Number one
Commentary
North Americans seem infatuated with being number one. The rage is most evident at athletic events where fans raise their index finger pointing up, a practice exaggerated even more by those foam rubber hands with the gigantic finger! We want our team to be number one, and, when it is, we feel somehow that we ourselves are also number one in importance. The transference of honor from our athletic team to ourselves is a fascinating phenomenon. We need a number one, and it is preferable that it be us.
However, the preoccupation with being the very best is not limited to athletic contests. Many want to claim that our nation is number one in as many ways as possible. Some will claim the United States is number one among the nations in terms of economic prosperity, "modernization," and liberty and freedom. Moreover, competition for the "top dog" position pervades the corporations of our nation. How many times have we heard that such and such a car is the top-selling vehicle in the United States? With the corporate mergers of recent years, companies vie for the honor of being the largest company in their field. Unfortunately, that same drive to be number one motivates lots of people in their vocations. To be the number one salesperson. To win the prize "employee of the month." To climb the corporate ladder to the very top rung. And even among some of us clergy, to be pastor of the largest of the congregations.
Why are so many so engrossed with being number one? What is it humans seek in striving to be number one? Ascension Sunday raises these questions with its claim that Christ was exalted to the highest of stations in the heavens. One way of looking at Christ's exaltation is that it makes all other quests for becoming number one immaterial. We have a Lord who is number one in the universe. What need do we have to be some kind of second class number one?
Acts 1:1-11
If the same author wrote the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Luke, it is all the more striking that the ascension of Christ ends the Gospel (Luke 24:50-53) and opens Acts (1:9-11). The repetition of this event must mean that this author valued the ascension story so much that it had to be repeated at the beginning of the history of the church as well as at the conclusion of Jesus' ministry. Luke-Acts actually provides us with the major structure of our liturgical year. It is Acts, for instance, that limits to forty days the period during which the risen Christ was active among the believers (1:3), and Luke-Acts that presents the scheme of Jesus' death, resurrection, ascension, and ten days later the bestowal of the Spirit at Pentecost. (Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the Passover.) None of the other Gospels provide us with such a scheme. The Gospels of Matthew and John both end with the risen Christ still appearing among his believers. Therefore, we are indebted to the Lukan material for Ascension, as well as Pentecost Sunday.
Acts begins by linking the story it is about to tell with the Gospel of Luke and addressing the same "Theophilus" for whom the Gospel was written (compare Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-2). This introduction (1:1-5) sketches the ministry of Jesus from "the beginning" through the Passion story and the resurrection, summarizing the teachings of the risen Christ as "speaking about the kingdom of God," even though the Gospel of Luke never mentions the kingdom in chapter 24. Yet focusing Jesus' teachings on the kingdom prepares us for the disciples' question in verse 6. The command to stay in Jerusalem and the promise of the bestowal of the Spirit likewise rewords Luke 24:49. Luke is a skillful enough author to express the same command and promise at two different places in different words, in order that readers gain a fuller understanding of them. For example, the reference to John the Baptizer in verse 5 connects the Pentecost experience with the promise of the baptizer way back in Luke 3:16.
The disciples are filled with anticipation, for surely this is the time the risen Christ will finally fulfill their expectations of liberation from Roman oppression and the creation of a new Israel. However, the disciples do not need to know the divine time-table, indeed, they will have more important things to do than calculate dates. In the midst of Jesus' teachings, Matthew and Mark each record Jesus' telling the disciples that no one knows the time when God brings the final fulfillment, "not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32 and see also Matthew 24:36). Luke, however, saves that caution until now and states it in terms of what is appropriate and inappropriate for the disciples to know.
The disciples need not know the precise dating of God's plan; however, what they should know -- and all that they need to know -- is that they will receive power and become witnesses to Christ throughout the known world. Verse 8 is a compact promise that includes both the action ("witness") and the "power" to perform the action. Christ does not ask us to do something without providing a source of power by which we may accomplish it. While this verse is often taken to be a command (comparable to Matthew 28:19), it is more correctly understood as a promise, or, as one commentator says, both a command and a promise.
Verse 8 also provides the basic structure of the book of Acts, insofar as Acts proceeds to tell the story of the church's mission first in "Jerusalem" and "all Judea" (Acts 2:18:3), then in "Samaria" (Acts 8:4-25), and finally to "the ends of the earth" (8:26--28:31), ending with Paul in the outer reaches of the known world (Rome) "proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ" (28:31). Jesus' parting words to his disciples commission them for the church's ministry and empowerment.
The ascension itself is told with the greatest of simplicity. Jesus is "lifted up" and carried away by a cloud, all the while the disciples look on. The New Testament picture of the world was that of a three story universe with the heavenly realm above, the demonic realm below, and the earth and humans sandwiched between the two. Consequently, exaltation was understood as going or being lifted "up." In terms of our modern view of the universe, we might say that Jesus was taken "out there" into the infinity of the universe or even that he was translated into another dimension of reality. Ascension is an image of exaltation, of being stationed high above all else, and of being given a power that transcends all earthly powers (see the Ephesians reading below).
Watching Jesus being taken up is an awesome experience, so, as the disciples stand staring up into the heavens (doubtless with their jaws on their chests), "suddenly two men in white robes stood by them" (v. 10). Luke refers to the angelic creatures at the empty tomb with comparable language (Luke 24:4), clearly meaning that these events are so important as to attract heavenly beings. The two mysterious men ask the disciples an interesting question: "What are you doing here staring up into heaven?" They then promise Christ's return in a way comparable to his departure (see Luke 21:27). Armed with the experience of Jesus' ascension and the promise of his return, the disciples ought not spend their time squinting into the clouds but be about their ministry. Not bad advice for the church today! We Christians do not have the leisure to sit and watch for Christ's return; we have a mission to fulfill.
In Luke's portrayal of God's saving plan, Jesus' ascension accomplishes several things. Most important is that the risen Christ goes away to be replaced by the Holy Spirit. The divine presence in the world takes two distinct forms -- Christ and the Spirit -- and each form is appropriate to one period of saving history. Salvation history for Luke entails, first, the period of Israel, then, the revelation of God in Christ (correctly called the "center of time" for Luke), and, finally, the period of the church and the Spirit.
However, Christ's ascension also honors and repositions him. He was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:35) and now receives an eternal existence with God in the heavenly realm. The ascension declares Christ to be our number one and prepares us to share that message with the world.
Ephesians 1:15-23
(This same reading is discussed in our column for Christ the King Sunday in the November-December, 1999 issue of Emphasis.)
Our second lesson succeeds in making explicit what is only implicit in Acts. Christ ascends into the heavens, but Acts never expressly tells us what his role is there. The author of Ephesians sketches a picture of the exalted Christ seated at the right hand of God. The reading comprises the thanksgiving that is so common in the Pauline epistles (see 1 Corinthian 1:4-9). Often this portion of a letter also includes a prayer for the recipients (for example, Philippians 1:3-11), and our lesson incorporates such a prayerful tone (v. 16). The passage might be read in two parts: the author's prayer for the readers (vv. 15-19) and God's exaltation of Christ (vv. 20-23).
The author's prayer arises from the news about their faithfulness and love (v. 15), and then states one essential petition on behalf of the readers: "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ ... may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation" (v. 17). These two nouns may indicate both the reception of what God gives (revelation) and the thoughtful and fruitful ways of interpreting that gift for our world (wisdom). Together they bring us into a close relationship with God expressed in terms of "knowing" the divine not merely in a cognitive way but of sharing our being with God's. Out of that process of receiving and appropriating revelation stream a number of other gifts, which the author enumerates: enlightened perception that brings hope; a sense that we will share Christ's honor and acclaim; and knowing the power that arises from faith. These are so interrelated in this poetic outburst that none of the features of the revelation can be separated from the other.
The mention of God's power in verse 19 leads the author into the description of Christ's exaltation. That elevation itself is an expression of God's power that announces both God's sovereignty and the divine affirmation of Christ's ministry and death. Christ's ascension tells us something about God, most importantly that God endorses and takes ownership of what Jesus did. The divine authorization involves two acts which here are named separately but in fact are nearly identical, namely, raising and exalting Christ. In other words, resurrection is exaltation, or at the very least the first step in honoring Christ. The "right hand" was the position of a king's closest and most intimate confidant and aide (a kind of ancient secretary of state), but the expression "in heavenly places" distinguishes this station from any earthly one. (See Psalm 110:1.)
Christ's authority exceeds that of all other authorities, not only in the world, but also in the cosmos. Verses 20-23 may be an early Christian hymn which the author quotes. The series, "rule," "authority," "dominion" (literally, "kingship"), and "name," intends to include every real or imaginable power known to humans. The four terms are used elsewhere in different combinations to speak of the spiritual powers that inhabit the universe and become expressed in earthly powers (for example, Colossians 1:15-20 and Romans 8:38). Paul was convinced that Christ's death overcame these cosmic powers among which he included Death and Sin (for example, Galatians 4:1-7 where Paul calls these powers "elementary spirits" -- see also Colossians 2:8 and 20). "Names" in this case probably refers to "titles," all the designations of earthly rulers and deities, but Christ is far above all the honors humans may claim for themselves. This supremecy is both in this time and the future time when God's rule in the world is completed.
Not only is Christ higher than all these other powers, he also rules over them. The expression "put all things under his feet" again alludes to Psalm 110:1 and the practice of victorious warriors putting their feet on the backs of captured enemies. (See 1 Corinthians 15:25.) "Head" should be understood in the sense of the "chief" or master. The author follows a simple logic: If Christ is Lord of "all things" both heavenly and earthly, he is therefore the master of the church. Paul uses the analogy of the body of Christ as does verse 23a, but he never speaks of Christ as the "head of the body" (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). We might say that Christ is like the "control center," much as the brain functions for the human body.
The claim that the church is "the fullness of him who fills all" (v. 23) is controversial. The Greek is ambiguous and liable to several different translations; and the meaning of the words, however they are translated, is elusive. The Gnostics used "fullness" as their favorite word to refer to the entirety of the complex heavenly realm. Here it suggests that Christ in himself is the completeness of all reality and brings completeness to everything, but completeness in this case refers to the fulfillment of the divine purpose for creation. Christ embodies that purpose and fills creation and us with that fulfillment of the divine will.
It is a glorious picture of the exalted Christ, enthroned as the ruler of all reality and reducing to nothing all pretenders to power. What the ascension describes in narrative form, this Ephesian hymn (1:20-23) describes in poetic images. There really is no other way for us to express our faith in Christ's place in the cosmos but to tell stories and sketch poetic images. In almost blasphemous simplification, what we mean is that Christ is indeed number one in our lives and, we believe, in the whole of reality.
Luke 24:44-53
(For a discussion of Luke 24:44-48, see the Third Sunday of Easter. For the purposes of our discussion here, we will focus attention on verses 49-53.)
This picture of Christ's ascension is really Luke's teaser with which he entices us on into the first chapter of Acts, for the Gospel version of the ascension is even briefer than the one in Acts. The story is wedded to the appearance of the risen Christ found in 24:36-48 so as to suggest that this was the conclusion of the risen Lord's activity. Christ commissions the disciples in a way similar to Acts 1:8, mentioning here, as well as in the Acts account, the disciples' role as witnesses. In this case, they are witnesses to "these things," that is, to the whole of Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection.
Again the commission is accompanied by the promise of an empowerment in verse 49. The command to stay in Jerusalem reflects the central role Luke assigns to the holy city as the hub of salvation. In Luke-Acts the whole mission of the church roots in this one place where Jesus died and was raised and from which the gospel reaches out to the whole world. (Contrast, for instance, the command of the angel in Mark 16:7 that the disciples should go to Galilee where Christ will meet them.) However, the command to "stay put" also hints that there are times in the church's life when it is necessary to pause and await some direction for future efforts. In due course, the disciples will receive their "uniforms."
Bethany seems to have been a kind of headquarters for Jesus and his followers during their visit to Jerusalem (see Luke 19:29). Zechariah 14:4-9 picks out the Mount of Olives as the place where God will appear to take up the role as the world's rightful ruler, and Bethany was located on the lower slope of that mountain. Like a priest, Jesus blesses the disciples as his last words to them, evoking God's favor on this little group. (See Numbers 6:23-26.) In the process of bestowing this gift, Jesus is "carried up into heaven." The disciples react simply by worshiping him and then by obeying his command to return to and remain in Jerusalem. Strangely, the ascension evokes their "joy," even though the risen Christ has been taken from them. We can only imagine that the disciples somehow sensed that this parting was necessary in order for Christ to assume his heavenly role. If so, their joy is not for themselves as much as it is for Christ. Finally, the disciples returned to their practice of praising God in the Temple, as any good Jew would do.
We may not find it entirely satisfactory to think of Christ as being taken up and enthroned in some heavenly place, but that imagery has helped the church through the centuries to conceive and speak of Christ's elevation to a new role. It means for us that Christ is not simply a figure of the ancient past and his resurrection appearances a gift to a privileged few. The Ascension means that Christ lives amid the community and offers us a rule that transcends all human authority. We need a number one who is not just another passing celebrity or a cultural value that will change over time. We need a number one on whom we can focus our lives and from whom we can derive meaning. That's exactly what Ascension Sunday provides.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Actemeier
Acts 1:1-11
This passage was the stated Old Testament Lesson for Ascension Sunday also in Cycle A. The preacher may therefore want to refer back to that issue of Emphasis for the exposition of the passage.
Throughout the preaching of the prophets in the Old Testament, there is the expectation of the new age of God that is to come. The prophets viewed the history of humans and nations as a long continuum of God's working toward his goal of establishing his kingdom on earth. In the beginning, God had created the world good, but human sin corrupted God's good creation, and so now God was working in nature and human history to restore the goodness to his creation that he intended for it in the beginning.
The prophets were given to see, with Paul, that "the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now" (Romans 8:22). And so in the Kingdom of God to come, they expected nature itself to be transformed. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together ..." (Isaiah 11:6). There would no longer be a struggle between human beings and the natural world. Rather, there would be a covenant with nature, with the beasts, the birds, the creeping things of the ground, and human beings would lie down in safety (Hosea 2:18).
The prophets also were given to know that in the coming Kingdom of God there would be peace and righteousness. Nations would "beat their swords into plowshares, and theirs spears into pruning hooks; nation would not lift up sword against nation, neither would they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). And every man would "sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and none (would) make them afraid" (Micah 4:4).
The prophets were told by God that in the new age of the kingdom, human sin would be done away in the Kingdom of God, and mortals would be reunited with their Lord. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah ... And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother ... for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest ... for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31, 34).
Very often God revealed to his prophets that the coming of the new age would include the coming of God's anointed, davidic Messiah, who would then rule over a universal people in justice and righteousness. "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he ... and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:9-10). "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them ... And I, the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them" (Ezekiel 34:23-24). God's promises like all of these are multitudinous throughout the preaching of the Old Testament prophets.
But now, in our text from Acts for the morning, the disciples of Jesus, who talk with him after his resurrection and who accompany him for forty days, believe that God's Messiah has come. The new age of the Kingdom of God has broken into human history in the person of their Lord. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He has forgiven human sin and established the new covenant, and all the powers of the fresh, new age have been exhibited in his ministry. "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them" (Luke 7:22).
As a result, the disciples look to the risen Christ for all of the other manifestations of the Kingdom of God. "Lord," they ask him, "will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" (Acts 1:6). When the disciples ask that question, they are reflecting further Old Testament beliefs. It was a popular belief in Old Testament times that at the end of human history, when God brought in his kingdom on earth, all of God's enemies, whom Israel saw as her enemies, would be destroyed, and Israel would be exalted among the nations and reign over the world with God forever. Such an event would take place on what the Bible calls "the Day of the Lord." At that time, God would judge all nations and do away with his enemies, and Israel would be granted his favor forever.
The prophets in Israel turned such expectations upside down, however. They pointed out to their Israelite compatriots that far from being assured of God's everlasting favor, Israel's unfaithfulness to her God assured that she too would be judged like all the nations. The Messiah would come, not to exalt Israel but to grant her unearned forgiveness and to reestablish her covenant with her God. Only by such grace could Israel -- and indeed all peoples -- inherit a place in the Kingdom of God.
In our text for the morning, the risen Christ does not therefore answer his disciples' question. Only the heavenly Father knows when he will bring in his kingdom fully on earth, and it is not for the disciples to know such things (v. 7). Indeed, Jesus tells us elsewhere that even he does not know the time of the end (Mark 13:32 and parallels).
Rather, the main point of our passage is that before the end comes, before God brings in his kingdom on earth, before every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father -- and before there is therefore peace on earth and righteousness and knowledge of God throughout the world -- before all of that, there is work to do. After Jesus ascends to be with the Father, and his disciples stare wonderingly into the clouds, two angels ask them, "Why do you stand looking into heaven?" (v. 11). Don't stand there with your mouths open, disciples! Get to work! You are "my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (v. 8). So get on with it! Tell everyone everywhere the good news, that in Jesus Christ they can have the forgiveness of their sins and reconciliation with the Father and life eternal in his kingdom! Spread the word!
I wonder if that is not the message to us also on this Ascension Day Sunday. Sure, we can debate endlessly about the ascension of our Lord, and whether or not there is a heaven up there, and what happened to Jesus when he disappeared from the disciples' sight. But that's not the message of our text, is it? The Word of God tells us we are Christ's witnesses to the end of the earth and to the neighbor just down the block and to our own children. And the word to us too is -- Get on with it!
However, the preoccupation with being the very best is not limited to athletic contests. Many want to claim that our nation is number one in as many ways as possible. Some will claim the United States is number one among the nations in terms of economic prosperity, "modernization," and liberty and freedom. Moreover, competition for the "top dog" position pervades the corporations of our nation. How many times have we heard that such and such a car is the top-selling vehicle in the United States? With the corporate mergers of recent years, companies vie for the honor of being the largest company in their field. Unfortunately, that same drive to be number one motivates lots of people in their vocations. To be the number one salesperson. To win the prize "employee of the month." To climb the corporate ladder to the very top rung. And even among some of us clergy, to be pastor of the largest of the congregations.
Why are so many so engrossed with being number one? What is it humans seek in striving to be number one? Ascension Sunday raises these questions with its claim that Christ was exalted to the highest of stations in the heavens. One way of looking at Christ's exaltation is that it makes all other quests for becoming number one immaterial. We have a Lord who is number one in the universe. What need do we have to be some kind of second class number one?
Acts 1:1-11
If the same author wrote the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Luke, it is all the more striking that the ascension of Christ ends the Gospel (Luke 24:50-53) and opens Acts (1:9-11). The repetition of this event must mean that this author valued the ascension story so much that it had to be repeated at the beginning of the history of the church as well as at the conclusion of Jesus' ministry. Luke-Acts actually provides us with the major structure of our liturgical year. It is Acts, for instance, that limits to forty days the period during which the risen Christ was active among the believers (1:3), and Luke-Acts that presents the scheme of Jesus' death, resurrection, ascension, and ten days later the bestowal of the Spirit at Pentecost. (Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the Passover.) None of the other Gospels provide us with such a scheme. The Gospels of Matthew and John both end with the risen Christ still appearing among his believers. Therefore, we are indebted to the Lukan material for Ascension, as well as Pentecost Sunday.
Acts begins by linking the story it is about to tell with the Gospel of Luke and addressing the same "Theophilus" for whom the Gospel was written (compare Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-2). This introduction (1:1-5) sketches the ministry of Jesus from "the beginning" through the Passion story and the resurrection, summarizing the teachings of the risen Christ as "speaking about the kingdom of God," even though the Gospel of Luke never mentions the kingdom in chapter 24. Yet focusing Jesus' teachings on the kingdom prepares us for the disciples' question in verse 6. The command to stay in Jerusalem and the promise of the bestowal of the Spirit likewise rewords Luke 24:49. Luke is a skillful enough author to express the same command and promise at two different places in different words, in order that readers gain a fuller understanding of them. For example, the reference to John the Baptizer in verse 5 connects the Pentecost experience with the promise of the baptizer way back in Luke 3:16.
The disciples are filled with anticipation, for surely this is the time the risen Christ will finally fulfill their expectations of liberation from Roman oppression and the creation of a new Israel. However, the disciples do not need to know the divine time-table, indeed, they will have more important things to do than calculate dates. In the midst of Jesus' teachings, Matthew and Mark each record Jesus' telling the disciples that no one knows the time when God brings the final fulfillment, "not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13:32 and see also Matthew 24:36). Luke, however, saves that caution until now and states it in terms of what is appropriate and inappropriate for the disciples to know.
The disciples need not know the precise dating of God's plan; however, what they should know -- and all that they need to know -- is that they will receive power and become witnesses to Christ throughout the known world. Verse 8 is a compact promise that includes both the action ("witness") and the "power" to perform the action. Christ does not ask us to do something without providing a source of power by which we may accomplish it. While this verse is often taken to be a command (comparable to Matthew 28:19), it is more correctly understood as a promise, or, as one commentator says, both a command and a promise.
Verse 8 also provides the basic structure of the book of Acts, insofar as Acts proceeds to tell the story of the church's mission first in "Jerusalem" and "all Judea" (Acts 2:18:3), then in "Samaria" (Acts 8:4-25), and finally to "the ends of the earth" (8:26--28:31), ending with Paul in the outer reaches of the known world (Rome) "proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ" (28:31). Jesus' parting words to his disciples commission them for the church's ministry and empowerment.
The ascension itself is told with the greatest of simplicity. Jesus is "lifted up" and carried away by a cloud, all the while the disciples look on. The New Testament picture of the world was that of a three story universe with the heavenly realm above, the demonic realm below, and the earth and humans sandwiched between the two. Consequently, exaltation was understood as going or being lifted "up." In terms of our modern view of the universe, we might say that Jesus was taken "out there" into the infinity of the universe or even that he was translated into another dimension of reality. Ascension is an image of exaltation, of being stationed high above all else, and of being given a power that transcends all earthly powers (see the Ephesians reading below).
Watching Jesus being taken up is an awesome experience, so, as the disciples stand staring up into the heavens (doubtless with their jaws on their chests), "suddenly two men in white robes stood by them" (v. 10). Luke refers to the angelic creatures at the empty tomb with comparable language (Luke 24:4), clearly meaning that these events are so important as to attract heavenly beings. The two mysterious men ask the disciples an interesting question: "What are you doing here staring up into heaven?" They then promise Christ's return in a way comparable to his departure (see Luke 21:27). Armed with the experience of Jesus' ascension and the promise of his return, the disciples ought not spend their time squinting into the clouds but be about their ministry. Not bad advice for the church today! We Christians do not have the leisure to sit and watch for Christ's return; we have a mission to fulfill.
In Luke's portrayal of God's saving plan, Jesus' ascension accomplishes several things. Most important is that the risen Christ goes away to be replaced by the Holy Spirit. The divine presence in the world takes two distinct forms -- Christ and the Spirit -- and each form is appropriate to one period of saving history. Salvation history for Luke entails, first, the period of Israel, then, the revelation of God in Christ (correctly called the "center of time" for Luke), and, finally, the period of the church and the Spirit.
However, Christ's ascension also honors and repositions him. He was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:35) and now receives an eternal existence with God in the heavenly realm. The ascension declares Christ to be our number one and prepares us to share that message with the world.
Ephesians 1:15-23
(This same reading is discussed in our column for Christ the King Sunday in the November-December, 1999 issue of Emphasis.)
Our second lesson succeeds in making explicit what is only implicit in Acts. Christ ascends into the heavens, but Acts never expressly tells us what his role is there. The author of Ephesians sketches a picture of the exalted Christ seated at the right hand of God. The reading comprises the thanksgiving that is so common in the Pauline epistles (see 1 Corinthian 1:4-9). Often this portion of a letter also includes a prayer for the recipients (for example, Philippians 1:3-11), and our lesson incorporates such a prayerful tone (v. 16). The passage might be read in two parts: the author's prayer for the readers (vv. 15-19) and God's exaltation of Christ (vv. 20-23).
The author's prayer arises from the news about their faithfulness and love (v. 15), and then states one essential petition on behalf of the readers: "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ ... may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation" (v. 17). These two nouns may indicate both the reception of what God gives (revelation) and the thoughtful and fruitful ways of interpreting that gift for our world (wisdom). Together they bring us into a close relationship with God expressed in terms of "knowing" the divine not merely in a cognitive way but of sharing our being with God's. Out of that process of receiving and appropriating revelation stream a number of other gifts, which the author enumerates: enlightened perception that brings hope; a sense that we will share Christ's honor and acclaim; and knowing the power that arises from faith. These are so interrelated in this poetic outburst that none of the features of the revelation can be separated from the other.
The mention of God's power in verse 19 leads the author into the description of Christ's exaltation. That elevation itself is an expression of God's power that announces both God's sovereignty and the divine affirmation of Christ's ministry and death. Christ's ascension tells us something about God, most importantly that God endorses and takes ownership of what Jesus did. The divine authorization involves two acts which here are named separately but in fact are nearly identical, namely, raising and exalting Christ. In other words, resurrection is exaltation, or at the very least the first step in honoring Christ. The "right hand" was the position of a king's closest and most intimate confidant and aide (a kind of ancient secretary of state), but the expression "in heavenly places" distinguishes this station from any earthly one. (See Psalm 110:1.)
Christ's authority exceeds that of all other authorities, not only in the world, but also in the cosmos. Verses 20-23 may be an early Christian hymn which the author quotes. The series, "rule," "authority," "dominion" (literally, "kingship"), and "name," intends to include every real or imaginable power known to humans. The four terms are used elsewhere in different combinations to speak of the spiritual powers that inhabit the universe and become expressed in earthly powers (for example, Colossians 1:15-20 and Romans 8:38). Paul was convinced that Christ's death overcame these cosmic powers among which he included Death and Sin (for example, Galatians 4:1-7 where Paul calls these powers "elementary spirits" -- see also Colossians 2:8 and 20). "Names" in this case probably refers to "titles," all the designations of earthly rulers and deities, but Christ is far above all the honors humans may claim for themselves. This supremecy is both in this time and the future time when God's rule in the world is completed.
Not only is Christ higher than all these other powers, he also rules over them. The expression "put all things under his feet" again alludes to Psalm 110:1 and the practice of victorious warriors putting their feet on the backs of captured enemies. (See 1 Corinthians 15:25.) "Head" should be understood in the sense of the "chief" or master. The author follows a simple logic: If Christ is Lord of "all things" both heavenly and earthly, he is therefore the master of the church. Paul uses the analogy of the body of Christ as does verse 23a, but he never speaks of Christ as the "head of the body" (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). We might say that Christ is like the "control center," much as the brain functions for the human body.
The claim that the church is "the fullness of him who fills all" (v. 23) is controversial. The Greek is ambiguous and liable to several different translations; and the meaning of the words, however they are translated, is elusive. The Gnostics used "fullness" as their favorite word to refer to the entirety of the complex heavenly realm. Here it suggests that Christ in himself is the completeness of all reality and brings completeness to everything, but completeness in this case refers to the fulfillment of the divine purpose for creation. Christ embodies that purpose and fills creation and us with that fulfillment of the divine will.
It is a glorious picture of the exalted Christ, enthroned as the ruler of all reality and reducing to nothing all pretenders to power. What the ascension describes in narrative form, this Ephesian hymn (1:20-23) describes in poetic images. There really is no other way for us to express our faith in Christ's place in the cosmos but to tell stories and sketch poetic images. In almost blasphemous simplification, what we mean is that Christ is indeed number one in our lives and, we believe, in the whole of reality.
Luke 24:44-53
(For a discussion of Luke 24:44-48, see the Third Sunday of Easter. For the purposes of our discussion here, we will focus attention on verses 49-53.)
This picture of Christ's ascension is really Luke's teaser with which he entices us on into the first chapter of Acts, for the Gospel version of the ascension is even briefer than the one in Acts. The story is wedded to the appearance of the risen Christ found in 24:36-48 so as to suggest that this was the conclusion of the risen Lord's activity. Christ commissions the disciples in a way similar to Acts 1:8, mentioning here, as well as in the Acts account, the disciples' role as witnesses. In this case, they are witnesses to "these things," that is, to the whole of Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection.
Again the commission is accompanied by the promise of an empowerment in verse 49. The command to stay in Jerusalem reflects the central role Luke assigns to the holy city as the hub of salvation. In Luke-Acts the whole mission of the church roots in this one place where Jesus died and was raised and from which the gospel reaches out to the whole world. (Contrast, for instance, the command of the angel in Mark 16:7 that the disciples should go to Galilee where Christ will meet them.) However, the command to "stay put" also hints that there are times in the church's life when it is necessary to pause and await some direction for future efforts. In due course, the disciples will receive their "uniforms."
Bethany seems to have been a kind of headquarters for Jesus and his followers during their visit to Jerusalem (see Luke 19:29). Zechariah 14:4-9 picks out the Mount of Olives as the place where God will appear to take up the role as the world's rightful ruler, and Bethany was located on the lower slope of that mountain. Like a priest, Jesus blesses the disciples as his last words to them, evoking God's favor on this little group. (See Numbers 6:23-26.) In the process of bestowing this gift, Jesus is "carried up into heaven." The disciples react simply by worshiping him and then by obeying his command to return to and remain in Jerusalem. Strangely, the ascension evokes their "joy," even though the risen Christ has been taken from them. We can only imagine that the disciples somehow sensed that this parting was necessary in order for Christ to assume his heavenly role. If so, their joy is not for themselves as much as it is for Christ. Finally, the disciples returned to their practice of praising God in the Temple, as any good Jew would do.
We may not find it entirely satisfactory to think of Christ as being taken up and enthroned in some heavenly place, but that imagery has helped the church through the centuries to conceive and speak of Christ's elevation to a new role. It means for us that Christ is not simply a figure of the ancient past and his resurrection appearances a gift to a privileged few. The Ascension means that Christ lives amid the community and offers us a rule that transcends all human authority. We need a number one who is not just another passing celebrity or a cultural value that will change over time. We need a number one on whom we can focus our lives and from whom we can derive meaning. That's exactly what Ascension Sunday provides.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Actemeier
Acts 1:1-11
This passage was the stated Old Testament Lesson for Ascension Sunday also in Cycle A. The preacher may therefore want to refer back to that issue of Emphasis for the exposition of the passage.
Throughout the preaching of the prophets in the Old Testament, there is the expectation of the new age of God that is to come. The prophets viewed the history of humans and nations as a long continuum of God's working toward his goal of establishing his kingdom on earth. In the beginning, God had created the world good, but human sin corrupted God's good creation, and so now God was working in nature and human history to restore the goodness to his creation that he intended for it in the beginning.
The prophets were given to see, with Paul, that "the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now" (Romans 8:22). And so in the Kingdom of God to come, they expected nature itself to be transformed. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together ..." (Isaiah 11:6). There would no longer be a struggle between human beings and the natural world. Rather, there would be a covenant with nature, with the beasts, the birds, the creeping things of the ground, and human beings would lie down in safety (Hosea 2:18).
The prophets also were given to know that in the coming Kingdom of God there would be peace and righteousness. Nations would "beat their swords into plowshares, and theirs spears into pruning hooks; nation would not lift up sword against nation, neither would they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). And every man would "sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and none (would) make them afraid" (Micah 4:4).
The prophets were told by God that in the new age of the kingdom, human sin would be done away in the Kingdom of God, and mortals would be reunited with their Lord. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah ... And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother ... for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest ... for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:31, 34).
Very often God revealed to his prophets that the coming of the new age would include the coming of God's anointed, davidic Messiah, who would then rule over a universal people in justice and righteousness. "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he ... and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:9-10). "And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them ... And I, the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them" (Ezekiel 34:23-24). God's promises like all of these are multitudinous throughout the preaching of the Old Testament prophets.
But now, in our text from Acts for the morning, the disciples of Jesus, who talk with him after his resurrection and who accompany him for forty days, believe that God's Messiah has come. The new age of the Kingdom of God has broken into human history in the person of their Lord. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He has forgiven human sin and established the new covenant, and all the powers of the fresh, new age have been exhibited in his ministry. "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them" (Luke 7:22).
As a result, the disciples look to the risen Christ for all of the other manifestations of the Kingdom of God. "Lord," they ask him, "will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" (Acts 1:6). When the disciples ask that question, they are reflecting further Old Testament beliefs. It was a popular belief in Old Testament times that at the end of human history, when God brought in his kingdom on earth, all of God's enemies, whom Israel saw as her enemies, would be destroyed, and Israel would be exalted among the nations and reign over the world with God forever. Such an event would take place on what the Bible calls "the Day of the Lord." At that time, God would judge all nations and do away with his enemies, and Israel would be granted his favor forever.
The prophets in Israel turned such expectations upside down, however. They pointed out to their Israelite compatriots that far from being assured of God's everlasting favor, Israel's unfaithfulness to her God assured that she too would be judged like all the nations. The Messiah would come, not to exalt Israel but to grant her unearned forgiveness and to reestablish her covenant with her God. Only by such grace could Israel -- and indeed all peoples -- inherit a place in the Kingdom of God.
In our text for the morning, the risen Christ does not therefore answer his disciples' question. Only the heavenly Father knows when he will bring in his kingdom fully on earth, and it is not for the disciples to know such things (v. 7). Indeed, Jesus tells us elsewhere that even he does not know the time of the end (Mark 13:32 and parallels).
Rather, the main point of our passage is that before the end comes, before God brings in his kingdom on earth, before every knee has bowed and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father -- and before there is therefore peace on earth and righteousness and knowledge of God throughout the world -- before all of that, there is work to do. After Jesus ascends to be with the Father, and his disciples stare wonderingly into the clouds, two angels ask them, "Why do you stand looking into heaven?" (v. 11). Don't stand there with your mouths open, disciples! Get to work! You are "my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth" (v. 8). So get on with it! Tell everyone everywhere the good news, that in Jesus Christ they can have the forgiveness of their sins and reconciliation with the Father and life eternal in his kingdom! Spread the word!
I wonder if that is not the message to us also on this Ascension Day Sunday. Sure, we can debate endlessly about the ascension of our Lord, and whether or not there is a heaven up there, and what happened to Jesus when he disappeared from the disciples' sight. But that's not the message of our text, is it? The Word of God tells us we are Christ's witnesses to the end of the earth and to the neighbor just down the block and to our own children. And the word to us too is -- Get on with it!
