Can the descent of a whale teach us something about the ascension of Jesus?

In Philip Hoare’s creatively written book, The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea, the author and explorer takes his readers on a journey that is all about the mysterious and gigantic monsters who roam the seas.

Toward the end of his book, Hoare gives attention to the Marine Naturalist on a whale watch. The naturalist is one of the passengers who knows what to watch for. They know how and where to look and when the whale might be approaching. And though the monster might come near the boat or even rise out of the water, the naturalist is waiting for one event more than any other to help them understand the whale they witness.

They are waiting for the whale to leave.

Hoare writes, “The crucial moment in a naturalist encounter with a whale is, paradoxically, its departure.”

It’s when the whale descends down into the water and its fluke rises above sea level that the naturalist most intimately engages the massive beast. The markings on the underside of their fluke, or tail, is like their fingerprint. Their graphic ID. The naturalist knows the whale they’ve been watching by what the fluke reveals. This is why the whale’s exit is her greatest revelation.

Yesterday was Ascension Day on the church calendar. The day in which we recognize Jesus ascending into the clouds forty days after his resurrection.

It is also a day that has gone mostly unrecognized in my own church experience.

The scriptures tell us that after Jesus blesses his disciples, he is taken up into a cloud right before their very eyes. Why does he go? Why does he leave his followers when it seems like a perfect time to take advantage of his most recent… accomplishment?

Before I attempt to give at least one answer to this question, we must address one important reality. When we say Jesus ascends into a cloud, we are not saying he is absent from us. Though we believe that he came before and is coming again, the ascension does not mean that Jesus is gone.

Jesus is always the “coming one”. And the fact that he is not gone matters in that his departure is part of his revelation. It’s in his leaving that we learn to know his presence.

In his gospel, John the apostle writes of Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus after his resurrection. At first, she believes him to be the gardener. Then, upon hearing him say her name, she excitedly calls him “Rabboni!” which means teacher.

But something about these assertions communicates a certain level of understanding that Mary does not yet have and needs. She is holding on to something about Jesus that must be released in order for her to know him.

So he says to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” (John 20:17)

He must ascend so that she and his brothers can know that he is with them in more ways than one. His Father is their Father. His God is their God. He is not just a teacher to follow from town to town but their brother in heaven who searches their hearts. They and Jesus are family. His ascension brings the family together and in their gathering, he is present.

He even promises this presence when he said,“Surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

And then, when we consider what he had been saying throughout his ministry, it’s as if the entire time he had been dropping clues to how he would always be with them.

So how is he always present with us?

• He is present in community. “Where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

• He is present in the poor. “The poor you will always have with you…” (Mark 14:7)

• He is present in the child. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” (Mark 9:37)

• He is present in the least of us. “I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Would we see this reality if Jesus had not ascended? I’m guessing we would not. We might still be clinging to understandings of him that we should let go.

But I’m also wondering that if we do not now give attention to his ascension that we still might miss this reality. Maybe that’s why he needs to leave us — so we might learn how he is with us.

It’s possible, as it is with the departure of the whale, that the most crucial moment of our understanding of our magnificent God is when Jesus quietly slipped out of our sight.

So, when it feels like God is absent, remember, it is because He left that we can know he will never leave or forsake us. We are his family. And just as important, whoever the “they” are in your life, THEY are our family as well.

“I am ascending to my Father and YOUR Father, to my God and YOUR God.”

And though you may not see him, as you stand with his disciples looking intently into the skies — be encouraged — He is the God whose judgement heals our blindness. He will give us the eyes to see.

The ascension of Jesus matters! If anything for what it reveals to us about who he is — “God with us.”

“Christ goes away only to be nearer.” – Martin Luther