In a little over a week—May 9th, to be precise—the church will celebrate Ascension Day.

In a little over a week—May 9^th, to be precise—the church will celebrate Ascension Day.  However, my guess is that you will need to look long and hard to find a greeting card marking the occasion.  Most Christians, especially Protestant Christians, have never really figured out what to do on Ascension Day.  We believe, of course, that Jesus Christ “ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”  But how exactly does one commemorate that?

I have a suggestion; and it’s based on the story itself.  According to the opening chapter of Acts, Jesus appears to the disciples several times during the forty days following the resurrection.  He continues to teach them about the kingdom of God, and he orders them not to leave Jerusalem until they are baptized with the Holy Spirit.  When they ask whether this means that the kingdom of Israel is about to be restored, Jesus responds rather bluntly, “That’s none of your business!  It’s not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”

Then Jesus issues the church’s marching orders: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  In other words, if you’re looking for something to do on Ascension Day (or any other day, for that matter), this may be as good a place to begin as any—Start expressing the love and grace you have experienced through Jesus Christ!

So, do the disciples respond with energy and enthusiasm?  Do they start proclaiming the Good News?  Do they start letting their light shine?  Do they start caring for the poor, and speaking out against injustice?  Hardly.  They just stand there, craning their necks skyward (talk about a stiff-necked people), and they keep watching as Jesus ascends triumphantly into the heaven.  I’m not sure what exactly they were waiting for?  Did they think Jesus planned on returning immediately?  Did they think he would write “I love you” in the clouds as he departed?  Who knows?

But there they stand, looking upward, until they notice two men in white robes right beside them.  Just as the angels at the empty tomb had pointed out to the women that they were looking in the wrong place—“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”—these two men ask a similar question of the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?  Weren’t you paying attention just a moment ago?  He told you to go start witnessing!”

Simply put, whenever Christians become preoccupied with trying to figure out when Jesus will come back, we are looking in the wrong place and asking the wrong question.  The exact timing of the Second Coming is not ours to know.  Jesus never called us to calculate his return; he called us to be witnesses of his life and love!