Job Done!

Yesterday was Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter, when Jesus' first disciples saw him with their own eyes ascend to heaven, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. 'Jesus was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.' (Acts 1.9)

Reflecting on the purposes of God through the ages, the writer to the Hebrews observed, 'Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son.' (Hebrews 1.1-2) Jesus comes to us as God's final and definitive word, making clear what had previously been suggested, and finishing the work begun by so many others before him. 

In particular, only Jesus has been able to deal with the problem of the human heart, which is of course the heart of the human problem. 'When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honour at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.' (Hebrews 1.3b)

The writer makes much, elsewhere in his letter, of the fact that Jesus has sat down in heaven, because his work of providing forgiveness for guilty consciences has been completed. 

In the Ascension of Jesus, our weak and broken humanity is taken into the very presence of God himself, and we find acceptance and welcome, because of the self-sacrifice of Jesus. 

He has sat down, because the job has been done! We can therefore live today, with our burdens lifted and our destiny secured. As the old hymn says, 'Hallelujah! What a Saviour!'

Best wishes,

Richard