The Significance of the Ascension

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I’m bothered by how Pentecost Sunday always gets more buzz than Ascension Day. I was seeing posters for Pentecost Sunday last week already (and I’m by no means throwing shade, I too only remembered Ascension Day late into the very day). I’m bothered because these two days are deeply connected. Ascension Day is to Pentecost Sunday what Good Friday is to Ressurection Sunday. Without Ascension, there is no Pentecost. Jesus puts it plainly to His disciples that unless He goes, the Holy Spirit cannot come (John 16:7).

 

This is no battle of Christian Holy Days, but I think it’s important for any Christian to understand the significance of Jesus ascending to heaven. In John 16:28 Jesus says: “I came from the Father and entered the world, now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” Yes, Jesus ascending to heaven is about Him returning to the Father but ‘here’s the thing’ (I’ve been watching too much Monk): Jesus isn’t returning the same way He left. Jesus is not just returning as God the Word as He left, He is returning as our High Priest too. He is now in heaven making intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).

 

Secondly, as previously stated, Jesus has gone away so the Holy Spirit can come. After dealing with the sin that stood between us and God through His death and resurrection, Jesus returns to heaven – and the Spirit of God who left because of sin now returns to us. He comes to live in us so that we have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18) so through him we can enjoy fellowship with God to whom we cry “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

 

Lastly, Jesus returns to heaven on a mission: to prepare a place for us (John 14:3). Jesus intends to return for us so that we may be with Him forever. On the very day Jesus ascended into heaven, the angels declared: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Ascension therefore holds promise of His second return. This is why the event of His Ascension is significant. It not only points back to what occurred, it points forward to what is yet to come.


I pray and hope that us overlooking one event over the other does not result in forgetting these truths and the hope that comes with them.

Comments

  1. Anonymous15 May 2024 at 23:59

    Amen. Ascension day is nolonger on our calendar, although it used to be. Thank you for bringing back the rememberance of it. We need to understand it, in order to re-instate it back into our hearts, and pray it back to our calenders as we embrace it.

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