“Some surprising revelations”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, May 18, 2023
Acts 1:1-11 (Forward, p. 20) CEV p. 1133
This account from the Holy Scriptures, the story of Jesus’ ascension and the events surrounding it, is enough to give skeptics and rationalists the absolute heebie jeebies, which is defined as a state of extreme nervousness caused by fear, worry, strain, etc. The mere idea of Jesus bodily leaving the earth and ascending to some unseen, unknown place ‘up there’ strikes them as unlikely—and indeed, impossible. So, the idea that Jesus ascended to heaven, to return to His Father: well, that, they would say, feeds into the supposedly mistaken and outmoded notion of a three tiered universe, heaven, earth and hell, with heaven being ‘up there’, earth being intermediary and hell being ‘down there’. And furthermore, these critics also scoff at what the angels said, namely that Jesus would one day return in like manner. (Just think, then, of what they would ‘make’ of the ideas that we Christians will be ‘taken up’ (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) or that the new heavenly Jerusalem will descend to earth (Revelation 21:2)!
However, in some ways, this controversy obscures four very important and worthwhile lessons that are contained in this account:
a) Jesus was most eager and diligent in establishing, in proving to them that He really did rise from the dead. The NRSV tells us that He did this by ‘many convincing proofs’, which wasn’t a one-shot affair either but was extended over forty days.
b) Jesus nipped in the bud two recurrent areas of speculation, the first being that His kingdom might be of this world (hasn’t the church erred on this count repeatedly over the years), and the second that we humans might somehow figure out God’s timing (and again, haven’t many people over the centuries run aground on this one).
c) Jesus, via the angels, assured us that He would indeed return again;
d) And finally, Jesus gave them a job to do and the means to carry it out. They—and we too—were to be His witnesses, to show by word and example who Jesus is, and to do so over the entire world, starting right where they were. And they, and we, were to do this, not through our own power or wisdom but by the promised Holy Spirit. In fact, they weren’t even to venture out, but wait, until that Holy Spirit had come upon them in power.
So, Jesus has left us bodily, yes, but not without sending His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to live in us and work in and through us. And so, we have been commissioned to continue His work here on earth until His return, being able to rely upon that self-same Spirit that empowered and instructed Him throughout the course of His life. So, what might be seen to be a humanly impossible task (it is humanly impossible) isn’t impossible at all, for we have His strength inside us to enable us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: “So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?’” (verse 6)
“It is amazing to read scripture with an eye toward all the times the disciples missed the point. They send the children away. They don’t understand where Jesus is going. Peter draws a sword to defend Jesus, then denies knowing him hours later. And here we are, forty days after Jesus’s resurrection, and the disciples’ questions suggest they still don’t get it. But I can see things from their perspective. This seemed like the perfect time for Jesus to appear. Since he had been publicly executed, if he showed everyone that he was alive again, no one could deny his kingship!
“Throughout scripture, we hear the message that God’s ways are not our ways, and Jesus himself says that his kingdom is not of this world. Despite that consistency, we are often like the disciples, left standing in shock at the things happening right in front of us. It is good to pause on this Ascension Day and give thanks that God continues to teach us. Indeed, the Spirit remains with us just as Jesus promised, leading us daily into deeper truth.”
Moving Forward: “Give thanks for the unexpected blessings God bestows.”