Forty days after Our Lord’s Resurrection from the dead, as his apostles were looking on, he was lifted up, and as they kept looking intently at the sky, a cloud took him from their sight.  Now we might have expected the disciples to be sad and disheartened when Our Lord left them to return to heaven: after this incredible emotional and spiritual roller-coaster they had been on for several weeks at this point, with the trauma of his trial and conviction, the devastation of his execution and his death, the shocking joy of his Resurrection and the weeks they spent with him afterwards, and now his dramatic departure in dreadful majesty: it would be totally understandable for them to have felt a real sense loss at the final departure of the Lord, or at least some version of that strange empty feeling you get when you finish a long book you’ve really gotten into, or when you get done watching a really good tv show or something when you’ve really come to care about the characters and you just don’t want your time with them to be done: you know that strange kind of sadness. 

But that kind of feeling is not what the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles record for us.  They record the opposite in fact.  The apostles were inspired by the Lord’s departure, not disheartened by it: they were invigorated, not deflated: they went forth and preached the Good News immediately and without any hesitation or confusion or regret.  They immediately put into action the Lord’s final instructions to them: Go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  The Lord has promised them: I am with you always, even until the end of the age.  I am with you always.  And the apostles believe him, because they knew that the Lord had not simply drifted away, floating off into some unknown oblivion.  They understood that he had entered back into full communion of power and life with God the Father.  And, what that meant for them, what it means for us, is that he’s not really gone.  He remains.  The book’s not over.  There are more seasons of the show still to come: we don’t have to say goodbye to the character we love the most.  He is still with us, now, forever, and always. 

And here is the profound mystery of the Ascension: by going away, he actually becomes closer to his apostles; by going away, he actually becomes closer to us.  Because he’s with the Father.  He is no longer in one particular time and place in the world as he had been before the Ascension.  Now, through his vantage point on the Mountain of God in Heaven, he is present and accessible to everyone: at every moment in history, and in every place.  He can be with us always, as he has promised, and we can call on him at any time, knowing that he is able to reach us.  And this is the essence of Christian hope, the reason for our peace and our joy.  His final promise is “to remain with us always, until the end of time.”  And so he has.  So he does.  The Ascended Lord is with us.  The great story continues.  Like the apostles, let us be inspired to tell this story everywhere, preaching the gospel to all nations, living always in the joy of those who have been called, redeemed, and saved.