"Hear Jesus Say ‘goodbye'”

If a person doesn’t finish a job they are usually sent back to work on it until they do. If your boss sends you to do a job and you come back and haven’t done it he will send you back to your desk until you do the job. Or he may get someone else to do it and you will be looking for another job. If you ask one of your children to mow the lawn you expect it all to be done not just part of it. If the job is not done you will send them back out again until it is finished.

Christ’s ascension means he finished his work. The Father didn’t have to send Jesus back to Bethlehem to start over, or back to Nazareth to finish things up, or back to the cross to complete the work of dying as our substitute. No, Jesus finished everything exactly as it needed to be done. The Apostle Paul connected what Jesus accomplished to his ascension in Ephesians 4:7 10, “This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)”

Maybe it is a “guy thing” but when I say goodbye to someone I always want to recall some of the things that we did in our time together. This is especially true when I visit my parents or my brothers and sisters. Not being people who can sit still for more than a few minutes we invariably turn to some work or project. So when it is time to leave I will often talk about what was accomplished. I don’t do this to take pride in what has been done but to reassure my relatives that I was happy to help out. To a certain extent we see something like that in Jesus’ goodbye to his disciples before he ascended into heaven. He recalled what he accomplished with his visit because he had done it all for them. Today as we hear Jesus say goodbye it is beneficial for us also to recall what he accomplished.

II.

Many times when we say our goodbyes we make all kinds of promises about keeping in touch. At least I assume I am not the only one who does this. I might say, “I’ll try to call more often.” And the one thing I should never say (because I never do it) I still sometimes find myself saying. “I’ll write you a letter and keep in touch with you.” My friends and relatives have heard that one before and never received any letters. But isn’t that the way it so often goes with our promises to stay in touch? However, when Jesus said goodbye his promises were more than just empty words. “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” Jesus would keep in touch with his disciples by sending them the Holy Spirit. Just before his final goodbye Jesus repeated his promise to keep in touch. “So when they met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” As the disciples carried out their mission Jesus would give them the power they needed. He would send the Holy Spirit to them. We will give more consideration to the work of the Holy Spirit next Sunday but as we connect it to Jesus’ ascension we can see how Jesus promised to stay in touch with the disciples. Then Luke tells us, “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”