Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

- Acts 1:6-11

Thursday was Ascension Day. We’ve forgotten what it means, and we mostly pass it by without a second thought. But it belongs alongside Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Because the Ascension isn't just the moment Jesus left - it's the moment he became King.

Imagine a coronation in the ancient world. Imagine and struggle against enemies and threats. Imagine the king overcoming his enemies and then riding victorious into his capital city. Imagine the declaration of the victory - the euangelion going out across the country.

That's exactly what we see in the Creed we recite together: he descended, he rose, he ascended. These aren't three separate events. It’s a single act of cosmic conquest. Jesus walked deliberately into death's stronghold and walked back out. And then he was seated at the right hand of the Father. That's seated - not standing, and not waiting. That's the posture of a king whose rule has been established.

We live in a world that often feels as though the wrong forces are in charge — chaos more real than order, death stronger than life. The Ascension doesn't pretend that the chaos isn't real, but it does declare that chaos does not have the last word. The King is on his throne. The decisive battle has already been fought and won. In the book of Revelation, the ascended Jesus says: "I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever - and I hold the keys of death and Hades."

It is true, in Churchill's famous words, that “It is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning”. Jesus told his disciples: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses... to the ends of the earth." The Kingdom now advances - and is declared - through his people, empowered by his Spirit. In our places, in our times, that's us.

As Paul puts it in Romans 8, creation itself is groaning, waiting for the people of God to live in line with the victory King Jesus won.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:30 - 32

The journey of life is often defined by the people we travel with and the stories we share along the way. In Luke 24:13–35, we encounter two disciples walking seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus on Easter Sunday. Disoriented and grieving the crucifixion of Jesus, they are literally moving away from the scene of their dashed hopes.

As they walk, Jesus joins them, though they are "kept from recognizing him." He doesn't interrupt their journey; he walks at their pace, listens to their confusion, and allows them to process their pain. After hearing their story, Jesus reframes their perspective using Scripture, showing how the Messiah’s suffering was necessary for his glory.

The turning point occurs not during the sermon, but at the dinner table. When they invite Jesus in, he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. In this act of hospitality and "recognizable reforming love," their eyes are opened. Though he disappears, their hearts remain "burning." Transformed from despair to hope, they immediately journey back to Jerusalem to share their encounter. This story invites us to reflect on our own paths: identifying where we are heading, inviting Jesus into our daily lives, and allowing him to transform our stories into a message for others.

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
- John 21:15-19

Heroes returning from a great quest often find that they face a last obstacle at home. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus returns to Ithaca after long years away to overcome Penelope's worthless suitors. After the great victory, the hobbit heroes of Lord of the Rings have to come home and deal with the mess on their doorstep. The great victories have to be applied to ordinary life. That's what this series has been about.

So: Peter. Impetuous, loyal, often wrong, occasionally magnificent. In Luke 5, the first time Jesus produces a miraculous catch, Peter's response is to fall at Jesus' knees and beg him to go away - "I am a sinful man!" The presence of Jesus overwhelms him. But in John 21, the same kind of miracle happens, and Peter throws himself into the water and swims to shore as fast as he can. Same Jesus. Same basic situation. Completely different Peter.

What changed? He's learned something about grace - of how in Jesus, the holiness and transcendence of God can be enjoyed, not feared. Theologian Miroslav Volf about the two wrong pictures of God we tend to carry: the Santa Claus god who gives and demands nothing, and the wrathful moralist just waiting for you to slip up. Jesus blows both of those apart. He is genuinely holy - and genuinely loving. Both at once.

Then we have the three-fold "do you love me?" conversation on the beach. It's a deliberate echo of Peter's three denials around the charcoal fire. But Jesus isn't rubbing Peter's nose in his failure - he's restoring him. He's asking: Do you understand now? Do you see what I came to do? And he recommissions Peter. In a mirror of his first calling in Luke as a fisher of people, he is now called as a shepherd of people.

It turns out that failure isn't the barrier to being used by God. If anything, it might be the condition. Only when we learn that our efforts for the cause of Jesus are neither sufficient nor the thing he wants from us, are we ready to serve. Like Peter, you will most probably break down under pressure. What matters most is that we love him.

Stammering Moses became God's great prophet. Annoying little brother David became Israel's great king. Peter failed spectacularly - and became the rock on which the church was built.

What could he do with you?