Being the Presence of Jesus (Ascension Sunday)

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Every year, as I read the story of Jesus’ Ascension, I wonder what was going through the minds of Jesus’ disciples as he “withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.”  They don’t actually say anything as this is happening in either account, so it’s kind of a guess.  But I suspect it’s possible that the disciples were:

• Simply dumbfounded and didn’t know what to think – after all, they had never seen anything like this before, and it doesn’t appear that Jesus clued them in to what was about to happen…

• Silently screaming, “No!  Wait!  Come back!  Don’t leave us here!” – even though Jesus had promised that he’d be continually with them through the Holy Spirit, this was going to be a new way of living, and like many transitions, it can be hard to adjust …

• Praying, “Lord, please take us with you!”  Really, Jesus, we’re done with this mess down here!  If you’re going up there, we want to come, too, and right now…!

I admit I haven’t thought about that third option very much.  But especially in times like these, in which I feel like I’m SO done with dealing with the constant stress and chaos of the moment, it occurs to me that at least some of those disciples were probably feeling like this on that day of Jesus’ ascension.

After all, they had been through a lot.  Some of these people had been following Jesus around for several years, and the journey had often been hard.  They had all been through the trauma of Jesus’ death, and then the emotional whiplash of joy in realizing that he had been raised from the dead, and they were tired. And frankly, while they knew on some level that Jesus’ death and resurrection really had changed their lives and the world around them, the pain and problems and difficulties they had been dealing with just a few weeks ago were still with them. And those problems and pains weren’t going to magically go away.

And so I bet at least some of them were hoping Jesus would get them out of all this mess and take them with him.  Or at least, come back in a few days, and make all the mess of the world go away.  Then they wouldn’t have to deal with the pain, the stress and the confusion that was so much a part of their everyday lives.

And indeed, that’s always been a temptation for Christians.  Especially at times of great tumult and confusion, we pray (at least in our hearts and minds) that Jesus would somehow transport us all away from the mess we find ourselves stuck in. 

And that feeling seems to be universal throughout time and place.  In the early second century, there was a group of Christians who were called “montanists” – so named because they decided to live on top of a mountain waiting for Jesus to return and take them away from the world “down there.”  A number of years ago, there was deep fascination with the “Left Behind” series, which premised a situation in which lots of people were simply assumed into heaven, while others were left behind.  And of course, even in secular culture, at one time or another we’ve all identified with that old “Star Trek” meme which says, “Beam me up, Scotty, there’s no intelligent life down here!”

Yeah, there’s a universal fascination with the ability to just leave all the mess behind.

And yet, that really wasn’t what Jesus was doing in his ascension.  And so his disciples couldn’t do that either.  And while I don’t know for sure what any of them were thinking in that moment, it surely became clear to all of them pretty quickly that:

• Jesus wasn’t done with the world they were living in – Jesus was still going to be present always and everywhere through his Spirit.  And Jesus was going to be making himself physically present through the lives and presence of his followers; so Jesus needed his followers to be fully invested in the world around them…

• Jesus wasn’t done bringing salvation to the world – sometimes we think of “salvation” as being restricted to Jesus dying and rising.  But the point of Jesus’ dying and rising wasn’t just so that people could say, “OK, my sins are forgiven, so now I go to heaven when I die.”  Instead, being “saved” means that you’re freed from the hopelessness that you’re alone or unloved.  And that gives you hope and strength to live life right now, no matter what mess you’re in.  But you don’t find that out unless people around you tell you about it and demonstrate it in their lives; so Jesus needed his followers to be fully invested in the world around them…

• Jesus was going to continue to bring hope and help into this world, just as he had when he fed and healed people.  But he was going to do that now in a bigger way through his followers.  And so his followers had to be fully invested in living the midst of the mess with others in the world around them…

And so today as we conclude the Easter season, it’s important for us to remember that, just as for those first followers of Jesus, living as people of the Resurrection doesn’t mean we get to sit back and wait for Jesus to return.

Instead, living as followers of Jesus today also means that Jesus is alive right now in our lives, and working through us to continue to be present in the life of the world around us.  And that presence of Jesus is never so necessary as when the world around us in engulfed in stress, chaos and confusion.

Jesus calls us, as he called his first followers to be people who:

• Stay engaged in the world around us in spite of the chaos and the stress, so that we can show the presence of Jesus to others in our lives; part of the problem of having to be isolated from each other is that, even with online events, we lack the kind of human connection we need to thrive in our lives.  And that human connection was how God worked through Jesus, and how Jesus continues to work through us; and so even though we’re going to need social distancing for a while, maybe we have a deeper understanding now of the importance and need of human connection to help us also be connected to God…

• Are agents of hope through our words and attitudes; it’s easy right now to simply project fear and hopelessness, and there are good reasons for fear.  Jesus’ followers, though, are called to model a life that shows that there’s hope and promise even in the midst of fear and chaos; we’re supposed to be the people who point out the signs of hope…

• Do the things that bring life and healing right now, so that we’re not just “pie in the sky” people; when we actively reach out and care for people in their needs right here and right now, it shows others that we know that God cares about them having abundant life in this world, not just the next…

While we’re sometimes tempted to think that all was right in the world on the day of Jesus’ Ascension, that really wasn’t the case.  Things were still a chaotic, confusing and even dangerous mess.

But Jesus really didn’t leave the world.  And he didn’t call his followers to leave either.  Instead, Jesus calls us, as he called them, to be open to being his active presence in the world, especially when things are a mess. Jesus calls us, as he called them, to speak hope and life in the midst of fear and confusion.  And Jesus calls us, as he called them, to do the things that give life to others right here and right now, so that both we and others can experience the fullness of Jesus’ presence.

Amen.