Reading
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Luke 1:9-11 (NRSV)
Reflection
On Sunday, Pastor Brandon did a beautiful job of lifting up the meaning of Ascension Day. St. Luke offers a unique way of looking at this moment.
It was Luke’s narrative, both at the end of his gospel (Luke 24:50-53) and the beginning of Acts, that established the tradition of Jesus not only bodily rising from the dead but also ascending into heaven in the same fashion.
Luke tells us there were two “men” asking questions at the open tomb. Now he has two “men” at the ascension also asking questions. What is the point for Luke in connecting these texts—the resurrection and the ascension? In both instances, these men (angels?) ask questions that Jesus’ followers should be able to answer but can’t. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” they ask the disciples here (Acts 1:11).
But these disciples are confused. They ask Jesus if the time has finally arrived when he would “restore the kingdom to Israel.”
Jesus doesn’t answer that question. Instead, he tells them they are to “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon” them (v. 8). For Luke, the arrival of the Spirit is the sign of the restoration of the kingdom. But this kingdom is nothing like the kingdoms of this world. And it is driven by a kind of power never before seen.
And all of us who follow Christ are called to share it.
Prayer
You, Christ, rose bodily from the grave and rose bodily to heaven. Your kingdom is a kingdom of peace and mercy. Your power is the power of love. Pour out your Spirit, that I may serve your kingdom. Amen.
