Ascension Day

Readings

• Daniel 7:9–14
• Hebrews 2:5–18
• Matthew 28:16–20
• Psalms: 8, 47; 24, 96

(If you have the time, read the Hebrews passage too — it's also great.)

Matthew 28:16–20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Daniel 7:9–14

(See the lectionary OT reading for the full passage; verses 13–14 are the key Ascension verses.)

…I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

Notes

Ascension Day. The feast of Jesus' enthronement as King of the universe, seated at the right hand of God.

A conceptual note up front. We habitually picture heaven as up—Jesus floating off into the sky—but that has never been the best read of the Ascension. Heaven is not a location in three-dimensional space; it is more like a parallel dimension, the invisible reality that runs alongside this one. Jesus is not away. He is seated in the throne room of the unseen realm. Which, in the language of Hebrews, is the same throne room we are invited to approach with boldness. The work of the kingdom is not getting up there someday; it is removing the barriers between the visible and the invisible, here, now.

Two readings today belong together. Daniel 7:9–14 sees the Son of Man receive dominion. Matthew 28:16–20 narrates the moment Jesus claims it.

The Daniel/Matthew parallel. Daniel 7:14: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him." Matthew 28:18: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Same scope. Daniel saw the vision; Matthew shows us the vision becoming actual. Daniel 7 is one of the texts most central to Jesus' self-understanding—the "Son of Man" language he uses all through the gospels comes straight from here.

Verses 16–17. "The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted." Worth pausing on that. The risen Jesus is right in front of them and some doubted. Matthew is not trying to clean this up. The disciples Jesus is about to commission are not paragons of certainty. The mission is given to a group that includes doubt.

Verse 18. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. The Daniel 7 callback. The authority is enormous—all authority, everywhere — but worth saying what kind it is not. Jesus did not exercise dominating or colonizing authority. The Great Commission has been weaponized for centuries in service of colonial expansion, and that misuse rests on collapsing Jesus' authority into Caesar's. They are not the same. Jesus' authority is the authority of the lamb who was slain. Whatever Christians are given to exercise has to look like that, not the other thing.

Verse 19. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." Go in English looks like the main imperative, however, it isn't. The Greek poreuthentes is an aorist passive participle—as you go, or having gone. The only finite imperative in the sentence is mathēteusate—make disciples. The "going" is assumed; the doing is the disciple-making. More accurately: "As you are going, make disciples of all nations."

That changes the feel of the verse considerably. The Great Commission is not primarily a go somewhere instruction; it is a while you are already going, make students instruction.

Disciples (mathētēs) literally means students, learners, not converts in the modern sense, not church members, but students of Jesus. And of all nations—panta ta ethnē, all peoples—universalizes the audience. Anyone, anywhere, can be a student of Jesus.

Verse 20. "Teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you." Teaching is didaskontes (the root of didactic). Obey is tēreō — which means more than do what you're told. It means keep, guard, watch over, retain custody of. Disciples are not just performers of the teaching; they are trustees of it.

The closing line: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." Age is aiōnos again. Not eternity as infinite duration but the end of this age, which is passing. Jesus is with us through this age, until the new one fully arrives.

That is the Ascension. The enthroned King saying as you are going I am with you. He is seated; he is also present. Heaven is not far away.

Questions for reflection

The disciples Jesus commissions worship him and doubt. Where in your faith are you waiting to be certain enough before you act on what you've been given — when the original commission was given to a group that included doubt?

If "go" is "as you are going," and the imperative is "make students" — what changes if you stop waiting to be sent somewhere new and start discipling where you already are?