"I tell you, those disciples had it made! I sure wish that I had been alive in those days. They had it easy. It could not have been very hard for them to believe in Jesus and in God. They had it made! They had Jesus with them all of the time. It is harder for us, because we do not have Jesus; he is with the Father. Consequently, we have to believe in him; faith is all we've got. But the disciples had him present with them. What a gyp! It really is difficult being a Christian when all you have going for you is faith. If only we had known Jesus like those disciples did. Yes, then believing in him would not be so difficult!"

Have you ever felt this way? I know that I have. Because I have felt these feelings, the big church festival which we celebrate today (the ascension of Jesus into heaven) was never much of a celebration for me. In fact, it was a real "downer." The ascension, bah, who needs it?

Who needs it? If Jesus had not ascended into heaven, we would still have him among us. That would be great! What is so "hot" about the ascension? It seems like we ought to be sad about it, because we lost Jesus on that day. He is not with us anymore.

Have you ever felt that way? Probably you have. If you have, then the ascension is no big deal to you. It is nothing to get very excited about. However, people, let me tell you. We really have been missing out. The ascension really is a great thing for us Christians. Today is a great day, people. Get happy, for Jesus has gone home to be with his Father. What a great day!

Do not misunderstand me; I am not trying to get rid of Jesus. No, not at all. It is just that today is a great day, because the ascension is a day of victory for our God. Jesus has conquered everything - sin, death, evil, everything. Now he has gone home to be with God. He has put on the glory that belongs to him. This is a great day of victory, a real homecoming for Jesus. And since Jesus is our friend, somebody we love, it is only natural that we should share the joy that the discipies felt when he left them (Luke 24:52); we ought to be joyful with them - happy for our friend.

However, people, there is something else for us to rejoice about today. The ascension is not just a wonderful day for Jesus and God; something great happens to us today as well. There is something that is great in it for us. To be sure, today is Jesus' great day of victory; today he truly puts on the glory that belongs to him; he goes to be with the Father. Yet today is also our day of victory as well!

Let me explain: When Jesus, the Son of God, ascended into heaven, he was not exactly the same as when he left. Of course, he was basically the same, but just a little bit different. He left as the eternal Son of God to become a man on earth. He came back as the eternal Son of God, but he also came back to the Father as the man Jesus.

Think about this point for a moment, folks; think about it with me. When Jesus returned to heaven, as he ascended, he did not throw his body back on the earth. Of course, it was as the Son of God that he returned to the Father, but as the Son of God who is also the man Jesus.

Jesus, the Son of God, returned home to the Father to be with the Father forever and ever. Never more to be separated, for they are one. Think about it: the man, the human being named Jesus, has returned to the Father forever and ever, never more to part.

This entails that part of God's very nature, part of the way that he is henceforth, is that one cannot escape us human beings. From now on, he and Jesus are one; God is one with a man, the man Jesus. The man Jesus, a man in many ways like you and me, is so wrapped up in God that together they are one. This is what the doctrine of the Trinity is really proclaiming. Henceforth, because Jesus and the Father are one, there is a little bit of you and me (thanks to Jesus), a little human streak, in God. There is no way that God can reject it; it is part of who he is. From now on, God can never really be God unless he is all wrapped up in a human being, because, after all, they are one. No, God really cannot be himself unless he is all wrapped up in people.

This is why the ascension is such a great thing for you and me. You see, we have been promised that whatever happened to this man Jesus, will happen to us if we believe it (John 14:12). This is what our baptism is all about; in our baptisms we all became one with Jesus. As he rose from the dead on Easter, so someday we shall rise from the dead (Romans 6:3-6). This also implies that just as Jesus and the Father are one, so because we are one with Jesus, we, too, are one with the Father (1 John 4:15). God cannot get rid of us!

One could almost say that, since he has that human streak in him because of Jesus, there is something about God's personality that he cannot be himself unless he is all wrapped up in the lives of human beings. He is one with Jesus, and since in baptism we are one with Jesus, so God is stuck with us. Because he has that little streak of Jesus' human nature in him, God has just got to be with us people - with you and me. He has to immerse himself in our lives, or he just is not being himself.

He is immersed in our lives, you know. He is with us right here and now. That is what the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to his disciples before ascending to heaven (Luke 24:49), is all about. God is the Holy Spirit among us, because he just cannot keep his "nose" out of our lives.

People, I do not know about you, but once I think about the ascension in that manner, there is no way that I would ever be sorry that Jesus ascended to heaven. I am glad he did. In fact, if Jesus were physically standing here right in front of me, I would ask him to get going - to get back to the Father. Why? Because by being with the Father, by being one with the Father, it is almost like Jesus' human nature acts like a constant reminder to God that he is stuck with us. He cannot really be himself without us. You see, however, none of this would have happened if Jesus had just remained right here on earth.

"Oh," but you say, "it would be so nice to have Jesus here now with us; it would make it easier to believe. The disciples had it easy; they had him among them." Well, people, let me tell you; we have Jesus among us right here - plain as day.

If Jesus had not ascended into heaven, God would not be with us in all of the good things of life that we experience. At least we could not be certain that he is with us in those events. There would always be that doubt that maybe they were all accidents, not a consequence of God's actions. Perhaps we might be led to conclude that it is only an accident that Betsey and the rest of my family love me (or that the loves in which you are engaged are merely accidents). Yet that is not the case. God has his hand in all of these events; indeed Jesus (through the Holy Spirit) is in the middle of that love and of all the good things in our lives.

Open your eyes, my friends! God is among us; he has willed not to be fully himself any longer without us. It sure is great that Jesus has ascended. Now he is free (through the Spirit) to be ever among us in a way that he could not have done as effectively had he remained on earth in visible bodily form! It sure is great that he ascended, so that he could always be with us after all.