Lectionary Reflection — 13 May 2018, Seventh Sunday of Easter
1-5 Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he’d chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but “must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water but you’ll be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon.”
6 When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?”
7-8 He told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you’ll be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”
9-11 These were his last words. As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there, staring into the empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared in white robes! They said, “You Galileans! — why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly — and mysteriously — as he left.”
Other readings:
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I had a blog post already prepared and in queue for the Lectionary readings this morning. But I awoke Saturday morning realizing that Ascension Day was Thursday (10 May). And that meant my post would be about the wrong readings. So I had to quickly read and reflect on the assigned readings for Ascension Day. With all of that said, this might not be one of the good ones, so be prepared.
As many of us know the book of Acts is really the second volume of a book dedicated to Theophilus.2 In Luke 1, Luke writes —
1-4 So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I’ve investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught.
And in our reading today, Luke continues his story, “Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book …” So, one could say, without much controversy, that the title of the Book of Acts could really be “The Acts of Jesus: Volume 2”.3
Luke notes that Jesus didn’t ascend directly after his resurrection; he visited people “over a period of forty days.”4 Saint Paul corroborates this in his letter to the followers of Jesus at Corinth:
3-9 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them are still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence.
Luke then states that, during the forty day period, Jesus continued to teach the disciples about God’s Realm and that they’d receive the Holy Spirit to aid them in their mission of implementing the Gospel. However, they’re preoccupied about “restor[ing] the kingdom to Israel” (verse 6). In other words, they still didn’t get it. After spending roughly three years with Jesus, hearing his teaching, seeing his miracles, being witnesses to his resurrection, and their continued interactions with him after his resurrection, they still think it’s all been about restoring the nation of Israel to her glory days. On more than one occasion, Jesus clearly stated that God’s Realm was not the same as earthly realms:
14-15 Later on, after John was arrested, Jesus went into Galilee, where he preached God’s Good News. “The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!”
20-21 Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, “The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.”
“My kingdom,” said Jesus, “doesn’t consist of what you see around you. If it did, my followers would fight so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But my kingdom isn’t that type of kingdom and I’m not that kind of king, not the world’s kind of king.”
But it’s exactly that type of kingdom and that type of king the disciples were asking about. This is a great example for showing that a literal interpretation of the Bible is not the best way to understand it. When the disciples heard their priests and teachers of religious law talking about God’s Kingdom, the plain, literal sense was the general explanation. Over and over again, however, Jesus showed that the better way to understand biblical things is to look deeper, past their literal, surface meanings. For example, as we saw last week, the true fulfillment of the Law isn’t in keeping every line item. No. The Law finds its fulfillment in self-sacrificial love. For it’s love that “completes what the law had been after all along” (Romans 13.8).
It’s the same here. As we saw above, when Jesus talked about God’s Kingdom, he meant something deeper than the surface meaning. This is why he brushes off the disciples questions7 and redirects them to the topic at hand: the coming of the Spirit and their mission to implement and expand God’s Realm “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6.10).
And this “deeper than surface meaning” is important as we come to Jesus’ ascension. The Common English Bible states:
9 After Jesus said these things, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going away and as they were staring toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood next to them. 11 They said, “Galileans, why are you standing here, looking toward heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven.”
The reason I want to use the CEB is I need to be specific about a few things. While I’ve really enjoyed The Message, it’s a “a highly idiomatic translation, using contemporary slang from the US … and it falls on the extreme dynamic end of the dynamic and formal equivalence spectrum.”8 The CEB, on the other hand, is “a balance of dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence translation principles.”9 With that stated, let’s look more closely at the ascension story.
For a lot of people, the key to this passage is not about Jesus being “lifted up and a cloud took him” (verse 9). It’s the statement from the angels, “This Jesus … will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven” (verse 11). Their point is that since Jesus was taken physically into heaven, he must physically return from heaven. Nothing else will do. There are, obvious to me, many issues with this belief. Let’s look at them briefly.
First, as we stated in a post about the resurrection, Jesus didn’t have a mere physical body. His resurrection body was more than physical. As we saw in that post, Jesus’ new body allowed him to do things that a mere physical body can’t do, like materialize out of thin air (Luke 24.36; cf. John 20.19, 26). So, to believe that Jesus will return physically is to misunderstand the resurrection.
Second, it’s that transphysicality that helps us understand Jesus being taken by a cloud. Clouds, like many things in Scripture, mean more than just the fluffy things in the sky. The most obvious images are those of the presence of God leading the people of Israel out Egypt (Exodus 13:21-22) and speaking with Moses on the mountain (Exodus 19.9).
Another example of clouds meaning something more is found in 2 Chronicles:
1-3 When Solomon finished praying, a bolt of lightning out of heaven struck the Whole-Burnt-Offering and sacrifices and the Glory of God filled The Temple. The Glory was so dense that the priests couldn’t get in — God so filled The Temple that there was no room for the priests! When all Israel saw the fire fall from heaven and the Glory of God fill The Temple, they fell on their knees, bowed their heads, and worshiped, thanking God: Yes! God is good! His love never quits!
This story is about the Shekinah cloud of God’s glorious presence filling the Temple at Solomon’s dedication. One of the reasons (the main reason) we use incense in our churches (and the reason Israel used it in the Temple) was to mimic this moment. We use incense now as a symbol of this event, of God’s presence filling the whole earth.
Lastly we see this glorious presence in the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration. There, while Peter, James, and John were with him on the mountain, Jesus was transfigured before them, and the Shekinah cloud of God’s glory surrounded them (Matthew 17.1-9). Of course, this scene is to invoke our remembrance of Yahweh appearing to Moses on Mount Sinai we mentioned above.
And it is this last story — the Transfiguration of Jesus — that would have been the freshest in the disciples’ memory. When they saw Jesus being taken by a cloud, it would’ve been the memory of God’s presence overtaking them on the mountain that came into their minds. The cloud, then, is not a normal cloud. It’s the manifestation — the Shekinah — of God’s glorious presence. Jesus was taken by the presence of God.
And it’s that glory that accompanied Jesus at his return. In Matthew 16, he told the disciples:
27 For the Son of Man is about to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his deeds. 28 I assure you that there are some here who will not die until they have seen the Son of Man come as King.”
One last point: The same people who believe that Jesus must return physically because the angels said he’d return “in the same way” add a lot of things to his return that don’t appear in this passage. They add Jesus coming in judgment, coming with an army of angels, slaughtering all of his enemies, etc. Again, none of these things happened when he ascended so why should they accompany his return? To ask this another way, if none of those things happened when Jesus ascended, isn’t it possible that “in the same way” can mean something else? Something deeper?
So what does any of this mean for us today? What does the ascension mean for the followers of Jesus now?
The answer is found in this passage. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would “come upon” the disciples. Jesus said this is what God promised, what he promised. This takes us back to a story in John:
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I’ll talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you’ll always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he’s been staying with you, and will even be in you!
The meaning of the ascension for us today is the indwelling of God’s Spirit. This, of course, leads us to Pentecost which is our Lessons for next week. Therefore, I won’t spend a lot of time on this as we’ll be talking more about it next week. I will say that because of Jesus’ ascension, the Spirit now lives in us. And because of that, we have “eyes to see” — we “know what to look for” — and can recognize the Spirit’s work in the world. And it’s not just through churches. No. The Spirit of God works through all kinds of people and events. We’ll speak more to this next time. Until then, may God’s Spirit become of force within us of loving-kindness, nonviolence, and humility.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
2. Not to be confused with St. Theophilus of Antioch (d. 183-185). Know one’s really sure who Theophilos was. Some think Theophilus was an actual person (Coptic and Roman) while others maintain the word is a title (meaning “friend of God”) and could indicate that the volumes were intended for any follower of Jesus. See here for more information.
3. Wright, N. T., (2008). Acts for Everyone: Part One [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
5. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation, Inc. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
6. Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
7. Some people maintain that Jesus did answer their questions. That is, the coming of the spirit and their mission to implement God’s realm was/is the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Of course, this view, too, takes on a deeper meaning for it sees “Israel” as metaphorical for all of God’s faithful people throughout history and not physical Israel (see Romans 9-11).
10. Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from The Good News Translation (Today’s English Version, Second Edition). Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. All rights preserved.
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