Day 198: Luke 24:50–53

While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up to heaven. After worshiping Him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy (vv. 51–52).

Luke’s Gospel pen, filled by the ink of the Spirit for twenty-four glorious chapters, appropriately runs dry on a priceless scene. A small band of motley men, whose lives had been turned every which way but loose by Jesus of Nazareth, strained for their last earthly glimpse of Him.

Thirty-three years earlier, the feet of God toddled their first visible prints on earth, a young mother’s footprints chasing close behind. The walk grew rough, the path strewn with stones and thorns. Now God incarnate stepped off this planet with feet scarred and bruised. As God predicted at the fall, the ancient serpent struck Christ’s heel, but on the day He ascended, all things were under Christ’s feet. Jesus Christ walked the way of humanity so that humanity could walk the way of God. How beautiful the feet that brought good news.

Not one of those disciples was sorry He had come their way. Their losses were incalculable. Most of their friends. Much of their family. Their jobs. The blessings of their fathers. Physical safety. And now, a leader they could see. Yet they left the Mount of Olives with great joy, continually praising God, for their ordinary lives had been interrupted by glory.

The sufferings of this world simply could not compare to the glory He had revealed to them. It sustained and swelled them long after the visible became invisible. You and I are the spiritual descendants of Peter, James, John, and all the others who offered their lives, not for what they thought or what they hoped, but for what they knew. Whom they knew. Our faith is based on fact, beloved. Never let anyone convince you otherwise.

Jesus the One and Only—the title is His forever. He was the One and Only long before He breathed a soul into humanity, and He will continue to be the One and Only long after the last soul has been judged. He is changeless. But you and I were destined for change. So determined is God to transform us, we cannot draw near Him and remain the same. May our tenure on this planet be characterized by one simple word . . . Jesus!