The Ascension Of Jesus Christ Series

Unlike pagan accounts of gods and demi-gods, which some suggest were foreshadowings of Jesus, Jesus just was. Christian theology talks about Jesus being fully human and fully God. That’s because…why? He was just like it says, human. But He was also divine, He was also fully God.

And here, in this account, while Jesus has lifted up his hands to bless them, He is taken up into heaven. In one pretty impressive instance, Jesus’ story and all that has happened to Him is verified by His ascension.

Now we jump to the B section of Luke’s narrative in Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1: 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Luke ends his account of the Ascension with what appear to be two angels giving what strikes me as a pretty funny, slightly back-handed challenge: “"Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Why is that funny? Or why might it strike someone quirky like me as funny?

There are three basic postures or approaches to life that Christian take:

Look up

Look down

Look up and down

The first is to look up. Why do we look up? We look up to see Jesus. We fix our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith. We focus our eyes and our hearts heaven-ward. We spend our time in worship. We spend our time making sure we are living in such a way as to have assurance that we will one day live forever with Jesus in heaven.

For much of the history most a lot of Christians have lived and thought this way. What might be the downside of always only looking up? [We grow out of touch with what’s around us; we don’t see what’s coming and can get bowled over; we focus on what is to come and not what we are called to do]. We’re out of balance and off-kilter.

It was Christians, I believe, who first came up with the quote: “Too heavenly minded to be any earthly good”. Only looking up, anticipating what is to come, is one way Christians have chosen to live.

The second way is “Only looking down”. I’ve watched more than one person drift from what appeared to be a vital faith in Christ to a flattened, lifeless faith, or to walk altogether away from Christ. These tend to be folks who are consumed by issues they see around them.

They see people coming from all nations to Canada and they start to believe that it is disrespectful to share the love of God in Christ with them. They see that Canada is a rich, pluralistic country and they start to suspect those of us who take very seriously the call to make disciples of all nations. We start to look pretty fishy, or conservative, or out-of-touch (take your pick whichever disparaging label you like).