Read Acts 1:6-14
What picture stays with us as we think about this story? No doubt we think of Jesus going up – “taken up” before the disciples’ very eyes – until a cloud hid him from them. Jesus is now physically distant. The disciples can’t see him anymore. The text tells us that he has been taken from them into heaven.
Maybe that’s the second picture that we think of. The strange angel-figures that give the disciples that message. They say, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (v 11). But what else do they say?
“Men of Galilee”. Men of Galilee! Not “Disciples of Jesus” – although that’s also true. These men belong in a place on earth. Their home is Galilee, not – yet – heaven. And then the two angel-figures point them directly back to earth. “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” (v 11).
The hint is that their work will be here on earth. Jesus will be coming back in glory, just as he left in glory. It’s not their role to look into the sky for signs.
Their first question in this passage was to look for a sign – to ask about the future. They asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” (v 6). It was a reasonable question. The Jews had always understood that their nation would be the way God would lead the world to righteousness. At the time of the crucifixion, it must have seemed like the end. But now Jesus had come back to life! Was now the time? Would God act in earth-shattering ways?
Jesus has an answer which they had to accept, and which we also have to accept: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set” (v 7).
It is not for us to know. Why? Because maybe, if we knew, we would start planning in human ways. We might forget that God is God.
In the next sentence, Jesus talks not about what he will do in his power, but about power that will come on the disciples.
And he talks not just about their part of Israel, but about Samaria – that place of half-believers that good Judean Jews hated. And he talks about the very ends of the earth – the whole world. The mission of Jesus is not primarily about Israel.
So Jesus makes some more predictions. He gives some new pictures of the future. But he doesn’t exactly get them into the action plan at this point.
They have to wait. Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (v 8). When would that be? He doesn’t say. They have to wait.
They go back to their homes, to an upper room like at the Last Supper, and wait. They wait and pray.
Is that our task now, during COVID-19? Is this a time when we should spend more time in prayer, and less time maybe on programs? Even if it’s not a God-planned wait, we can make it a God-centred one.
God’s time is best. The disciples stopped looking into the sky. They stopped asking about the future. They stopped asking about divine power, and got the promise of a new power that would be theirs to use for God on earth. But they didn’t know when that would happen either.
The book we’re reading is the Acts of the Apostles.They ended up doing so much.But it started by waiting and praying in a private house.If Christians today do the same, we can be sure that COVID-19 will never defeat the spirit of God.God’s kingdom come!
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