With Great Joy

Luke 24:50-53

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I’m reading from Luke chapter 24, the last verses of Saint Luke’s Gospel. It says,

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. (Luke 24:50-53 NKJV)

Here Luke closes out his gospel account with a brief description of what we know as Jesus’ ascension into heaven. After everything that had happened, his arrest and torture, his crucifixion, his resurrection from the dead, his disciples had witnessed an awful lot. And now here they were again, watching as he was taken up physically from them. We might think that this would have been a time then marked again by great sorrow and discouragement for his disciples. Instead, one of the verses we just read says that they return to Jerusalem with great joy after witnessing his ascension into heaven. That, too, may be surprising. We would think that Jerusalem would have been one of the last places the disciples would have wanted to go. It was there, just 40 days before this, that their dear Lord had been arrested and crucified, and they, recognized as his followers had to assume that they also would be very vulnerable to similar treatment in Jerusalem.

But how interesting, it says they returned with great joy. What was it, do you suppose that prompted their joy after watching Jesus ascend into the clouds, ascend into heaven? It probably was a result of understanding that this was a signal that he had completely accomplished everything necessary for our salvation, that the mission was performed. Nothing else needed to be done to deliver them and all of us from our sins. They were also comforted by a specific promise that Jesus had given them when he told them, Go to Jerusalem, he said, wait there until the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And the day of the Holy Spirit would be only ten days after that, the time we know as Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they were given the great strength from knowing he was with them, and the power even to speak in languages they had not formally studied or known before this.

So now they knew that they would be given the power to complete the task that Jesus had left with them to go and preach the good News all over the world, as you and I trust in the finished, perfect work of Jesus for our salvation. And as we trust in the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, we also can carry out our lives as Christians and carry out our efforts and tasks on behalf of our church with joy and with fearless confidence. Even though, like those early disciples, we sometimes experience dangers and persecution here in this world. But the Lord has given to us the message of completed forgiveness and deliverance from all of our sins. And he gives us the Holy Spirit still today, who enables the church to go forth and proclaim this good news of our salvation, the world’s salvation through our Lord Jesus. Amen.