In the short story “Silver Blaze” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the world’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, notices something that didn’t happen. In the story, a Scotland Yard inspector is asking for what Holmes noticed about the evidence in a given case. Holmes replies, “the curious incident of the dog.” The inspector, probably rummaging through notes, says “the dog did nothing in the night time” Holmes replies to this, “that is the curious incident.” 
Would you notice if your neighbor’s dog didn’t bark at all one night? Would you notice if someone stopped a certain habit that seems to be just a part of who they are? If something was missing from its usual place? If you would, what you would be noticing is called the “pertinent negative.” The pertinent negative is the thing that by its absence, is actually noteworthy.
In some ways, we can think of the Ascension that is celebrated today – the 40th day after Easter, as an example of the pertinent negative. Paul speaks of the Ascension in Ephesians 4:10 in this way. He says as a sort of aside, “In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended?” That by itself, is just a logical necessity – if Jesus went up, it was necessary that He would first come down. But we believe more than just that Jesus comes down to earth as a child in the incarnation of Christmas, and even more than He goes up to be with the Father, but that His Ascension implies a “pertinent negative”. If He’s UP – what do we make of that?
Perhaps that is what the disciples were wondering as they stared up into the cloud that enshrouded Jesus. (By the way, the cloud is one of the Old Testament images of God’s presence, implying that Jesus was with the Father in that cloud.) What do we make of a Jesus who is up in the heavens? First of all, that Jesus is in the heavens and that He is overseeing the work of His Church, the believers in His Name. The first pertinent negative of Jesus’ ascension is that He has left us here. We didn’t get to go with, and that’s purposeful. As the angels told the disciples, stop looking up in to the heavens. Get to the work of the Kingdom.
The second pertinent negative of the Ascension is the second part of what the angels have to say, “He will come back just as you saw Him go.” If He’s not here, He’s on the way back. The whole of Christian existence before Jesus returns is in this Schrodinger’s Cat experience where Christ is coming back, but He’s not coming back yet. Still, one day, we will see Jesus back as He promised. And that day will be joyful as we see the pertinent positive of His presence with us in the New World of the Resurrection.