In the liturgical calendar, the Ascension falls forty days after Easter Sunday. Technically, that means it always falls on a Thursday, but many Protestant churches that celebrate the Ascension move it to the Sunday immediately following. Whenever it is celebrated, this is the day that we focus on Jesus' being taken up to heaven after spending some further time with disciples following the Resurrection. In some ways, the theme for the day is always about goodbyes - Jesus really is leaving this time. He has made a promise to send another, but the one whom the disciples have known, have traveled with and shared meals with, the one they call Teacher, is leaving.
This is quite a bittersweet moment for the disciples. On the one hand, this plays into the imagery of the prophets of God being taken bodily to heaven rather than dying. It is yet one more confirmation of who Jesus is and the truth of the things that he taught. On the other hand, Jesus is leaving (again) and giving the disciples a mission to carry forth in his name.
This last point is of interest as we consider the words of the angels as written by Luke in the book of Acts. As Jesus goes up into heaven, the disciples basically stand there watching. I'm sure their mouths were hanging open in disbelief as they continued to be amazed by this one that they had followed. Two angels appear and ask, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up to heaven?" I think this is a reminder, in some ways, of the Transfiguration. At that time, the disciples who had traveled to the mountain top with Jesus wanted to stay there worshiping him instead of returning to the valley below. In the same way, the disciples stood staring, still thinking that Jesus himself is the point of all they have learned. The words of the angels come as a gentle reminder that the point of everything that Jesus had taught was to care for those in need, to feed the hungry and heal the sick - not to stand around staring up at heaven to see what is going to happen next.
I think that this song by Ben Harper really gets at what the disciples must have been feeling as they stood there that day watching Jesus go up to heaven. In some ways, the first verse includes words that could easily have been used by the disciples - "I don't know where you came from and I don't know where you've gone." This describes some accounts of the disciples to a T as they are regularly said to never truly understand what it is that Jesus is about.
The song's refrain in particular, speaks to the renewed sense of loss the disciples must be feeling as they watch Jesus go away. "Amen, Omen, Will I see your face again? Amen, Omen, Can I find the place within to live my life without you?" The disciples are still looking at this as goodbye, forgetting the promises of the other to come, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate.
But we can even find a reference to the coming Spirit in the song as he sings in the final verse, "I put your world into my veins." This is a pretty good description of how the Spirit comes into us to strengthen us. As we receive the Holy Spirit, it is like putting Jesus' world into our veins.
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