Christ's Ascension Charge to Us

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


Who here knows what special day we celebrated on Thursday in the church? – Anyone?


We just celebrated ascension day. Some pretty special things happened long ago on ascension day. According to the Bible, this is the last day that anyone saw Jesus walking among them in the flesh. On that day, his closest followers saw him rise up or ascend through the clouds.

This may seem like a big deal, but really it isn’t. After all, Elijah did the same quite a bit earlier (though he did need the help of a fiery chariot). Ascending is not the amazing part of the ascension.

So what is important about the ascension? – We have a clue to it in today’s Gospel. Jesus said “The glory that you have given me I have given them.”

All through the Easter season we have been talking about the risen Christ. About what it means to us that Christ rose from the dead and walked again among his followers. We talked about God’s gifts of the sacraments and of the Church. We talked about God being with us no matter what happens. We talked about God’s unending love. We talked about all this and much more.

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Jesus is talking with our Father in heaven. When he says this, Jesus is passing on his purpose in the world to his followers … to us. Jesus, in that last day walking on Earth, gave us his greatest gift of all. He gave us the ability to carry out his purpose. He gave us the gift of unconditional love. He gave us the gift of being able to see the Kingdom of God.

Together with these great gifts, Jesus gave us a great challenge. … He sent us out to use these gifts. He told us to carry on in his name. He charged us with bringing about the Kingdom of God.

That is certainly something that deserves at least a few minutes to think about. (Several minutes of silence)