Betty Whitaker Jackson

You Are There

A long time ago, when I was a child and television was very new, I watched and learned from Walter Cronkite’s show, You Are There. He and his staff chose significant historical events and made the viewer part of the scene. With period costumes, settings, dialogue, and usually accurate details, the show took events like the signing of the Magna Carta, the arrival of Columbus to the New World, and the first flights of airplanes out of the history books, and into our living rooms.

I remember it was one of the few shows we children were allowed to watch, and I still remember how fascinated I was to actually be part of history. It was so much better than reading textbooks, although with my imagination, I could usually creatively remember events well because I had a curious mind.

Let’s apply that show’s idea to the day of ascension of Jesus Christ.

The scripture is clear, that Jesus defied gravity and actually rose upwards, disappearing into the clouds. Now to the disciples, this was unusual to say the least, but in the last few weeks, they had noticed some other earth-defying acts—the very resurrection of Jesus being one big one, but his ability to appear and disappear at will, and his ability to physically go through walls and doors were also notable.

However, Jesus had been particularly passionate about teaching his disciples after His resurrection, and certainly his apostles, because He had a heightened sense of urgency that He would soon be returning to the Father, leaving earth until His predicted return.

Curiously, one of the first utterances after His resurrection was to Mary Magdalene, whom he told, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.”  Did He ascend more than once? That’s another question I may have answered when I get to heaven. Nonetheless, He appeared with them several times, behind closed doors, and He even knew what they were thinking and talking about. Notable among these stories are the men’s conversation on the way to Emmaus, Thomas’s doubting which was changed quickly to worship, and the catching of fish by fishermen who thought they knew their trade!

But the ascension. That was a really drastic change for the disciples, who by now had bought into the resurrection, understood Jesus had defied death, and were somewhat comfortable with His being with them, teaching them, perhaps with a greater sense of poignancy and direction, but with them nonetheless. Now He instructs them to stay in Jerusalem, the hotbed of activity against Jesus, to await the coming of the Holy Spirit. Certainly they could have argued the wisdom of remaining in Jerusalem. But Christ knew there were residents there from all over the known world, and soon they would hear the gospel message in their own languages. To a sovereign God, everything has purpose. But this was clouded in mystery to the disciples who lived the events in real time.

Then, the scriptures tell, Jesus had the disciples go with Him to Bethany. And in the midst of a conversation, while He was blessing them, He was taken up into heaven. This was different from His previous disappearances. This time they saw Him ascend, until they could see Him no more.

If I had “been there,” as in You Are There, I would have been filled with questions yet again. What does this mean? Is He coming back? How do we explain this? What is this power we are to experience? He said it will be from “on high.” Does that mean He is coming back as King?

I would have had the same questions. Perhaps the next day, I would have been saddened to feel His absence. Luke tells us that immediately after the ascension, they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. I am so glad they felt that way. I would have wept, knowing He was gone from my presence. But that, of course, was necessary in God’s plan. How could He be with us in twenty-first century America, and in the depths of the African jungle, and to the utmost regions of the world if He were a mere human presence? That was not God’s plan. Jesus would not be confined to an earthly throne where only His companions could know Him. The plan was far greater.

And so, with His ascension to His rightful throne in heaven, he must have been welcomed home with joyous praises and the biggest welcome home party our feeble human minds could suppose. The flying beings with all the eyes, the elders upon the thrones, and surely the multitude of angels welcomed Him to the throne room. Surely the program, You Are There could have shown this scene. The Risen Christ, risen to heaven where He belonged, would have made a most dramatic scene, worthy of all the Ben Hur and Star Wars presentation scenes combined. The Victor was returning. He not only conquered life; He conquered death, and bore the sins of the multitudes, past, present and future. He belongs in the throne room of the Most High, for the Father was and is well pleased with the Son. I’d even like to suppose that like the father in The Prodigal Son story, the Father ran to embrace His Son as the gates of heaven were thrown wide open, so that the King of Glory could come in to reign on high.

So, as we contemplate being there, let us remember that without the Ascension of Jesus, there could have been no flooding of the Holy Spirit’s power for which we are so thankful. For Pentecost’s power is predicated on the occurrence of the Ascension ten days previously. And that joyous occasion superseded the loneliness the worshiping disciples must have felt with the loss of Jesus’ physical presence.

Contemplate the days soon following. Jesus is gone. Disciples are troubled. Some may have wondered whether they had just wasted three years of their lives following an itinerant preacher who now mysteriously has vanished, literally into thin air. Families are split up, some who followed, some who scoffed. Few have homes where they can lay their heads. They have no income. They have no status. They have reason to fear the Romans, the Jews, and those who were part of the rabble yelling “Crucify!” a mere month ago. Could it have been only forty days since the crucifixion? Could they cope with all that had occurred to them?

You are there. Can you feel their sense of loss? Can you understand that they listened to Jesus as He explained the very topics of the universe and of eternity? Now where would they find truth? With whom could they discuss the many parables spoken by this Jesus in their presence? Certainly their synagogue rabbis couldn’t be trusted to answer them. The Pharisees had met, the Sanhedrin, in high council and declared Jesus a blasphemer and worse. They were indeed, as predicted by Jesus Himself, like sheep without a shepherd.

They must have mourned his absence. It was not like the times they had buried loved ones. Death was indeed, and still is a surety. It will occur. There will be tears. There will be grieving. There will be mourning. There will be absence. But this Jesus, in whom they had put their trust, died, then appeared again, and then in the grand scheme of things, left this world of His own volition, literally ascending from their very presence, in the act of blessing them. Now, for the foreseeable future, unless He immediately returned, they would be trying to live without His physical presence with them. How could they cope?

Those of us on the other side of this history know, and in future occasions, when this show produces a sequel: You Are There at Pentecost, that Jesus indeed had to leave this world so that The Holy Spirit could carry on His mission to the whole world. On Pentecost, some ten days later, Jesus sent The Holy Spirit to be their source of power, their comfort, and His very presence to lead them and even us today to build the church, to preach their story to the farthest ends of the earth, so at the Name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord of Lord and King of Kings. For they are told to preach the gospel to every tribe, every language group, every nation, literally to the whole world, before His return again.

That, then is the story of the Ascension.  You Were There.