THE ASCENDING OF JESUS
The Christian scriptures treat the ascending of Jesus as an integral part of the Easter event. The earlier accounts tell of appearances of the already risen and ascended One. Paul includes his Damascus experience among these appearances in his letter to the Corinthians(1 Co.15:8). The later stories tend to separate the resurrection and the ascending of Jesus.
Luke has Jesus’ ascending on Easter Sunday evening – or at the latest – the next day(Lk.24:1-2,31,50-51). John has Jesus ascending at sometime between the appearance to Mary Magdalene(Jn.20:17) and the appearance to Thomas a week later(Jn.20:26ff). In Acts the time of the ascending is after "forty days"(Ac.1:3,9-11) where the number of days symbolizes a time of revelation rather than meaning to suggest that the ascending actually occurred on the fortieth day!
Mark’s account of the ascension is very concise. After speaking with his friends, Jesus "was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. The formula in the passive voice indicates that the Father is the One at work. The physical absence of Jesus opens up a new time – the time of the community of the disciples.
ACTS 1 : 1 – 11
The author summarizes the life of Jesus (vv.3-5). The summary provides a smooth transition from Luke’s earlier gospel to this second work of reporting the ‘good news’ of the Acts of the Apostles. The ascending of Jesus is mentioned (v.2). The same narrative that completed the account of Jesus’ ministry in Luke’s gospel serves now to launch the new stage of the community’s life(vv.6ff).
The Christian church began with the community formed by Jesus with His disciples. But in the present time the community now lives with the absence of the historical Jesus. Jesus’ former mode of presence has ended. The community of disciples must recognize Jesus’ presence in a new way and assume responsibility to continue the risen Christ’s mission(Ac.18).
In Luke’s theology, the ascending of Jesus(v.9) serves to explain the community of disciple’s life and mission. The forty days, during which the risen Christ instructed His disciples(v.3) evokes the formative forty years the Hebrew people sojourned in the desert; and Jesus’ forty days of testing. Jesus had told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to await the Father’s promised Spirit there!(v.4a) Jesus had cautioned the disciples against any preoccupation with the exact timing of the restoration of God’s reigning(v.7).