Ask informed Christians, ‘When did Jesus ascend into Heaven?’
They’ll likely reply, ‘Forty days after His resurrection.’
And they would be correct …to an extent,
If only thinking of …His last advent.
This reply suggests we have a very narrow aperture,
Focused on the 33 years of His …‘human adventure’.
Non-believers the world over, have fallen into this trap,
Only regarding Jesus, first, as a babe whom Mary wrapped,
Then as a man whom Jews rejected, so Rome crucified.
Such are ‘the bookends of His life’, the world has certified.
And when believers think and hear, ‘Jesus’, they fall in line.
But when their aperture is o-p-e-n-e-d, their thoughts are realigned!
Jesus, The Lord God, Second in The Holy God Trinity,
To Whom Father God entrusted creative authority,
So much MORE than ‘just a man’, as many folks conclude,
When they don’t perceive His God-traits that devils exclude.
As Divine Creator, He keeps in touch with His creation,
Especially with Earth and man, creation’s culmination. 1
First, let’s clear-up confusions about His last ascension.
Then, let’s examine if that was His only ascension.
We’ve been conditioned to use Acts 1:9-to-11,
As our ‘go-to’ passage on Jesus’ return to Heaven.
But when we w-i-d-e-n our apertures, perceptively,
We will ‘see’ what we missed by reading, selectively.
In John 20, Jesus told Mary:
Do not cling [touch or hold-on] to Me,
Because I have not yet ascended to MY Father,
Tell My brothers I AM ASCENDING to our Father,
To My God and your God. 2
For sure, Mary was awed!!!
He encouraged Thomas to touch Him …8 days later.
Then He again ascended …32 days later!
If you’re just now ‘seeing’ this point, don’t be distraught.
It might be that we only ‘see’, what we’ve been taught. 3
On His first ascension, The Lord was likely accompanied,
By ALL resurrected saints from hell’s upper region, He had freed. 4
But was His last ascension to Heaven, His first??
And was that the last time that route He will traverse??
Stay tuned, as we’ll explore that point in Part 2.
Let’s see what The Lord will share, from-me-to-you.
Meanwhile, please ponder, then share the above insights,
So folks will open their apertures …to more light.
----------
1 See: Is Jesus God? (Series, w/Fresh Insights).
2 Poetically paraphrased.
3 Fresh out of the tomb, Jesus privately ascended to Heaven after He encountered Mary. Forty days later, He publicly ascended to Heaven. We all might tend to glaze over many details in Bible texts, and simply rely on and believe what we’ve been taught or heard. Could that be why The Holy Spirit, through Paul, admonishes us to …Study to show yourself approved by God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
4 Curiosity ignighted?? See: Missed Insights from Matthew 27.