scene in Jerusalem, in the temple, at the hour of worship. Events in that opening scene generated anticipation in the reader: God is at work and something marvelous is about to happen. The reader is again in Jerusalem, in the temple, at the hour of worship. Events in this closing scene again generate anticipation: God is at work and something marvelous is about to happen.” [2]
There’s one thing left that I am pondering… Now that I have experienced another miracle from God and have been blessed with this special gift of restored vision; what will the Lord require of me? For those who witnessed the miracle of the Ascension and the blessing from Christ as he was carried up to heaven were then empowered for ministry. For the rest of their lives, they had this shared, bittersweet memory of the day they said goodbye to Jesus, an experience that would help them persevere through difficult times.
James 1:17 tells us that every blessing, every good gift, comes from God—the Father of Lights. And Luke 12:48 says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
You have many special gifts, too, dear friends. Every day, I am seeing more of them as you are generous in your giving, your offering of yourselves! I know that God has a plan for us, so that we would be a blessing for others. I look forward to that shared labor with you.
Do you know that on May 1, we passed the second anniversary of my call to ministry in Smithtown with you?
The one thing I have learned in these past two years is what I remember saying in my first message to you! That we need one another! Ministry is about friendship, caring for one another, serving with our gifts and talents. We don’t want to bother people with our needs. We all want to be independent—that’s the American way—but that’s not God’s design for the Church. Christ prayed that his followers would be one and be known as his disciples by their love for one another.
I invite you to continue walking with me on this journey of faith and healing, embracing a new quality of abundant life, received by baptism, claimed by Christ. May it comfort you and bring you peace to know that we still belong to him!
May we be encouraged to share our testimonies as God leads us, bearing witness to the faithfulness of Christ. May we never cease our gathering together regularly, like the first disciples, for joyful worship, blessing the Lord continually.
For God is at work and something marvelous is about to happen!
Let us pray.
Holy One, thank you for the Ascension of Your Son, who now sits at your right hand in glory. We anxiously await his return and the promise of our glory with him. Thank you for the miracles of healing we hear about every day and experience for ourselves in this world. May we never cease to be grateful for your love and healing, grace and mercy, and forgiveness for all our sins. Empower us to be your witnesses, dear Lord, to proclaim the good news to all the nations, beginning right here, where we live. In the name of Your Son, Risen, Ascended, Glorified, and Coming Again, we pray. Amen.
[1] John Calvin, Institudes of the Christian Religion 2.16.15, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols. Library of Christian Classics 20-21 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), 1:524.
[2] Fred Craddock, Luke in “Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching,” (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990), 295.
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