Meditation on Luke 24: 44-53
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY
Reverend Dr. Karen Crawford
Ascension of the Lord
June 1, 2025
Any mystery fans here? I like to watch crime dramas on ACORN. Jim and I watch from 9 to 10:30 p.m., if I am home and can stay awake. We just finished the available episodes of The One That Got Away. What brings me back to these mysteries, again and again, is the interesting and flawed characters, with their complicated relationships and histories, as well as their twisting plots and often surprising endings.
In The One That Got Away, the male detective is sure that the right man is in prison for a murder he solved more than a decade ago. He doesn’t want to reopen the case, nor does his boss, but his ex-partner, a woman to whom he was once engaged, comes back to town when another person has been found killed in the manner of the earlier crime. She wants to reopen the case, look for new evidence, and re-interview all the old witnesses.
The problem is caused by the two witnesses, whose testimony was enough to bring about the original conviction. We learn that the first one was actually coached by the male detective, because he was so sure that the man he had arrested had done the crime. Years later, the first witness is haunted by what he has done. He begins to question what he saw. Maybe it wasn’t really that man driving, after all. He can’t sleep at night.
The other witness was the wife of the convicted murder, whom he abused, along with their foster children. She contacts the police when she is dying years later and says she wants to tell the truth, when, in fact, she tells more lies to try to get her husband released and one of her foster sons framed for the crime that we discover in the end, SPOILER ALERT, she really committed.
Being a witness was important to the biblical writers, old and new testaments. The Bible is full of legal language. I had forgotten that Boaz assembled a group of men to serve as witnesses when he made a covenant regarding Ruth at the gate of the city. In Joshua, chapter 24, he tells the Israelites to be witnesses “against themselves” that they have chosen to serve the LORD. “Yes, we are witnesses,” they say. He tells them to throw away their foreign gods and yield their hearts to the Lord, God of Israel. And the people testify, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
In the gospels, and at least two of the epistles, a follower of Christ is to be a witness—martureo, in Greek. Martureo is found at least 79 times in the New Testament, most of them in John. The word is both a noun and a verb. It means to be a witness and to bear witness, or “affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something, or that (one) knows because (one) was taught by divine revelation or inspiration.”[1]
Being a witness is important to our faith, too—to those of us who weren’t there at the time. We believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven because we trust the people who were there: the enlightened witnesses. Christ opened their hearts and minds so they could not only remember what they saw accurately and retell the stories but understand the deeper meaning behind what happened for their own lives and hope for all eternity.
The witnesses in Luke—possibly 120 disciples at this point—are led by him to the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than 2 miles from Jerusalem, to Bethany, a small village of great significance. Bethany was where Mary and Martha had invited him and the 12 to dinner (Luke 10:38-42) and Mary didn’t pull her weight in the kitchen. Bethany was where, in John 11, Jesus wept and raised their brother Lazarus after he had been in the tomb 4 days. Bethany was where Jesus had dinner in the house of Simon the Leper in Matthew 26. A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and annoyed the disciples when she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. Bethany was “on the other side of the Jordan, where John” was baptizing and interrogated by the Pharisees in John 1:28. Bethany was the place where Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey began in Luke 19.
Now Bethany is the place where the body of Christ, risen from the tomb, will leave his final footprint before, as we say in the Nicene Creed from the Church of the 4th century A.D. It is where “He ascended into heaven and is (still) seated at the right hand of the Father” until the time when he will “come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”
How do Christ’s witnesses feel about their new role? They are filled with joy by Christ’s blessing as he is carried into heaven. They are moved to worship him while they are waiting for the Spirit that will clothe them with more power from on high. They are continually in the temple, blessing God!
Here’s what I am wondering. Maybe you are wondering, too.
Why does the Ascension really matter for our faith?
I ask this question because I realized the Ascension isn’t celebrated by every denomination or even every church in our denomination, especially when it doesn’t fall on a Sunday. Jim is at a Presbyterian church today that skipped right over it. This year, the calendar tells us to observe the Ascension on Thursday, May 29. Not many of us came to church that day.
One Massachusetts pastor, Rev. Dr. Mike McGarry, an author of several books on youth ministry, writes how after two decades of youth ministry, he’d recently discovered, much to his dismay, that he’d never taught the youth about the Ascension. He says, “I’d given it very little thought or attention at all.”[2] And I’m sure this is true for quite a few pastors.
The Ascension. MEH.
Mike says the doctrine of the Ascension has become one that “routinely ministers” to him. He says, “For most of my Christian life, I have honestly lived as if Jesus is currently hibernating. I know he was busy between Christmas and Easter, and I believe he will return again as judge and savior. But I have given very little thought to Jesus’ present ministry. He isn’t on sabbatical while the Father and Holy Spirit are at work in the Church today.”[3]
This is what he learned and what I hope you will remember from our message today—so that we may live out the role as Christ’s enlightened witnesses. Three things, really.
- The Ascension should give us confidence “that Jesus sees us. He isn’t aloof. He isn’t hibernating until he returns again. Jesus knows and sees what is happening today. He is still leading and caring for his people, especially in the midst of their suffering and persecution.”[4] Mike says, “Teenagers can live with confidence that Jesus isn’t merely watching them, he is watching over them. The presence of Christ is not simply a metaphor. For a generation … marked by loneliness and mental health struggles, the presence of Christ is a significant encouragement.”[5]
- The Ascension should give us confidence that “Jesus will finish everything that he began. He wasn’t a failed-messiah,” [6] Mike tells the youth. “It’s common for teenagers and young adults to be disillusioned with the world, and to wonder, “If this is what Jesus accomplished, then why bother?” His death and resurrection are “central to his victory over sin and death, but so are his ascension and return. The ascension is a reminder that the victory of the gospel is secure, but it hasn’t yet been fully applied.” Remembering Christ’s ascension “gives teenagers confidence that God’s salvation is still unfolding.”[7]
And finally,
3. The Ascension should give us confidence “in the body. Jesus wasn’t a ghost. His resurrection and ascension were both bodily and physical, and he will return in the same way. Christianity is a physical and bodily religion. We do not merely believe in mindfulness or spirituality but in the goodness of creation and salvation of the body. The gospel leads us into the New Heavens and New Earth, which will be a physical life that is marked by glory and holiness.”[8]
Dear friends, what do you think of your role as witnesses? This is my hope and prayer.
That you are not frightened or intimidated by it. Sometimes, we think of witnessing to people as telling them how to get saved. Please don’t think of it this way. You need to be a witness to the new things that the Lord reveals to you about God and this world, yourself, and your life every time you hear or read Scripture and learn from the Body. You need to tell your story; participate in the making of a new story for the Church of Jesus Christ; and invite others to join in, share their stories, and be witnesses, too.
That you will have joy, like the disciples who were physically present at the Ascension, a joy that will draw you back to worship, continually blessing the Lord.
That the Ascension gives you confidence that Christ sees you and watches over you and isn’t in hibernation until he comes again.
And that you embrace Christ’s forgiveness for yourself and others. And speak and live in such a way that humbly bears witness to the truth, with no regrets, no sleepless nights.
Let us pray.
Holy One, we embrace the role of being your witnesses, those who were not physically present that day to see the events unfold, but who have been enlightened by your Son and trust the witnesses who were there. Thank you for Christ’s Ascension with a blessing, the completion of his exaltation and glorification, and the promise of our resurrection and glorification with him. Empower us to live confidently, knowing we are forgiven, and Christ is with us and watching over us from his seat on your right hand. Keep our hearts and minds open to learning new things in your Word and re-forming the way we think of you, ourselves, one another, your Church, and the world you so love. Grant us your peace, courage, and rest. Amen.
[1] https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G3140/martureo.htm
[2] Rev. Dr. Mike McGarry at https://livingtheologically.com/about/.
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