The word Blessing can sum up the essence of God. We often don’t recognize Him as blesser because we are fascinated by His justice, power and knowledge.
But, we see God Almighty bless in the first and last chapters of the Bible. God blessed us through the creation and command for procreation. We end in Revelation with a blessing for those who wash themselves and enter eternal life. God blessed the whole world through Noah, Abraham, Aaron (Numbers 6) and Israel (Deuteronomy 28).
To bless is the heart of God.
Jesus’ existence was a blessing. From brilliant talks that capture life’s most difficult circumstances and provide wise counsel on how to endure them, to healing the sick, demon-possessed and outcast. He blessed the poor, the rich, the strong, the broken and folks in every generation. Luke tells us He came for all people, and Jesus demonstrates this clearly through His ministry.
The disciples recognized the way Jesus blessed. Their Gospels are filled with stories of people, but they also remembered how He blessed even bread. Each gospel writer points out that Jesus blessed bread.
It’s how the guys headed to Emmaus recognized Him. Jesus, the blesser, sacrifices His life on the cross so that we may enjoy relationship with God and eternal life in heaven.
In the very last scene of the book of Luke, Jesus is in a mood to bless. Luke writes more than once that Jesus was blessing His disciples. He wanted them to seek the Holy Spirit through prayer, and as He admonished them again and again to be filled and obedient and tell the world, He was lifted from their eyes.
Luke is the only one to write about this fact, yet it is very significant. Luke does not even see the Ascension personally, but he listens to the witnesses, who are around five hundred, and reports this incredible scene. As Jesus blesses them, he is taken into the clouds.
Luke writes in Acts that two angels show up to push them toward obedience instead of watching Jesus ascend to the right hand of God. They tell them that Jesus will return in the same fashion one day. Essentially, Jesus is coming back, so you better be doing what He said and not looking into the sky.
The Ascension signifies Jesus’ sovereignty over all enemies and people of the earth. It reminds us that the authority we serve comes from “on high.” We must also live with the expectation that, in the same way, He left, He is returning to judge the living and dead.
Without the Ascension, we have no closer. We know He was dead and raised, but where is He now? He is above all things and, one day, He will rule all things. Until then, the Spirit that raised Him from the dead resides in us, and the mandate to take the Kingdom of God into all the world is upon us.
When He returns, will He find faith? Will He find obedience to the Great Commission? Or will he find folks with their eyes on the sky? I want to be found faithfully obedient to the mission of God. Until I ascend with Him one day.
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