Is God looking at us from a distance?

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way (Ephesians 1:16-23).

It’s an old joke: a first-time flyer has a window seat on an airplane. He looks out and exclaims: "wow! We must be a long ways up; the people down there look like ants." To this, a passing stewardess replies, "Those ARE ants, sir—we haven’t taken off yet."

Being up high gives you a very different perspective on things. Farms with large acreages look quite small when seen from an airplane. Flying over highways, the cars zipping along below you don’t look like they’re really moving all that fast. Fly high enough, and you can’t even see individual people as they go about their daily business.

In 1990, Bette Midler release a song called From a Distance. In it, she pointed out that many of the things that seem to be huge problems can look quite small when seen with the perspective of enough distance. One verse goes, 'From a distance You look like my friend, Even though we are at war'. The refrain of the song goes, 'God is watching us From a distance', implying that God’s view of our priorities is quite different from our own, because He sees the big picture.

While it is a nice song, there is something troubling about the message it sends. God is watching us from a distance. What do these words imply about God? Is He too far away to see the tear running down your cheek? Sitting high above everything in His glory, can He hear your prayers? Is He aware of the arthritis in your joints, the confusion and worry in your soul? Or is God only watching us from a distance?

Some of men who founded America were not Christians, but Deists. Deists believe that there is a god, but they claim that it is impossible to know him—or her. The Deist believes that god is like a clock maker. In the distant past he made the world and wound it up; ever since then he has been content to sit at a distance and watch his creation tick the years away. Deists reject all world religions including Christianity, because they believe that god has never spoken to anyone, never sent dreams or visions, never suspended his laws of nature by performing miracles. He certainly never sent his son to die for anyone’s sins. The god of the Deists is a god who only watches us from a distance.

From our human perspective, it is certainly tempting to think of God as distant—sometimes, the idea is even comforting. After all, do you really want God hearing every word that comes out of your mouth when you’re mad? Do you really want God watching closely as you climb into bed with someone you’re not married to? Certainly, much of the time we act as if God really is a long distance away.

But do we truly find comfort in the idea that God is far off? When a little boy is sick in bed or a little girl is scared of the dark, are they comforted by knowing that their parents are downstairs watching TV? Don’t they instead crave the reassurance of having Mom or Dad right there in the room with them? When times are tough—as they so often are—we don’t want a God who is far away, squinting to see us from a distance—we want a God who will cradle us in His arms.

There are many times when the people of the Bible felt as if God was far away. Psalm 10 begins with the words, Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In Psalm 22 David cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? Have you ever tried to see the faces in a plane as it flies over you? It’s impossible. Distance makes the people at the windows too small to make out; when an airliner passes overhead, you don’t know if anyone is looking down at you, you can’t see if the passengers are angry, happy, sad, or just bored. Distance keeps people strangers to each other.

God is not distant. He sent His Son Jesus into our world to walk among us, eat with us, and share our sorrows. In the person of Jesus, God and Man were brought together, distant strangers no longer. Jesus came down to us because we cannot rise to Him. Our sin clips our wings, making flight to heaven impossible. So Jesus came and walked among us—walked with us all the way to the place where every journey ends, the grave. Because of this earthbound journey at our side, Jesus knows exactly what it’s like to live—times of joy shadowed by times of sadness, times of plenty followed by times of need. He knows first hand what it is like to be pressured to do the wrong thing—pressured by your friends, urged by the cravings of your body, tempted by Satan himself. Jesus suffered everything that a human can suffer, yet He came through it all triumphant—at no time did He ever do wrong or give in to despair. By capping off a perfect life with a sacrificial death, Jesus ended sin’s domination over you; by rising alive from the grave, the Lord has guaranteed you everlasting life with Him. Jesus has ended our separation from God, as we are told by Paul in Ephesians chapter 2: now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

This week we celebrate our Lord’s ascension back into heaven. He returned there because His goals here on earth had been achieved—the cross and grave were both empty, forgiveness and eternal life were His to offer us. Jesus came to become both our Savior and our friend, prompting the following words to be written in Hebrews chapter 4: since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

If God wants to be close to us, why did Jesus go back to heaven? Jesus gives one reason in John chapter 16: I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. Jesus does not walk the streets with us, but He has sent God’s Spirit to live in your heart and mine; with the Spirit living among us, it doesn’t matter where we are or what we are doing, because God is with us constantly—what a blessing! Another reason Jesus returned to heaven has to do with our eternal home; Jesus said, In my Father's house are many rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you (John 14:2). But perhaps the most important reason Jesus returned to heaven is stated by John: if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1). Job writes, Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend (Job 16:19-21).

But although Jesus has ascended, He is certainly not far away. As a man, Jesus still has a body—but as the Son of God, He is not limited by that body. And so our Lord is always with us, as He assured the disciples shortly before He left: be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). When we come together in worship, He is present among us because He promised, where two or three gather together in my name, I am there among them (Matthew 18:20). And when we celebrate Holy Communion, we have the privilege of actually experiencing our Savior’s touch, for Jesus said: this is my body…this is my blood (Matthew 26:26 & 28). Our Lord is not watching us from a distance; He is here with us! He listens to our cares, He dries our tears and reaches into our hearts with His forgiveness and love. Our Savior is as close as the sound of His name whispered by our lips.

Why did Jesus leave the way He did? Why not just vanish in a puff of smoke or slowly fade from sight? After all, heaven isn’t really "up", so why did Jesus rise through the clouds as His way of leaving us? I think it has to do with our psychology. Consider a couple figures of speech. To "look up to someone" is to demonstrate respect and admiration, while to "look down on someone" is to show distaste and disapproval. Why do we use these expressions? When you were little, the people who took care of you were all very tall—Mom and Dad were taller than you, your teachers were taller than you, pastors and doctors and policemen were taller than you. Growing up, everyone who was in charge towered over you—the only people your size were other children. Even now that you’ve grown up, you probably still treat those taller than you—at least at first—with a bit more respect than those who are shorter. It’s almost instinctive; from childhood, we have learned to look up for protection, guidance, and love.

So it doesn’t surprise me that Jesus left this world by ascending into the sky. By going up, He taught us to look up to Him for everything that we need—protection, guidance, and love. In every human culture, the person in charge is given a higher place to sit, whether it be a king whose throne is on a platform several steps up from the floor, or a corporate executive whose office is on the top floor of a skyscraper. It only makes sense, then, for the Son of God to direct our eyes higher than any throne or executive office—because Jesus is our gracious King, and He is above everything.