"Leaving, and loving, on a cloud" - Ascension Day 2019

Ascension Day Reflection 2019

Lutheran Church of the Ascension, Mt. of Olives

The Rev. Carrie Ballenger

Acts 1:1-11

From the ceiling of Lutheran Church of the Ascension, 

Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

About the Ascension of Jesus, Scripture tells us: “When he had said this, as they were watching, (Jesus) was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9)

For this reason, nearly every artistic rendering of the Ascension depicts Jesus on a cloud, or surrounded by clouds, floating with ease up into the heavens, his face a perfect image of serenity and comfort. Sometimes all we see in the clouds are Jesus’ feet, which apparently have lifted off the ground with no effort at all.

These Ascension images are very beautiful, but I often think when I see them:

Wait a minute: Jesus is leaving.

He’s leaving behind his friends. He’s leaving behind his students. He’s leaving behind the earth, where he has made his home for 33 years. The Day of Ascension is about Jesus leaving—and leaving is hard.

Anyone who has ever moved to a new house or a new job, or who has returned after making home in another place for a time, knows this very well. Leaving requires emotional and physical hard work. And so I’m curious why we—and so may artists throughout history—imagine that when it was time for Jesus to go, his body floated into heaven as if it were nothing, his face in perfect repose.

After all, we believe that Our Lord Jesus was really, truly, bodily resurrected. He was not a ghost or a figment of the disciples’ imagination. The Risen Christ ate food with the disciples. He walked and talked with them. Thomas even touched his wounds. After the resurrection, Jesus was here, really here, with feet planted firmly on this ground.

So I imagine that his first move away from this earth, the lift-off, must have taken all of Jesus’ strength and power. I imagine that at the moment of leave-taking, Jesus felt the full weight of his connection to this place—the way we do when we must leave a place, even when we know it’s the right move.  Clouds or no clouds, it’s hard to believe Jesus just floated away from people he loved. It wouldn’t fit with the rest of his story, would it?

For Scripture tells us Jesus didn’t magically appear on earth as a fully-formed adult, but was born of a mother, amid sweat and blood and tears.

Scripture tells us although he is the Son of God, Jesus didn’t sit high above in a throne room avoiding the riff-raff of humanity, but walked among us, his feet gathering the same dust as ours.

And Scripture tells us Jesus didn’t merely “pass away.” His body was lifted up on a cross—a cross we fashioned for him—where he suffered and died for the sake of all our sins.

So today when we read Jesus was lifted up again—lifted up to glory—his body made to untangle itself from earthly relationships and earthly needs in order to be with the Father, consider that it can’t have been easy.

It can’t have been easy, because leaving is never easy. In fact, we read that Jesus was teaching and imparting wisdom to his friends until the last very moment! Perhaps he wanted to stay. Perhaps he felt he had more work to do, more parables to tell, more hearts and bodies to heal, more love to give. But it was time, and he had to go. And so, Jesus, our brother, stepped off the earth, stepped on to a cloud, and ascended to the Father, hard as it was.

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” asked the two men in white. “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)

Perhaps the disciples should have gotten to work right away, being his witnesses and continuing Jesus’ ministry of love and reconciliation. But I think I understand why they lingered, looking toward the skies. They wanted one last look, one last wave, one last glimpse of the One who never took the easy way out, but who loved the world fiercely, boldly, extravagantly, with his whole body—

from the manger in Bethlehem,

to the dusty roads of Galilee,

to Calvary,

and to this place, the Mt of Olives,

where his great love for us was surely written all over his face,

as he was lifted up in the clouds to be with the Father, 

out of sight for now, but never out of our hearts.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The English, German, and Arabic speaking Lutheran pastors in Jerusalem
leading the Ascension Day service on the Mt of Olives
Photo by Ben Gray/ELCJHL