THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD (C)

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:46-53

Jesus must have found it very hard not to be able to take his friends along with him. And I am sure they would like to have gone. But that was not possible at that time. And so, he had to say goodbye to his mother, goodbye to his disciples and apostles, goodbye to all his friends, and ascend into heaven. In a spiritual way he would still always be with them. To a selected few he would sometimes appear. But as for a permanent, visible, in the flesh get-together that would never end, that would have to wait for years to come. They would now have to part for awhile.

We all experience times like that when we have to go somewhere alone, or when those closest to us have to leave and we are left behind. Separations happen to all of us many times in our lives. They are certainly not pleasant, but sometimes for the best.

When our children go off to college, when our spouses go off to work, maybe out of town for extended periods of time, or off to war, when even our vacations might have to be taken separately, we hate it, we miss each other, but we take it on faith that it is for the better, we know it is not forever. It is much harder to take when those we love move to another city, another state, another country - or when we are the ones who move. Death, of course, is our biggest separation, but even that is only temporary for those who love God.

Jesus, his mother and his friends knew they would be together again. But not in this life, and never as it had been. The next time would most likely be far down the road, their surroundings and lives would be very different. But there would be a much closer and even better relationship. They had to take all this on faith, though, which was not easy for them to do. Is it harder or easier for us to be separated from Christ than it was for them?

We have only met Christ in prayer, in thought, in the people around us, in holy communion. We have never really experienced him as did his relatives and friends in 1st century Palestine. We have a somewhat imagined idea of what Jesus looks like, what his voice sounds like, what he himself is actually like. We have a poor idea who it is we are really being separated from, and so we no doubt don’t miss him anywhere near like they did. But when we feel an emptiness in our lives, a loneliness, when we are feeling depressed or rejected, when we hurt in any way, it is then that we are finding out how it is to be separated from Christ. It is a pain we certainly don’t want to last forever.

Can you imagine what a tragedy it would have been if those friends of Christ were never to see him again, not on earth nor in eternity? If a separation from those we love is to end with a reunion it can be tolerated, we might even see some benefit in it. If the separation is to be final, it can be a living hell. Jesus has gone to heaven. He misses you more than you miss him. He is doing all in his power to see that you get where he is.

Look! There goes Jesus up through the clouds now. Take another look. He’s coming back for you. Are you ready for him?