Good Morning Friends,
“When he had led them out to the vicinity of
Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them,
he left them and was taken up into heaven. They worshiped him and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy. They stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”
(Luke 24:50-53)
Death is an enemy – Paul calls it that in his
letter to the Corinthians. It is the last enemy that Jesus will defeat. Death
seems so final and the separation so permanent.
That is a lie of Satan Jesus debunked in this
final story. Jesus didn’t die in this passage, He’d already done that and come
back to life, but He did leave the earth and leave His followers behind. The
ascension marked the separation of Jesus from those who had come to Him during
His time of earth. In that sense, the ascension is very much like a death. The
disciples won’t see Jesus again in this world – not until He comes in the
clouds at His Second Coming.
The ascension also demonstrates that the
separation did not mark the end of Jesus. As He was lifted from the earth and
into the clouds, Jesus was very much alive. The ascension wasn’t the end of
Jesus – it was His trip from this world to the next.
Death doesn’t mark the end of any of us. The
very moment we breathe our last breath on earth will also be the moment that we
breathe our first breath in the world to come. The separation that death brings
from those we love is temporary – at least for those who follow Jesus. We’ll be
reunited with all other followers of Jesus in the world to come – the permanent
world where separation will never come.
The disciples realized the ascension was not
the end of Jesus. When Jesus lifted from the earth and returned to heaven, the
disciples lifted their voices in worship and went away with great joy and
praise to God.
Remember that picture the next time death
strikes close to home. For followers of Jesus, death’s separation is temporary
and death is not the end – it’s the beginning
of real life.
His, by Grace, Steve
No comments:
Post a Comment