On Thursday, 40 days after Easter, was an important Christian holiday, which actually is often overlooked in Bermuda: Christ’s Ascension.

In my homeland Germany it is even a public holiday, and it is our Father’s Day (because Christ returned to the Father in Heaven), and men claimed it as a daddy’s fun day (Father’s Day in June is unknown and not observed in Germany at all).

As it is always on a Thursday, it is great to get a long weekend with just taking Friday off. People like to get out into nature, as Christ had called his disciples to come on a mountain, where he then was lifted up into Heaven. Acts 1:9 (NIV) says: “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

In our times with all kind of aeroplanes, helicopters, and even space rockets, it can be misleading to think much about the “how” of ascension. More important is the “why” or “to what end” question.

After his resurrection Christ could only be temporary in the body again, just to comfort those who had been devastated by his crucifixion. If He had stayed, faith would have been impossible, because all people would have proof of him being God. The story about doubting Thomas teaching us: “ … Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

Ascension defines what the Church is sent to do. The reports of the Ascension at the end of Matthew, Mark and Luke and at the beginning of Acts all contain the mission Christ passed on to the disciples, the Great Commission. John the Evangelist included this mission in the farewell speech before the crucifixion.

Most familiar is the version from Matthew 28:16 — 20 (NIV): “Then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It is not a new mission or different mission, but to continue the missio dei, the sending God did when he sent his Son into the world to reconcile us with God through faith. The Gospel was complete with the Ascension. It is the life and teaching of Christ that invites us to God’s grace.

The Apostle Paul was very upset when some in Galatia tried to teach an additional Gospel, trying to tell the young Church that Christ appeared elsewhere with additional truth not included in what we know as the Gospel.

Right at the beginning of Galatians he writes in chapter 1:6-9 (NIV) that there is no other Gospel:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all.

“Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!

“As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”

Why did Christ leave the Earth and did not stay? Faith is to trust God’s promise even when we don’t have proof.

God did not want to take away what makes us human: our free will, and even our insecurity and doubts (note that some of the disciples still doubted on Ascension Day). That is what makes us human.

What would have been the alternatives to ascension? The resurrected Christ surely could not have died of old age just a couple of decades later, nor could he have continued appearing to people physically for ever.

Imagine if Jesus were still walking in a physical but immortal body among people through out the ages until today, maybe having his own TV show meanwhile.

We had no choice any more to believe or not, as we would have proof, because only God can provide 2,000 years of life without ageing.

However, it is even more important from a different perspective: maturing in faith. There is a shift in the existence of people whose faith matures through God's grace.

We all have to go through a phase of introduction to faith, of learning, of training, of questioning, a phase of first attraction to faith. Faith begins with receiving. When we try to make sense of our existence, of the world and of life and death, we often are hungry to receive the Word of God. In fact, that phase never should come to an end. Even as apostles the disciples were still receiving.

On Ascension Day Christ told his friends that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit, which happened ten days later at Pentecost, and that through the Spirit they would receive what they needed to know. We live from what we receive. It is nourishing our faith and strengthening us for the world. But there is the point when we mature in faith and become part of the message itself.

The Apostle Paul called it to die to this world. In Galatians 2:20 he writes: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NIV)

It is one of the goals of faith that Christ can commission us with his mission. It is not a different mission, but it is His mission we are called to continue.

It defines the purpose we were created for. It is still God's work, but our hands to do it. It is still God’s Word, but our mouths to tell. It is His message of the Kingdom of God and we begin living it in this world and to the end of the Earth. That is how the Kingdom of God around us is widening through us and our brothers and sisters.

The main function of the Church, and thus commission to us, is to pass it on. We can become more like Jesus, empowered by his love and empowering those around us.

Like Jesus we can learn to see the people around us with eyes of grace and mercy, to listen to their stories and questions, to be willing to share into their suffering and pain and to lead them gently to a new life.

• Karsten Decker was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s