Pathways Press.com

Written by Jennifer Woodruff Tait, a contemporary Episcopal priest, historian, and editor.

Originally, the early Christians celebrated the Ascension together with Pentecost. On the same day they remembered both Christ’s ascending to be with his Father and the Holy Spirit descending on the gathered believers as reported in Acts 2. After all, Jesus’s last speech to the disciples before he ascended clearly connected the two events; he was going to leave his friends, but it would not be long before they received power from on high, and that power would change their lives. Eventually, as the church became legalized and its worship more public and systematic, believers gave Ascension a day all its own. But this strange and beautiful story doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It comes as the culmination of Jesus’ many post-resurrection appearances to his friends and followers throughout Eastertide, and it sets the stage for the powerful change that is coming next.

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” [Acts 1:1-5]