Hello Goodbye (Friday Devotional)

“Then [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”

- Luke 24:50-53

Nobody likes to say goodbye. Children are inconsolable when they learn that one of their friends is moving to a faraway city, often sobbing in their room at the unfairness of it all. Parents are more composed but no less fearful when they take their child to college, finding any excuse they can to linger for a few extra moments. And of course, no one is ever truly prepared for their final goodbye to a dying loved one, an occasion that often leaves people wrestling with feelings of sadness, bitterness, and anger. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” wrote Shakespeare, but we are prone to miss the sweetness and sink into the sorrow.

So when Jesus withdraws from his disciples and is carried into heaven, an event the church marked yesterday, his followers’ response is puzzling. You might expect them to try and cling to him like Mary Magdalene did at the tomb, unwilling to let him go just yet. You might think they’d shout to him as he rose into the clouds, pleading that he stay just a while longer. When he had vanished from their sight, you might imagine them being frightened or bitter or even angry, suddenly and intensely aware of how alone they are now.

Yet Luke tells us they met Jesus’s ascension with a different response: “they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” They had met the cross with fear and the empty tomb with disbelief, but they now met the ascension with joy, knowing in the light of the resurrection what they had not understood before—that Jesus might be leaving them for now, but he was not forsaking them. He would come back soon, and in his absence would give them the Holy Spirit, that they might better serve the Father to whom Christ was now returning. Jesus was leaving them, but not empty-handed: they had a promise, a partner, and a purpose. And because of this, they had one more thing: joy.

Jesus’s ascension seems at first like something to be mourned, not celebrated—why, only 40 days after conquering death, would Jesus leave us again? But if all you see in the ascension is a goodbye, if all you can think about it is what once was and what might have been, then you miss what can be. On that mountaintop, Christ gave us the incredible obligation and opportunity to share his gospel, to love as he loves, to act as witnesses to what he has done for us. With Jesus no longer walking the byways of Judea, we then are tasked with ministering in his name and under his power, even as we eagerly anticipate the day when he will return and complete his work.

May you, following the example of the disciples, rejoice in that privilege and that responsibility. May your worship resound not only with memories of what Jesus did once, but with thanksgiving for what he is doing today and with hope for what he will do tomorrow. The ascension marked the culmination of Jesus’s earthly ministry, the final proof that he had carried out God’s will—with the message of the gospel now entrusted in your hands, may you do the same.