Acts 1:1-11 includes a segment that serves as the preface to the book and a segment that tells the story of the ascension of Jesus to the Father and the accompanying mission of the church after that reality.
Acts 1:1-5 is the preface to the book. Luke is writing to a community eager for more detailed and accurate information concerning the origin, history and meaning of the Christian faith.
In the first book, Theophilus, a name that means friend of God, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning 2 until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs. Paul in I Corinthians 15:1-8 refers to appearances to Peter, the disciples, to 500 people, to James, and to the apostles. Paul included the appearance to himself as part of that list. These proofs occurred, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. One can detect a trend in Luke to his theological interest of limiting appearances to the symbolically significant 40-day period, thereby placing the events of Pentecost outside of that period, which would have been 50 days after the Easter event.[1] 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem. We can see good reason that the most specific piece of information Jesus gives the disciples is not to leave Jerusalem. Undoubtedly, getting out of this frightening city is high on everyone’s list. However, even in this sorry, disorganized state, the disciples could still pray. In place of a sense of desertion or loss, Jesus’ ascension gives teeth to his promise to the disciples and gives teeth to their prayers. Rather, they are to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,’ he said, “is what you have heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Early Christianity found in the gift of the Spirit the decisive feature of Christian baptism as an effective sign of eschatological salvation, especially also in distinction from the baptism of John.[2] Karl Barth referred to this passage in drawing the distinction between water baptism and baptism with the Holy Spirit.[3] However, the announcing of the baptism of the Spirit here takes up the formulation by John the Baptist in Luke 3:16 because Luke could find no pertinent saying of Jesus in the tradition. Throughout Acts, Luke will connect Christian baptism with the gift of the Spirit.[4]
The theme of Acts 1:6-11, part of a segment that extends to verse 14, is the mission to the world and the ascension. A fun and old saying of Paul Harvey concerns this text. He saw a sign on a Kentucky Fried Chicken door, as one left the establishment. "Thanks for coming. Hurry back." He suggested that is the stance of believers on this occasion of the ascension. We say to Jesus: "Thank you for coming. Hurry back."
As I read the gospel narratives, I am thankful that Jesus was here, walking upon the earth. That became especially clear to me, as you can imagine, when I went to Israel. It brought the gospels alive for me. I could almost visualize Jesus walking along the Galilean hills, or in the temple courtyard in Jerusalem. In fact, if you ever go to Jerusalem and tour the city, you will be taken to the little chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives. In our case, the guide made it clear that there was no way of knowing exactly where the ascension took place. The little chapel is simply the traditional site. The guide said, "There in that piece of solid rock in the middle of the chapel is a form that looks like it could be the foot-print Jesus made when he ascended to heaven." Well, I must confess that struck me as funny and fanciful, the stuff of which legends are made. The overall impression I had in Israel, however, was that I am grateful that Jesus was here.
And, I might also say, I am glad that Jesus is coming back. The New Testament is so clear on this. There is an expectation that Jesus will return in glory and create a new heaven and a new earth. We will be invited to a banquet, as we feast upon the presence of Christ. That is truly something for which we can look forward.
Yet, it seems as if something is missing. Yes, Jesus, thank you for coming. And yes, hurry back. But what about now, in my world, in my situation? Something inside me wants to add, "Thank you for being here, through the Spirit which you have given to me--to us."
I offer a summary. The disciples have a concern for the timetable of restoring the kingdom to Israel. The response of the risen Lord is like what we find in Mark 13:32, where only the Father knows when that day will come. Thus, neither the angels nor the Son will know. We are going to see the intimate connection between the Spirit and the church. The rule of God will come, not through armies, but through witnesses. Witnesses have only the power of words and a life that backs up their words. We will see the geographical interest of Luke as the story of the church begins in Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, and then the ends of the earth. The point is that the mission to the world, like Luke 24:47-48 (repentance and forgiveness preached to the nations by witnesses) and Matthew 28:19 (make disciples of all nations), replaces the notion of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. As Luke records the ascension of Jesus, we might think of some biblical parallels. In Genesis 5:24, Enoch walked with God, but was not, for God took him. In II Kings 2:11, a whirlwind brought Elijah to heaven. Jewish tradition said God took Moses in a comparable way. Yet, Luke does not let us ponder this event too long. Two angels puzzle as to why they continue to stare into the sky. They have work to do. The mission to the world seems to replace the notion of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel.
The ascension of Jesus offers some fertile soil for reflection upon Christian life and the church. Jesus departed from their sight so that he might come to their hearts, and to our hearts, in a new way, through the Spirit.[5] They must wait and pray. They would have to let go of their expectations, formed by Jewish apocalyptic, to receive the revelation of God in Jesus of Nazareth. Such is much of our lives, as we must be willing to let go of the life we have planned in order to have the life waiting for us.[6] The disciples must wait for the promise of the Father. Even when the Spirit comes, they enter another period of waiting for Jesus to return. We join them in their wait. The gift of the Spirit to the early church needed to begin with these persons. Yet, the gift of the Spirit needs to happen repeatedly in the lives of individuals and communities. If we think of it as a story, heroes know that things must happen when the time is right for them to happen. They must not abandon the quest. The happy conclusion cannot occur in the middle of the story. It has been two millennia, but we are still in the middle of the story.[7]
Thus, we have here the significant pause before this mission begins. They must wait and pray. “They” here is not just the 11. The group includes a larger circle of men and women who gather to wait and pray. The Spirit will come upon all of them in Acts 2. They will prophesy, even as the prophet Joel said, sons and daughters. Then, the Spirit will come, giving birth to the church. I think sometimes that a significant pause happens in our lives and in the lives of churches. The pause does not mean nothing happens. The pause gives us an opportunity to wait and pray. It gives us an opportunity to have open minds and hearts. We become open to the Spirit coming in a new way, in a way that enlightens the path and empowers us for new ministry. The point for us, then, is that the Spirit has been with us all along, but that we need openness to the new things the Spirit wants to do among us and in us.
6 So, when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" This question is consistent with what many scholars think would have been a common hope among the first Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Some scholars speculate, in fact, that the difficulty they had with the gentile mission was this hope for a restoration of the kingdom to Israel. The question is also consistent with our sense of time. We are temporal creatures. We have a finite amount of time. Thus, we want events to fit within a certain frame of time. The church has learned that the eternal God has a far dissimilar experience of time than we do. We want to know when the promised redemption of creation promised in the return of Christ will happen. God seems far less concerned far less about that and far more about how we use the time God has given us. 7 He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. This response recalls Mark 13:32 as well, where no one knows when that day will come, for only the Father knows. 8 Rather, you will receive power (δύναμιν) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The challenge the risen Lord gives to the disciples and to future generations of followers is big one. However, followers of Jesus have help. Such power or energy is to fill the disciples and us for the mission. Luke provides us with a theological statement about the relation between the church and the Spirit. The universal missionary proclamation of the church shows it to be end-time people of God foretold by Joel (as we learn in Acts 2), establishing the church by the outpouring of the prophetic Spirit on all its members. This implies eschatological closeness to God.[8] The Spirit will work in a specific way in that you will be my witnesses (μάρτυρες). The new revelation of God in Jesus will need witnesses who share the news with others. The risen Jesus reminds them of the different nature of the reign of God as Jesus saw it. He will not reign through armies or the power of coercion. His reign will spread by witnesses. Yes, “The same roads that the Romans built to establish their empire would be used by Paul and other itinerant Christians to craft a new kind of empire.”[9] They will witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." This geographical reference will form an outline for the rest of Acts, with the end of the earth being Rome. We can see here the basic outline three-stage unfolding of the plan of God in Luke and Acts. The period of the ministry of Jesus ends with the ascension. Even before the church receives the gift of the Spirit, the risen Lord gives the church its commission. This verse introduces the importance of the Spirit in the inauguration of the next stage of salvation history, which is the church. The Spirit becomes the power that moves the church to fulfill its commission from the risen Lord. The Spirit becomes the dynamic principle of their existence as Christians and of their role as witnesses to the new phase of salvation history.[10]The point is quite graphic. Yes, the Father through the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. His life is with his Father. We have the promise that our lives will be with God as well. Yet, before that happens, we have a job to do. Our primary job as Christians is to witness. Regardless of the various roles we fill in our lives, we are witnesses to what God has shown in Jesus Christ.[11]
The last word of the risen Lord focuses upon the disciples becoming witnesses to what they have seen and heard. They witnessed a certain way in Jerusalem. They witnessed a little differently in Galilee. They witnessed still differently as Paul brought the good news concerning what God has done in Jesus of Nazareth to the Gentiles. The story has gone on through the centuries. The form of the witness changes, but the message itself and the need for sharing it does not change. Witnessing is hardly something any Christian should do in the strength they have. They rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit.
This story raises the interesting question of the ways in which we witness. We need to think of witness as a form of persuasion through words. Yet, such words will have negligible effect if not backed up by the life of the one witnessing. We must not think of perfection here. The honest seeker will not expect that from us as witnesses. Yet, our lives need to reflect an authentic desire and attempt toward Christ-like living. We also need to consider the individual or group whom we seek to persuade. We need to reflect seriously upon the content of our witness.[12] I briefly refer you to an old 1957 movie, 12 Angry Men, in which Henry Fonda portrays juror #9. Pay attention to his gentle words of persuasion, as he sees holes in the account by the prosecution. Others cannot believe it and are angry. In fact, they try to persuade by their anger and coercion, but juror #9 keeps gently persuading. It reminds me of an interesting book, The Art of Woo (2007), where the authors say that persuading is more like courtship than war. Our political environment could use a bit of this notion today, but that is another story. If you are to persuade, you must put yourself in the position of the other person and identify with their needs, desires, and hopes. The authors suggest that you must then be a credible and authentic witness. The risen Lord has promised power, but followers of Jesus must use it wisely. Too often, coercion through words has been a tool used by preachers and teachers. The question of if you were to die tonight where you will spend eternity may motivate someone, but I have questions whether it motivates many in our modern setting. Martin Luther King Jr offered a path toward racial relationships that too many race-baiters have ignored, to the detriment of this country. I would argue that the pastor of many years for President Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, did not persuade many with his rhetoric, even if he was persuasive for the President. We will be tapping into the power of the Spirit when we share our personal and unique experience of the difference Jesus has made in our lives. If we do this, our focus will be establishing a relationship with the other person. It may sound trite, but the other person needs to know that you like them. One of the most basic questions we have is whether the other person likes us. Make a friend, be a friend, bring a friend to Christ, is not a bad way to stay focused on the type of witness we can have with others. The art of witness here is not so much about persuading people to an idea. Rather, the point is to help people make commitments that over the course of time will alter the course of their lives.
Of course, we can say we have not been Christians long enough or we have not received enough training. We may be fearful someone would ask a question we could not answer. We may think we do not have the time. At the same time, it seems as if the plan of God is working through imperfect people to fulfill the mission. God has no other plan. There is an old apocryphal story about what happened when Jesus arrived back at the gates of heaven, following his ascension. The entire heavenly host gathered to welcome God's Son, to celebrate his return home. Everybody had questions. They had heard of his exploits on earth. They wanted to hear it straight from him. Jesus described his adventures at great length: the preaching, the teaching, the healing. They laughed when he told them how he had tied the Pharisees' theological arguments up in knots, and they wept when he described both the agony of the cross and the joy of resurrection. Someone asked him, "Lord, now that you no longer physically walk the earth, who will share the good news?" "I've got a plan," said Christ. "I've selected 11 followers, my closest friends. To them I've given the responsibility of sharing the good news." "They must have some incredible talents, those 11," remarked one angel. "Well, actually no," the Lord responded. "These are average people, with ordinary abilities. They are vain and sometimes foolish. One of them, their leader, denied me three times." "But, Lord," objected another angel, "how can you be sure they'll get the job done?" "To be perfectly honest, I can't be sure." "What do you mean, you can't be sure? What will happen if they fail? What's your backup plan?" Quietly Christ answered, "I have no backup plan."
Yet, we do none of this alone. The risen Lord, through the Spirit, is our partner in witness. Many of us need to wait for our personal Pentecost when the Spirit grabs hold of us and empowers us. The Spirit is the one who leads us out of our self-centered concerns and toward the concerns of God for this world.
9 When he had said this, as they were watching, the Father lifted him up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. In Luke 24:51, the ascension occurs on Easter evening. The event in Acts occurs 40 days after the resurrection, a number used often in the Old Testament. A cloud occurs at the Transfiguration as well, where we can also think of Shekinah. Luke is the only author to give the ascension separate appreciable significance. Luke is letting the reader know that that the church will experience the presence of Christ in a unique way from now on. In addition, the disciples become witnesses. The 40 days of instruction from the risen Lord echo the 40 days Moses spent on Sinai. Like Moses, the disciples spent time with the risen Jesus before they would go forth to form the people of God. Scholars will direct us to Greek and Roman parallels.[13] The cult that arose around the emperors referred to them as “Lord” and “Son of God.” It was quite natural for early Christians to contrast themselves to this cult by referring to the risen Lord with the same titles. However, if we search for biblical background here, we might turn to Genesis 5:24, where Enoch walked with God, but was not, for God took him. In II Kings 2:11, a whirlwind appeared, along with a chariot of fire and horses of fire, to bring Elijah to heaven. Further, both Josephus and Philo record differing traditions of God taking Moses into heaven.[14] Such parallels raise the interesting thought that the gospel narratives of Jesus consistently portray Jesus as something greater than Old Testament heroes of the faith. I have just referred to the Transfiguration narrative, which explicitly refers to Moses and Elijah. Luke records that Jesus spend forty days in the wilderness, while Moses led the Hebrew tribes forty years in the wilderness. Matthew gives an account of the birth of Jesus that follows the pattern of the birth of Moses (Matthew 1-2 and Exodus 1-2). Matthew also has Jesus ascend to give his inaugural sermon, even as Moses ascended a mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. People wonder if Jesus is like the prophets or even Elijah returned (Mark 8:27-30). Although parallels in the Greek and Roman world made it easier to tell this story, it seems clear that the primary reason for the gospel narrative in general is to show Jesus as in line with the Jewish history of significant persons in its history, but of course, someone much greater than that as well. He did not come to destroy that history, but rather, he came to fulfill it. 10While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men, angels, in white robes stood by them. Luke brings the reader directly back to earth, not wanting to linger too long on the excitement of this exaltation of the risen Jesus. 11 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." The point is that the mission to the world, like Luke 24:47-48 (repentance and forgiveness preached to the nations by witnesses) and Matthew 28:19 (make disciples of all nations), replaces the notion of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel.
On a personal and spiritual level, we may need to embrace a willingness to leave behind a former way of living and embark on another. We often spend too much time gazing up in a daydreaming sort of way to the old ways that have vanished from our sight, rather than tackling what we know to be God’s will for us now.
Stephen Hawking added his considerable intellectual gifts to the idea that future generations of human beings will need to abandon earth or face extinction. Human beings should not have all their eggs on one planet. They will need to find a new planet to colonize. Of course, we take ourselves with us wherever we go. Do not expect the new settlement to be any better or worse than what we have on earth. Some Christians have their spiritualized version of this idea in the notion that earth is doomed, so live patiently now and wait until Jesus takes them to heaven. The problem with this line of thinking is that it is not in line with the biblical witness. The point, even as we see in this passage is not that God raised Jesus from the dead and therefore his followers are going to heaven. Rather, the biblical witness suggests that since God has raised Jesus from the dead, therefore the rule of God has begun, the Spirit is beginning the process of a new creation, and therefore followers of Jesus have a mission or vocation to fulfill during the life they have on earth.
Scientifically, I grant that at some point human beings will need to develop the technology to abandon earth if it is to survive. However, this is not an urgent matter. We have time. Before that event occurs, we need to appreciate what God has given us here. Amid the darkness of space, we live on this beautiful, shining, blue planet. God has made a garden of Eden amid an ocean of darkness in our part of the Milky Way galaxy. This planet is full of life, and we must take care of it. We have much work to do. On this account of the ascension of Jesus, the Father receives the Son into divine reality in heaven, abandoning earth while the disciples continue to walk upon it. Yet, is this true?
[1] Barth, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 14.
[2] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 241.
[3] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.4, 30ff.
[4] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology Volume 3, 259-60.
[5] Jesus departed from our sight that he might return to our hearts. He departed, and behold, he is here.-Augustine of Hippo.
[6] We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.--Attributed to British novelist E.M. Forster.
[7] Heroes know that things must happen when it is time for them to happen. A quest may not simply be abandoned; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever; a happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story. -Peter S. Beagle.
[8] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume 3, 15.
[9] John Dominic Crossan
[10] (Joseph Fitzmeyer, Acts of the Apostles [Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 1997], 200). In his classic work The Theology of St. Luke(originally Die Mitte der Zeit), the great biblical interpreter Hans Conzelmann delineated the three-stage unfolding of God’s plan in Luke and Acts. He called the plan Heilsgeschichte, a term usually translated as “salvation history.” This passage marks the transition point between stages two and three of Conzelmann’s schematic. The period of Jesus’ ministry ends in his glorious ascension, and God will presently inaugurate the era of the church. The church has not yet received its baptism of the Holy Spirit, promised in Acts 1:5 and delivered at Pentecost (Acts 2), but in this passage, it does receive its commission. This verse marks Conzelmann’s transition quite clearly and serves as a programmatic foreshadowing of the ensuing narrative. This verse introduces the importance of the Holy Spirit in Acts. The Holy Spirit is the presence of God on earth in the third phase of salvation history, the era of the church. Readers of Acts acknowledge the profound agency that Luke ascribes to the Holy Spirit in his account. In the words of Joseph Fitzmeyer, the Spirit becomes “the dynamo of the Lukan story in Acts ... the power given to disciples, the dynamic principle of their existence as Christians and of their role as witnesses in the new phase of salvation history.”
[11] N. T. Wright, "Never at any point do the gospels or Paul say Jesus has been raised, therefore we are all going to heaven. They all say, Jesus is raised, therefore the new creation has begun, and we have a job to do."
[12] Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second, on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third, on the proof, provided by the words of the speech itself. —Aristotle, Rhetoric 1.2; 1358a2-4,
[13] In the Greek and Roman context, Ovid, in Metamorphoses 14:805-851, written around 1 AD, tells us of founder of Rome, Romulus, ascending as well.
Tatius died, and you, Romulus, gave orders equally to both peoples. Mars, removing his helmet, addressed the father of gods and men in these words: ‘The time has come, lord, to grant the reward (that you promised to me and your deserving grandson), since the Roman state is strong, on firm foundations, and does not depend on a single champion: free his spirit, and raising him from earth set him in the heavens. You once said to me, in person, at a council of the gods (since I am mindful of the gracious words I noted in my retentive mind), ‘There will be one who you will raise to azure heaven.’ Let your words be ratified in full!’
Omnipotent Jupiter nodded, and, veiling the sky with dark clouds, he terrified men on earth with thunder and lightning. Mars knew this as a sign that ratified the promised ascension, and leaning on his spear, he vaulted, fearlessly, into his chariot, the horses straining at the blood-wet pole, and cracked the loud whip. Dropping headlong through the air, he landed on the summit of the wooded Palatine. There he caught up Romulus, son of Ilia, as he was dealing royal justice to his people. The king’s mortal body dissolved in the clear atmosphere, like the lead bullet, that often melts in mid-air, hurled by the broad thong of a catapult. Now he has beauty of form, and he is Quirinus, clothed in ceremonial robes, such a form as is worthier of the sacred high seats of the gods.
His wife, Hersilia, was mourning him as lost, when royal Juno ordered Iris to descend to her, by her rainbow path, and carry these commands, to the widowed queen: ‘O lady, glory of the Latin and Sabine peoples, worthy before to have been the wife of so great a hero, and now of Quirinus, dry your tears, and if it is your desire to see your husband, follow me and seek the grove, that flourishes on the Quirinal hill and shades the temple of Rome’s king.’
Iris obeyed, and gliding to earth along her many-coloured arch addressed Hersilia as she had been ordered. She, hardly raising her eyes, replied, modestly: ‘O goddess (since it is not easy for me to say who you are, but it is clear you are a goddess), lead on: O, lead on, and show me my husband’s face. If only the fates allow me to see him once, I shall declare I have been received in heaven.’
Without delay, she climbed to Romulus’s hill, with Iris, the virgin daughter of Thaumas. There a star fell, gliding from sky to earth, and Hersilia, hair set alight by its fire, vanishes with the star in the air. The founder of the Roman city receives her in his familiar embrace, and alters her former body and her name, and calls her Hora, who, a goddess now, is one with her Quirinus.
In addition, Diodorus, (first century BC, History, 4.38.3-5) writes of the ascension of Hercules.
[4.38.3] As Heracles continued to suffer more and more from his malady he dispatched Licymnius and Iolaüs to Delphi to inquire of Apollo what he must do to heal the malady, but Deïaneira was so stricken by the magnitude of Heracles’ misfortune that, being conscious of her error, she ended her life by hanging herself. The god gave the reply that Heracles should be taken, and with him his armour and weapons of war, unto Oetê and that they should build a huge pyre near him; what remained to be done, he said, would rest with Zeus.
[4.38.4] Now when Iolaüs had carried out these orders and had withdrawn to a distance to see what would take place, Heracles, having abandoned hope for himself, ascended the pyre and asked each one who came up to him too put torch to the pyre. And when no one had courage to obey him Philoctetes alone was prevailed upon; and he, having received in return for his compliance the gift of the blow and arrows of Heracles, lighted the pyre. And immediately lightning also fell from the heavens and the pyre was wholly consumed.
[4.38.5] After this, when the companions of Iolaüs came to gather up the bones of Heracles and found not a single bone anywhere, they assumed that, in accordance with the words of the oracle, he had passed from among men into the company of the gods.
The emperor Augustus, divinized by Rome, also had an account of his ascension to heaven after his death in Dio Cassius (155-229 AD), in his Roman History 56.46.
Now these rumours began to be current at a later date. At the time they declared Augustus immortal, assigned to him priests and sacred rites, and made Livia, who was already called Julia and Augusta, his priestess; 2 they also permitted her to employ a lictor when she exercised her sacred office. On her part, she bestowed a million sesterces upon a certain Numerius Atticus, a senator and ex-praetor, because he swore that he had seen Augustus ascending to heaven after the manner of which tradition tells concerning Proculus and Romulus. 3 A shrine voted by the senate and built by Livia and Tiberius was erected to the dead emperor in Rome, and others in many different places, some of the communities voluntarily building them and others unwillingly. Also the house at Nola where he passed away was dedicated to him as a precinct. 4 While his shrine was being erected in Rome, they placed a golden image of him on a couch in the temple of Mars, and to this they paid all the honours that they were afterwards to give to his statue. Other votes in regard to him were, that his image should not be borne in procession at anybody's funeral, that the consuls should celebrate his birthday with games like the Ludi p107Martiales, and that the tribunes, as being sacrosanct, were to have charge of the Augustalia. 5 These officials conducted everything in the customary manner — even wearing the triumphal garb at the horse-race — except that they did not ride in the chariot. Besides this, Livia held a private festival in his honour for three days in the palace, and this ceremony is still continued down to the present day by whoever is emperor.
The 2nd-century Christian apologist Justin Martyr made specific connections to the apotheosis of the emperors:
“We propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. ... And what of the emperors who die among yourselves, whom you deem worthy of deification, and in whose behalf you produce someone who swears he has seen the burning Caesar rise to heaven from the funeral pyre?” (First Apology 21).
[14] Josephus, writing in the first century AD in Antiquities, 4.326, records the following about the end of Moses.
All those who accompanied him were the senate, and Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua their commander. Now as soon as they were come to the mountain called Abarim, (which is a very high mountain, situate over against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are upon it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan,) he dismissed the senate; and as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain valley, although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which was done out of fear, lest they should venture to say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.
Philo (20BC – 50 AD), in Moses, 2.291, records another tradition.
For when he was now on the point of being taken away, and was standing at the very starting-place, as it were, that he might fly away and complete his journey to heaven, he was once more inspired and filled with the Holy Spirit, and while still alive, he prophesied admirably what should happen to himself after his death, relating, that is, how he had died when he was not as yet dead, and how he was buried without any one being present so as to know of his tomb, because in fact he was entombed not by mortal hands, but by immortal powers, so that he was not placed in the tomb of his forefathers, having met with particular grace which no man ever saw; and mentioning further how the whole nation mourned for him with tears a whole month, displaying the individual and general sorrow on account of his unspeakable benevolence towards each individual and towards the whole collective host, and of the wisdom with which he had ruled them.
Yet, we do none of this alone. The risen Lord, through the Spirit, is our partner in witness. Many of us need to wait for our personal Pentecost, when the Spirit grabs hold of us and empowers us. The Spirit is the one who leads us out of our self-centered concerns and toward the concerns of God for this world.
ReplyDeleteI would agree whole hearty with this paragraph. Not sure when it occurs but we all need this experience. I liked the view of the church ad the witness that we are to have. The question is always how do we actually do that? I guess that is the struggle we have with ourselves and learning to be a real disciples. Judging from the New Testament all christians have faced this issue.
The "how" is a practical question. I am not sure the answer is a list that involves do this and do not do that. Does the way we witness embody the fruit of the Spirit? That is the direction I am heading. It has more to do with who we are than following a particular formula.
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