Jesus’ Ascension to Heaven
(Acts 1:1-11; Eph.1:17-23; Mt.28:16-20)
Most of us are aware of helicopter parents – those who like to micromanage their children’s lives by controlling their actions and solving all their problems for them.
Their children might be kept safe, but they gradually lose their confidence and initiative, and they never quite learn to trust themselves.
At some point, every child must be allowed to take responsibility and grow up.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees his disciples for the last time before ascending to heaven. He’s been something of a father to them and knows their flaws only too well. But he doesn’t stay on to keep them out of trouble.
Instead, Jesus blesses and commissions them, and then he leaves.
Matthew is honest about this moment: ‘They worshipped him; but some doubted,’ he says. These disciples aren’t confident leaders. They are fragile, uncertain and have much to learn, but Jesus still entrusts his mission to them.
This tells us a lot about how Jesus views leadership – and discipleship.
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Remains of the Day, James Stevens is the butler at Darlington Hall. He is an ideal butler because he’s so obedient, but as a man he is a tragic figure because he is never trusted to be more than a servant. He never learns to act freely or take moral responsibility for himself, and in the end, he realises that he has wasted his life.
Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to be like that. If God insisted on controlling everything in our lives, it would make us safe, but small. We’d never really grow up or take responsibility, and we’d never reach our potential.
God loves us too much to let that happen. He knows we need freedom to truly love, and that’s why Jesus ascends to heaven.
In Tom Hooper’s film The King’s Speech (2010), the future King George VI has a terrible stammer and a speech therapist, Lionel Logue, is brought in to help. When he ascends the throne, George relies on this therapist to help him make his first radio broadcast.
Lionel can’t speak for the king, and he can’t rescue him at the microphone. But he does train him, encourage him and challenge him, and then he withdraws. The king must find his own voice.
This is what Jesus does at his Ascension. He has given the disciples his words, his way of life and his Spirit. Now he entrusts them with his voice in the world.
Jesus steps back so that others may step forward.
This is also what Florence Nightingale did during the Crimean War (1854-6). As a nurse, she faced chaos: terrible disease, overcrowded hospitals and untrained staff.
She could easily have tried to control every decision herself. Instead, she focused on sound formation rather than interference. She trained her nurses rigorously, insisting on discipline and careful observation, and then she deliberately stepped back.
In her writings, she warned against what she called ‘petty management,’ believing that it produced fear and dependence rather than competence.
If care was to be truly humane, she said, nurses had to learn to judge situations for themselves. And by taking responsibility, they could quickly attend to emergencies and correct mistakes.
Florence Nightingale transformed nursing from mere obedience into a profession grounded in judgment and compassion.
This is basically what Jesus is doing at his Ascension. He knows that authority that clings to control and refuses to trust will ultimately weaken those it leads.
But he’s not abandoning his disciples, for he promises to be with them always (Jn.14:18). How? By sending his Holy Spirit to be with them, empowering them to fulfill their mission, which is to love.
Today, many people expect God to step in and manage the world for us, to prevent every disaster and solve every problem, and they wonder why he doesn’t. But the Ascension reminds us that God has not withdrawn from the world. His Spirit is always with us. What has changed is not God’s care, but his way of acting.
Through the Ascension, responsibility is now shared. God works in the world through human hearts and human hands, and we are entrusted with the work of loving our neighbour. And if things get challenging, God’s Spirit is always there to help us with his graces.
In all this, Jesus trusts us to play our part. He has to, because where there’s no trust there’s no real love.
And God is love itself.