{"id":5297,"date":"2026-03-17T08:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5297"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:50:09","slug":"he-ascended-into-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/17\/he-ascended-into-heaven\/","title":{"rendered":"He Ascended into Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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The annual commemoration of Jesus’ Ascension is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Christian calendar.\u00a0\u00a0

As the bombastic comedian used to say during his stand-up routines, “I’m tellin’ you, I don’t get no respect.”

Jesus’ arrival as a human being (Christmas), his last meal with his disciples (Maundy Thursday), his sacrificial death on the cross (Good Friday), and his empty tomb (Easter) always draw plenty of attention.

But what are we supposed to do with Jesus suddenly rising into the air and disappearing from sight 40 days after his resurrection, the event that numerous church groups acknowledge every year at the Feast of the Ascension?

His original band of followers wrestled with the same question.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

Just six weeks earlier, they felt devastated.\u00a0Their master had been sentenced to death by a consortium of Jewish religious authorities and Roman political hacks.\u00a0When Jesus’ body was laid in a limestone tomb and a large rock was rolled in front of it, something else had died, too.\u00a0Their hope.\u00a0\u00a0

Then, incredibly, the worst news they had ever heard gave way to the best news they had ever heard.

Jesus was alive.\u00a0And he was loose in the world.\u00a0<\/em> \u00a0

When we open the New Testament book of Acts, the disciples are excited.\u00a0Who can blame them?\u00a0 They ask Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

Essentially, what they’re saying is, “Lord, is this when we get to relive the glory days of David and Solomon?\u00a0Is this when everybody takes the express elevator to heaven?”\u00a0If they were writing God’s story, everything would end right here.\u00a0\u00a0

This moment would be called Jesus Ends<\/em>.\u00a0Jesus ends pain and death.\u00a0Jesus ends the occupation of Roman soldiers.\u00a0Jesus ends the long and winding road of human history.
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What a surprise they get instead. This is not Jesus Ends<\/em>, but Jesus Sends<\/em>.

Somebody\u2019s going to heaven all right. But it\u2019s not the disciples. It\u2019s Jesus. His followers will stay behind to work on a global job assignment.
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Here\u2019s how Luke tells the story in Acts:
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\u201c<\/sup><\/strong>[Jesus] told them, \u2018You don\u2019t get to know the time. Timing is the Father\u2019s business. What you\u2019ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.\u2019
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\u201c<\/sup><\/strong>These were his last words. As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there, staring into the empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared\u2014in white robes! They said, \u201cYou Galileans!\u2014why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly\u2014and mysteriously\u2014as he left\u2019\u201d (Acts 1:7-11, The<\/em> Message<\/em>).
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Here we should pause and note that \u201cheaven,\u201d in Jewish thinking, was not some sort of celestial balcony located just above the stratosphere. Rather, it connoted \u201cthe place where God dwells,\u201d whatever and wherever that happened to be. In our own day, a synonym might be \u201cthe invisible world.\u201d
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Why, then, did Jesus go up<\/u><\/em>?
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Many people, when searching for the right way to describe Jesus drifting skyward toward the clouds, might opt for the word \u201cbizarre.\u201d
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Australian scholar Michael Bird admits it is \u201ca mixture of visual marvel, strange metaphor, and utter mystery.\u201d Why such a peculiar departure?
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Bird writes, \u201cJesus is taken away in such a manner as to leave clear in the minds of observers that he has gone to be with the Father in heaven.\u201d If Jesus had simply bid farewell to his friends and headed off down the road, they may well have expected to see him around the next corner. The Ascension was an unusually memorable way of communicating, \u201cI am leaving and you are staying.\u201d
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More importantly, the Ascension marked the beginning of a new spiritual chapter: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus had spoken about this at the Last Supper: \u201cBut very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate\u00a0will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you\u201d (John 16:7).
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Ten days after Jesus ascends into heaven, that promise is fulfilled. The Spirit comes rushing like a mighty wind upon his followers on the day of Pentecost.
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Supernaturally empowered, they are released into the world.\u00a0They are now\u00a0Jesus\u2019 hands and feet \u2013 the ones who, in his name, will\u00a0heal the sick, comfort the discouraged, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and proclaim God’s good news.\u00a0

To this day, Jesus is still in the sending business.\u00a0

When he departed\u00a0this planet, what exactly did Jesus leave behind?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

As far as we know, he wrote\u00a0no books.\u00a0He left no family line or spiritual dynasty, despite the silly claims of\u00a0The Da Vinci Code<\/em>. He left no home or belongings to be safeguarded behind glass display cases in various museums.

The only thing that remains of Jesus, and that\u2019s on display right now, is what he planted within you and me.

What can we hope\u00a0to accomplish\u00a0with a resource like that?\u00a0
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If we come to believe that Jesus is still alive and at work in the world, is in charge of everything, and accompanies us by his Spirit wherever we go, there\u2019s honestly no telling what he will be able to do with the rest of our lives.

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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0The annual commemoration of Jesus’ Ascension is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Christian calendar.\u00a0\u00a0 As the bombastic comedian used to say during his stand-up… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5298,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,1088],"class_list":["post-5297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-ascension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}