The disciples realized that Christ was living, and that he had a spiritual body, which was not subject to natural laws. He was a true man, and a true God. He guided his followers throughout the forty days to enlighten them with the meanings of prophecy from the Old Testament indicating his death and resurrection, and crowned his teaching at last with the Promise of the imminent outpouring of the Spirit that the apostles might be filled with the power of God.
This was Christ’s last declaration on earth. There was no need of any thing more, for the Holy Spirit had finished Christ’s work. After that he departed completely. He did not vanish secretly, or surprisingly as he did during the last forty days, entering through the walls and closed doors, but he who was raised from the dead went up gradually, in silence and glory, before the disciples’ eyes. He overcame the gravitational attraction of the earth, being lighter than light, and was drawn with the power of love to his Father, his source.
The cloud, which surrounded the holy, glorious God, covered him gently. Christ had finished his work, left his human universe, and entered into the invisible glory of God, our Father.
The eternal Creator does not live from above in heaven, for our globe turns around itself, and heaven is sometimes up, and other times down. Even the sun is not above, for it becomes like a huge fiery ball among groups of suns fleeing to the unknown. Then where is God? And where is Christ? Our Lord gave a decisive, correct answer to this question: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
God is neither up nor down, but is present around us, everywhere, for he is not bound with time and place. No man can comprehend the greatness of God’s glory. Christ used the ways of thinking in his disciples, and ascended apparently, for they believed that heaven was above. In this manner Christ taught his followers. Now, he leaves them completely, returns to his Father, sits at his right hand, and reigns with him in an everlasting unity. Christ and the Father are one. The Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son. He who has seen Christ has seen God. We believe in the Holy Trinity as one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. No man can adequately clarify the mystery of this personal unity. However, the gospel tells us that Christ went up forty days after his resurrection from the dead, leaving our human being, into heaven, the universe of God, where he sits now in the throne of grace with his Father, with complete glory, and greatest love and authority.
The disciples felt that Jesus’ ascension to heaven had caused a radical change in their lives and their salvation history. So they looked upwards steadfastly to see their Lord hidden with clouds. It is good for us to look upwards, and lift our hearts to Christ, where Christ is with the Father, for our course is in heaven, and our home is with God, our Father.
The living Lord did not want his disciples to imagine the heavens and the things of the other life, and become anesthetized with a religious mirage, but he established them on earth, and sent to them two true angels. Those angels came suddenly from behind the scenes of the invisible world. They appeared with great purity, and confirmed to the disciples that Jesus was truly, and completely taken up into heaven. His ascension was not an optical illusion, but an established truth.
At the same time, the two messengers of Christ testified that the believers’ hope did not end, but the Lord would come again in his own person, apparently in the clouds as he went. The aim of the world history has its main center in this announcement that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again. Christianity holds this faith firmly, and immovably: our Lord is living and is coming, for he loves us and longs for us. We do not know the time of his coming, but we know that he is coming quickly, and certainly. Do you wait for Jesus? Is he the aim of your thoughts? Do you love Christ? How often do you think of him daily? How do your prayers go to him? Do you expect his coming? No one lives truly cautious except those who wait on the Lord.
With great, wholehearted joy the disciples went down to the Kidron valley, and walked to Jerusalem, for they were standing with their Lord on the Mount of Olives, not far from the garden of Gethsemane, where they were all asleep when their Lord had struggled with death and God’s anger until he was arrested with chains. Yet now they are not afraid of the nightmare of that fearful event, but their hearts are filled with the joy of Christ’s triumph. The good tiding of the two angels rang in their minds and their hearts as the thunder of big bells: The Lord is coming. He is coming quickly. He is coming soon.