Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, May 6, 2013 Read – Acts 1:6-11 One of the great challenges for the first followers of Jesus was learning how to deal with the fact that Jesus did not return in glory as quickly as they expected. That challenge still has power in our time, two-thousand years later – and we can scarcely imagine the pressure that must have been building in those first years of delay. It is a mystery that time flows on – of course had that time been shorter none of us would be here! In his gospel at the time when Jesus was being tried before the Sanhedrin, Mark tells his readers that when Jesus was confronted directly about whether or not he was the Son of God his answer was, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62). It is significant that when Luke tells the same story he omits the part about Jesus “coming with the clouds of heaven” (Luke 22:69). That image appears here in the book of Acts – Jesus ascends into heaven on a cloud and will return in the same way (Acts 1:9-11). Earlier in his gospel Mark had spoken about the destruction of Jerusalem and of the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds with great power (Mark 13:26). Jesus had said, “This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (Mark 13:30). There is little doubt that the first followers of Jesus anticipated his immanent return. In his gospel Luke has already been dealing with the challenge of the delay of the return of Jesus (Luke 17 and Luke 21). Here in Acts, Luke confronts the issue directly. The disciples ask if the now resurrected Jesus will restore the kingdom to Israel. Luke’s answer is bold and straightforward! To ask such a question is not only foolish – it is wrong because it distracts the followers of Jesus from their mission! Actually, Mark had said as much when Jesus concluded his warnings about the impending “end” with the words, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). Luke undermines every attempt to speculate about the end of the world and points the followers of Jesus in a different direction. How tragic it is that much time has been lost over all the centuries over speculation about the end of the world! Will we never learn? We would do well to listen to Luke. The new direction in which Jesus points his disciples is toward mission. They will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they are to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Again, Luke highlights that the ability to witness does not come from within. To witness is a gift of the Holy Spirit – it is something God does through the followers of Jesus. In these few verses Luke has laid out the outline of the story in the book of Acts. It begins in Jerusalem and radiates out from there to all of Judea, to Samaria, and eventually to the ends of the earth. That is the story we will hear. That is also likely why Luke has restricted the resurrection appearances of Jesus to Jerusalem. The story starts there and radiates outward. It is only after this call to witness that the resurrected Jesus departs for the final time from his followers. His departure is via a cloud. Luke has taken the image from Mark and through Mark from the book of Daniel, and inverted it to speak of the ascension of Jesus. For Luke, the ascension of Jesus marks the end of the “interim” during which Jesus made resurrection appearances. Jesus will still be present and Luke will speak of Jesus appearing to Paul on the Damascus Road, but all of those appearances are of a different nature. Luke would envision Jesus appearing to us today but that appearance too would be of a nature different from the resurrection appearances during the “interim” between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We will explore later why Luke has come to this understanding when we hear of the restoration of the Twelve in the next section of Acts. The story of the ascension is freighted with meaning by Luke. Two men suddenly appear. Readers of Luke’s gospel are immediately reminded of Luke’s story of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28-36). There the two men are Moses and Elijah – two Old Testament heroes whose deaths were unusual. Moses was said to be buried by God. Elijah was lifted to heaven in a chariot of fire. Luke wants his readers to be remembering the Transfiguration and Moses and Elijah. There were also two men at the tomb to greet the women on Easter Sunday morning. Readers of Acts are to remember that Luke had edited Mark’s story where only one young man appears. Luke intends to hook all these stories together and let one amplify another. The words of the men are instructive. Once again there is a warning not to be preoccupied with longing for the return of Jesus. Time is not to be wasted looking up into heaven. Yet, there is the promise that Jesus will come again. Luke wants followers of Jesus to live with the promise but not to be overwhelmed by it – distracted by the promised return. There is one last thing we need to touch upon. Careful readers of the Bible will notice that the story of the ascension of Jesus in Luke’s version runs into conflict with another version told in the book of Matthew (Matthew 28:16-20). While there are similarities there are also marked differences. Matthew’s version takes place on a mountain in Galilee where Jesus told his disciples that he would meet them. Luke had edited Mark so that the disciples never leave Jerusalem – there is no mention of Galilee in Luke’s story following the resurrection. All of this need not trouble us – unless we are stuck on trying to determine exactly what happened when, and we are unwilling to accept the words of Luke and Matthew as truth unless we can somehow reconcile the differences. The important point is that both Matthew and Luke had material handed down to them that spoke of the ascension of Jesus. Both shape that material to their own ends. The more we investigate the story told in the gospels the more we come to realize that there is much we will never know exactly, and the more we realize that the writers of the gospel are not one bit concerned about accuracy in that sense – they are concerned about telling the meaning of Jesus.