He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.” [Acts 1:9-11 (CSB)]
The Resurrection story didn’t end on Easter with Jesus’ appearance to ten disciples, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and John, Salome, and Joanna, along with Cleopas and another believer who broke bread with Him in Emmaus. Appearing and disappearing at will, Jesus remained on earth for forty days. While He probably appeared other times, Scripture tells us He later appeared to Thomas and the ten others, to seven of the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee, to His half-brother James, to over 500 believers at one time, and to the disciples on his last day with them.
The resurrected Jesus had a body—a body with scars from the crucifixion; one that could walk, talk, eat, touch, and be touched. His body, however, was not like the bodies of Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, or Lazarus. Their resuscitated bodies returned to the earthly bodies they had before death and were subject to weakness, aging, disease, death, and decay. But, when Jesus rose from the grave, He didn’t take back His old vulnerable human body—He took on a transformed and invulnerable body. Although physical, His resurrected body was supernatural, imperishable, and immortal. Sharing the power of God, it never would meet death again.
Although the disciples kept asking Jesus if the time had come for Him to restore the kingdom to Israel, He explained that the timing was not theirs to know. After promising them the power of the Holy Spirit and commissioning them to carry His message into the world, Jesus’ physical time on earth came to an end. On the 40th day after Easter, He disappeared into a cloud and was taken to Heaven. For the disciples who’d been fixated on the restoration of Israel, Jesus’ disappearance was an unexpected event. It’s no wonder they stood gape-mouthed staring into the sky until two angels appeared and promised that He would return in the same way He departed.
Today, some people find it hard to reconcile Jesus’ ascension in Heaven with what we know about the universe and space travel. Did He travel at the speed of light and escape the confines of our universe without benefit of a space suit? Ascending into Heaven, however, does not imply traveling through space to a location far from our world. Just because Heaven is beyond the reach of rockets and telescopes doesn’t mean it is far away or doesn’t exist!
As the abode of a holy and perfect God, Heaven is real and solid and probably closer than we think. A very different kind of world, it is not a geographical or astronomical location within our material universe. Existing in another dimension or on another plane, Heaven is the place where God and the risen Christ dwell. However, even without its navigational coordinates, we can get there because Jesus told us how—He is the way!
On the 40th day after Easter, the disciples watched as Jesus transcended time and space to His rightful place seated at the right hand of God. The angels’ words to the disciples told them the story wasn’t over—Jesus’ incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension were just the beginning. The story will come to fruition when Jesus reappears and puts everything right. Until that day comes, let us do as did the disciples—go out and share the Gospel message everywhere.
In my last post, I pondered why Jesus chose the men he did as his apostles. As we enter Holy Week and the events leading to the Lord’s arrest and crucifixion, I wonder specifically about Judas Iscariot. We don’t know what Jesus saw in Judas when he was chosen as one of the twelve or even what was in Judas’ heart in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We only know that discontent, ambition, and greed had entered his treacherous heart by the end.
In a cartoon drawn by Paul Noth, an enormous political billboard overlooks a pasture inhabited by a flock of sheep. Looking up at the picture of a grinning wolf in coat and tie saying, “I am going to eat you!” one sheep tells another, “He tells it like it is.” Would that all politicians were so forthright!
“How was work today?” asked the wife in the Born Loser comic strip (drawn by Chip Sansom). Her husband answered, “Horrendous!” adding, “It feels so good that it’s over, I’m almost glad it happened!” Having had times when my prayer was simply, “Lord, just get me through this!” I understand. Sometimes, life seems so challenging and exhausting that we’re willing to settle for merely getting through it. That, dear friend, is setting the bar far too low. God has better plans for us than just getting by and none of us are born losers.
During that dark time about which I recently wrote, I was in intense pain and it seemed like God had turned His back on me. When I confided to a friend that God seemed deaf to my pleas, she asked the simple question, “Have you turned it over to the Lord?” I assured her I had but, as the day wore on, I wondered if that were true.
When I first started reading the psalms, I suspected David might have been bi-polar—his highs seemed so high and his lows so very low; now I understand that he was just being truthful. In his psalms, David unabashedly expressed his deepest feelings to God. Pouring out his soul, he openly shared his emotions—whether anger, disappointment, sorrow, regret, shame, joy, love, fear, doubt, or even his desire for vengeance upon his enemies. No matter how troubled he was, David never was afraid to speak from his heart. I’m not sure we are willing to be as vulnerable and straightforward in our prayers as was David.
Devotions of the Heart 