The earliest mention of the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus is found in Eusebius of Caesarea. His work On the Feast of the Passover was composed in AD 0332. From this work, it appears that the Ascension was celebrated at that time with Pentecost, 50 days after the Resurrection of Christ. Towards the end of the 4th century, the beginning of the 5th century, the feast of the Ascension was separated from that of the Laying on of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated on the 40th day after the Resurrection, a date which will remain fixed in the ecclesiastical calendar.
The Ascension of Jesus is celebrated 40 days after the Resurrection, on Thursday, the 6th week after Easter. It is also known as Ispas. On this day, Christians greet each other with “Christ is risen!” and “Truly He is risen!”. Christ ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives in the sight of the Apostles and two angels. The angels spoke to the disciples about the second coming of Christ so they would not be overwhelmed by the pain of separation.
From Holy Scripture, we learn that the Saviour raised His hands, blessing the disciples, and as He was blessing them, He ascended to heaven while a cloud made Him invisible to their eyes. God often spoke to people from the cloud, a phenomenon through which divine energies are manifested, meant to reveal and conceal the Divine’s presence.
How many times did Jesus appear after His resurrection?
After Jesus became alive, he appeared to his followers at various events. This he didn’t simply on a solitary day, yet on a few days between his revival and rising into Heaven.
Jesus made ten appearances after His Resurrection. We have yet to learn about every time Jesus appeared to his pupils during these 40 days. John himself made sense of how the Gospel accounts were not a total chronicled record, “Jesus did numerous different signs within sight of the supporters, which are not written in this book” (John 20:30).
Be that as it may, the Gospels record a few of them. Altogether, Jesus is recorded as seeming multiple times to his pupils in his revived body.
What are the four main appearances of Jesus?
The guarantee that Jesus is “alive always” and has “the keys of misery and death” (Rev. 1:18) is perhaps the most grounded proof of the honesty of Christianity. The post-revival appearances of Jesus affirm that He is the Son of God and the world’s Messiah. Here are the four main appearances of Jesus that are kept in the Bible that occurred between His revival and His rising:
- Jesus appeared to the eleven pupils, including Thomas, in the second-story room, seven days after the Resurrection day.
- The pupils stayed in Galilee for around three weeks, where Jesus met with them twice. The first of these appearances was to seven of the supporters as they were fishing in the pool of Galilee.
- Jesus likewise appeared to James
- The appearance to the eleven devotees in Jerusalem on Thursday, Iyyar 25, when Jesus drove them out to the Mount of Olives, nearby Bethlehem, and rose to paradise
Christ’s appearances after the Resurrection assisted the followers and others with affirming the truth of the revival and that it was a genuine occasion. Also, because the devotees were persuaded of this reality, they had the option to teach the Word and witness being enabled by the Holy Spirit (Acts 3:12-21; 4:8-13, 20; 29-32; 1 Cor. 15:1-23; 1 Thess. 1:10, 17; 1 John 1:1-3).
What happened at the Ascension of Jesus?
The Ascension of Jesus is the Christian instructing that Christ indeed withdrew from Earth by ascending into Heaven, within sight of eleven of his apostles. According to the New Testament story, the Ascension happened on the 40th day, including the resurrection. In the Christian practice, reflected in the significant Christian doctrines and confession booth proclamations, God commended Jesus after his death, raising him from the dead and taking more time to Heaven, where Jesus sat down at the right hand of God.
At the Ascension moment of Jesus Chris,t the whole earth trembled, and the rising of Jesus is told in both Luke and Acts, a couple of works from the equivalent unknown author. In Luke 24:50: Jesus drives the eleven leftover pupils to Bethany, a town on the Mount of Olives, and educates them to stay in Jerusalem until the approaching of the Holy Spirit: “And now it happened, while he favored them, he just separated from them and was conveyed up into paradise. Also, they revered him and returned to Jerusalem with extraordinary euphoria.”
The Gospel of John has three references to rising in a way that would sound natural to Jesus: “Nobody has risen into paradise. Except for he who plunged from paradise, the Son of Man” (John 3:13); “Imagine a scenario in which you (the followers) were to see the Son of Man climbing where he was previously?” (John 6:62). And to Mary Magdalene after his Resurrection, “Don’t hold me, for I have not yet risen to my Father…” (John 20:17).
Why did Jesus ascend after 40 days?
One explanation is that Jesus remained on earth for 40 days after His revival. Instead of climbing quickly into paradise, was to show His supporters that He was alive. They realized the Roman specialists had executed Jesus and that His body had been brought down from the cross and fixed in a burial place.
From the biblical record, Jesus ascends after 40 days to complete His main goal on the planet. He came to bite the dust for the world’s transgressions and rise again to give never-ending life to all who have confidence in Him. Having completed this mission, He climbed into paradise.
Also, His appearances upheld the significant point that he had conquered passing with the guarantee of never-ending life. No matter the integrity of this last story, it drives home that Jesus was genuinely on this planet, and his presence stays with us, even after the climb.
Where is Jesus’ ascension in the Bible?
Each occasion in Jesus’ day-to-day existence happened in specific areas in the Holy Land. For a considerable lot of events, we know precisely where they happened. While for others, we have nearby oral customs. Because of Jesus’ climb into Heaven, the Bible notices the mountain’s name where the messengers saw the supernatural occasion.
St. Luke describes in the Acts of the Apostles how Jesus’ Ascension moment took place and assembled and posed him an inquiry. After Jesus’ last words were expressed, “as they were looking on, he was lifted. And a cloud removed him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).
Presently St. Luke refers to, “they got back to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is close to Jerusalem, a day off’s excursion away” (Acts 1:12). This is something very similar to “Mount of Olives,” which Jesus encountered his “anguish in the nursery” before being captured and arrested.
Key Verse related to Jesus’ Ascension
“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?”
Read also: What happened on Good Friday?
What happened on the day of Ascension?
On Ascension Day, most devotees recollect that Jesus rose to Heaven. Yet, Ascension Day contains far beyond only the rising of Jesus Christ to Heaven. Let’s see what occurred on Ascension Day in the profound domain when Jesus climbed to Heaven and the importance of Ascension Day.
It is known that Jesus might have decided to stroll on the earth without biting the dust on the day of Ascension. Yet, Jesus didn’t because Jesus came to this world to do the desire of His Father. Also, Jesus needed to introduce His blood, which was shed on the whipping post and the cross, to His Father. Jesus needed to present His blood to the benevolent seat in the sacred spot.
Where did the Ascension event take place?
Ascension Day, or Ispas, is the feast commemorating the ascension of the Saviour to heaven. However, it was initially celebrated at Pentecost. From the 4th century onwards, the Ascension is celebrated 40 days after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, always on a Thursday. You can find out when and where the Ascension took place below.
According to religion, Jesus Christ ascended heaven from the Mount of Olives. In the presence of the Apostles and two angels. Who spoke to the disciples about the second coming of the Saviour. A round chapel now stands on the spot where Jesus ascended to heaven. What’s more, it is said that when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. The imprint of his footprint remained there in stone.
The Saviour came to Jerusalem 2-3 times a year to worship at the Temple. And each time, he stood on the Mount of Olives, which more than two millennia ago was outside the city. Not part of Jerusalem as it is today. The Garden of Gethsemane, where the Saviour prayed, was at the foot of this mountain.
Prayer to say on Ascension Day
O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, coming down from the heavenly heights
for our salvation and feeding us with spiritual joy in the holy and pre-aluminous days of Your resurrection,
and again, after the performance of Your earthly service, You ascended with glory from us to heaven and sat down
at the right hand of God and the Father! On this serene and all-glorious day of Thy Godly Ascension to heaven,
the earth is celebrating and leaping, heaven rejoices today in the Ascension of the Creator of creation,
men are incessantly glorifying, seeing our erring and fallen nature, on Thy shoulders,
now, Saviour, taken up and exalted to heaven. The angels rejoice, saying:
Who is this that came with glory, mighty in battle and strong in war? Is this truly the King of glory?
Conclusion
Christ’s exaltation to glory and His seating at the right hand of the Father. So, it is the image of the total indulgence of His humanity. By all His acts, incarnation, death, and resurrection, He gradually indigenized the human nature which He assumed. But He fully transfigured it by His ascension. Because of the supreme transfiguration of His body, Christ can become interior to those who believe in Him. The Ascension of the Lord does not mean His withdrawal from creation, for He continues to be present and working through the Holy Spirit.
Christ, through His ascension, not only shows where man must reach, but He makes Himself the way and the power to reach this state. He sits on the divine throne of glory, but He also dwells in the hearts of those who love Him.
Bibliography
- Winter, P. (2014). Therefore the trial of Jesus. de Gruyter.
- Schottroff, L. (2006). The parables of Jesus. Fortress Press.
- Walaskay, P. W. (1975). The trial and also the death of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Journal of Biblical Literature, 94(1), 81-93.
- Farrow, D. (2004). Ascension and Ecclesia. A&C Black.
- Morshed, A. (2004). The Aesthetics of Ascension in Norman Bel Geddes’s Futurama. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 63(1), 74-99.
