Have you been looking up at our bright blue skies during these sunny autumn days? What do you see beyond the blue? Can you imagine Jesus standing around with his eleven disciples and then with his parting words, all of a sudden, his body starts to fly upwards, right up through the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere and then the thermosphere, out, out into space and out beyond the universe itself to wherever ‘God’s right hand is in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 1:20)? Jesus’ ascension is not only geographical. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, and through our baptism which ties us into Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are now intimately connected with Jesus in these higher realms. The Bible in a number of places talks about the sky being ripped apart. Heaven is truly open to all now. To you, and me, and to all whom we know and love, family, friends and enemies.
We are very privileged to live so close to the sea in Adelaide with views from the hills and suburbs over the ocean. In this last week it has struck me yet again how when we look at the sea, we see the sky and the sea meeting on the horizon. We know scientifically and geographically that they do not meet, and yet we perceive that they do. This reminds us of the way in which heaven comes down so close to the earth in Jesus. There is now an even smaller gap between heaven and earth because of Jesus’ ascension. Mark’s Gospel begins with the sky being torn open when Jesus is baptised. This breaking open of the division between heaven and earth is completed in the ascension of Jesus to be both at the righthand side of God, as well as present in all of the universe. The only Jesus that we know is the one who still has his human body with which he fulfilled all of the Father’s will by breaking open the barrier between heaven and earth through his death on the cross. His scarred, physical body throughout the universe is an eternal reminder of God’s sacrificial love for us, for all time, and for all eternity. There is still more as St Paul describes how we are ALREADY seated on the throne with Jesus in heaven. This is the greatest panorama of the big picture we will see this side of heaven. Are you taking it in, and are you living in it?