Reflection for the month

Peter Scott

‘While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven’ (Luke 24.51, NIV)

In the church’s calendar this month we move from the season of Easter into the season of Pentecost, from celebrating Christ’s resurrection to celebrating the coming and work of the Holy Spirit.

It is the moment in the Christian story when we reflect on the fact that, having secured our salvation at the Cross, the risen Christ has commissioned and equipped his followers to go out into the world to carry on his mission.

But in the middle of all this is falls the much neglected festival of the Ascension, which marks the departure of Christ back to heaven. Perhaps because it comes in the middle of the working week, few Christians today really stop and take notice of the significance of this event, this year celebrated on the 17 May.

We hurry on to fiery tongues of Pentecost without considering the important truth that without the return of the Son to the Father we could not receive the Spirit. As Jesus said, ‘Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you’ (John 16.7, NIV).

By going back to the Father, Jesus universalises and empowers the mission of his church. No longer is that mission limited to the land of Palestine and the external keeping of the Law. From his place of authority at the right hand of the Father, Jesus directs his global mission through a people who have his law written in their hearts through the presence of the Spirit within.

The knowledge that Christ is seated in heaven can help us in a number of ways. It assures us that every situation in every corner of our globe has his attention. It enables us to view our sometimes chaotic world in the confident knowledge that he is in control.

It allows us to believe that he is working out his purposes, even if at times we cannot understand how. It reminds us that one day he will leave heaven once more, this time to come, not in humility but in glory. As the angels said to the amazed disciples as they witnessed the Ascension, ‘This same Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way’ (Acts 1.11, NIV).

All this should inspire us, not to sit back and do nothing but to get stuck in, strengthened by hope and empowered by the Spirit. As it happens, this year Ascension Day falls in the middle of Christian Aid Week (May 13-20).

In the midst of our busyness, we should stop to reflect, in wonder and gratitude, that Christ is in control of our lives and our world. That he is working out his good purposes in both. And that we can be part of his good work. Then we can go out onto the streets with renewed energy, whether it is to rattle our collecting tin at our local railway station or to work alongside the poor in an urban shanty town.