The Parishes of Bantry Bay

The Ascension of the Lord 

St Luke relates the Ascension to us in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. We are told that Jesus, in the company of the Disciples,   set out for the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, towards Bethany. It was there the He was enveloped by a cloud out of their sight. Classically, the depictions of the Ascension portray Jesus going up into the sky as the disciples look on. However, the significant thing about this story is the cloud. For our ancestors, the Children of Israel, clouds symbolised the glory and presence of God. They were a sign of His covenant with His created beings. 

In the Old Testament the cloud is always a sign and symbol of the presence of God. God made the symbol of His covenant with humankind through Noah by placing the rainbow in the clouds. The Children of Israel lost in the wilderness were guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When the tabernacle was erected  in the wilderness cloud filled the Holy of Holies. The same was also true when the new temple was built in Jerusalem. It was to be the dwelling place of God, a place where earth encountered heaven at the tent of meeting.  In the book Revelation St John the Divine writes that there is a rainbow around the throne of Christ. In the Ascension therefore we understand that Jesus was taken into the presence of God to sit at His right hand in glory, the cloud obscuring Him from our sight. 

The Ascension, along with Easter and Christmas, is one of the major festivals of the church. Jesus ascended to be with the Father so that He could we with us forever. Needless to say the disciples were shocked and saddened because they assumed that when he was raised from the dead and returned to them everything would be the same and return to normal. However, things would never be the same again. They were instructed to return to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. And so in their confusion and bewilderment they returned to the Upper Room to wait and see!