Bruce Mitchell is a retired United Methodist pastor living in Greenfield. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
The birth of Jesus has passed. Did you celebrate the birth of a heavenly king? Did you get the gifts you hoped for?
The death and resurrection of Jesus have occurred; the prophecy has been fulfilled. Oh, and by the way, did an Easter basket or two show up at your house filled with colored eggs and candy?
Is that all there was — or is?
There were questions; there were doubts. The tomb had been empty. Had Jesus’ body been removed by followers? Did he really rise from the dead? Even the disciples questioned the event.
Then Jesus returned to the disciples; according to the Bible’s book of Acts, “After his suffering, he showed himself to the disciples and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.”
He appeared to them over a period of 40 days. Ultimately he forecast their coming day of empowerment, and then Jesus was taken, in the disciples’ sight, into a cloud and out of their sight.
We celebrate this event as Ascension Day, celebrate the occasion of Jesus verifying that his followers would experience empowerment themselves in the future.
I’ve been blessed to have seen the small domed building on the Mount of Olives in Israel — Chapel of the Ascension. I’ve wondered about the rock in the building with what appears to be a footprint. To me, it doesn’t seem quite as significant what we see. It’s the symbology of Jesus rising to heaven within the view of men who felt the anguish of loss.
I know what that is like. I’ve lost family members, friends, a mentor or three. I know the pain of loss. But I also have felt relief and hope for the one who has passed as I feel secure in the promise of life beyond human life, beyond illness, pain, frustration and disappointment.
When one gets to my age, ninetysome years gone by, one tends to think of death at times. I don’t mean dwelling on death, fatalism, all that gloomy stuff. I’m glad each morning when I wake up to think and do meaningful things.
But when my time has come, and I have my own moment of ascension, I hope it will be filled with good thoughts of people I love, people from whom I seek forgiveness, good things I was able to accomplish and sorrow for positive things I never quite got to accomplish.
I like to believe Jesus didn’t just ascend to heaven; rather, I prefer to believe he left with love in his heart for those he left behind and assurance of what was ahead.
I pray he will continue to be my guide and strength as my time arrives. I haven’t meant this as an epitaph, but when I envision Jesus ascending to Heaven I’m left with good feelings.
Lines from Sue Walkinshaw’s poem “Life Beyond” sum it up this way:
“I have landed on a higher realm, in perfect harmony to forever dwell.
So believe when I tell you my dear friends, you cannot die, life never ends.”
