Hey, where'd he go?

You know how sometimes we become so familiarized with certain things that we lose sight of the importance, beauty and complexity of the details?

I learned some new and cool things the other night in class that made me think of this.

Ever stop and ask yourself why the author of the gospel of Matthew did not include into his account Jesus' ascension into heaven?  As part of the synoptic gospels, if Matthew used as a reference and text Mark's gospel (the first gospel written of the 3), why are we left with an open tomb and no ascension if the gospel of Mark (and Luke) contains Jesus' ascension?

You know, I don't actually think I ever noticed the omission of this "little" detail.  Amazing!  How many times have I read the gospel of Matthew or at least jumped to the ending! ;-)  It's my opinion that asking ourselves these and other types of questions and reflecting on them can lead us to experience a deeper faith in God. 

So why leave out such an important detail in the story?  Could we say that this omission points to some of the questions the early questions were asking themselves, namely where is Jesus, where is God now that they could not see him any longer?  What did it mean and look like to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth and a developing community of believers when they could not see or be with Him anymore?

Interestingly if we look back to chapter 25 and even chapter 28 of Matthew we can see and attempt to answer this foundational question by the early community of Christians.  Jesus is to be found in the marginalized, poor and outcast and in the community of followers, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Of course there are other ways of interpreting and looking at these accounts.  But I thought this was a very coherent, solid and interesting point and made for a good class discussion.