Jesus’ Departure is a separation from but not
an abandonment of the world.
The Seventh Sunday of Easter comes three days after
Ascension Day and a week before Pentecost.
Even though the Lectionary readings for this Sunday are not directly
about the ascension, they still share the aura of this event at the climax of
the Easter season.
The ascension is about departure. Only Luke, among New Testament
writers, narrates an ascension separate from the resurrection. Many passages speak of Jesus exalted to
heavenly rule at the right hand of God, but only Luke tells of his departure
from the earth as a specific event (Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:9-12).
The churches addressed in Luke’s writings knew that the
great event was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when their
charismatic missions in the world had begun.
The ascension, just before that, was the conclusion of Jesus’ time with
the apostles. What followed had been
prepared by Jesus before hand (Acts 1:8), but the time of the church in the
world is a time without Jesus.
The apostles witnessed to Jesus as he was in the
past – and as he would be one final time at the end – but the churches lived in
the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 16:16-34.
The reading from Acts is very much an action
story.
It shows how the church worked in the world – with a little divine
assistance indeed, but mainly with a lot of faith and persistence.
In scene one,
Paul and Silas heal a possessed slave girl, employed as a fortune-teller, who
has been taunting them (though what she says is actually true, from the
writer’s viewpoint, verse 17). Like
other idolatrous men in Acts (19:23 -27), her owners are greedy rather than religious, and Paul has ruined
their hoax with the girl. They cause a
riot in the market place with the result that the magistrates sentence Paul and
Silas to severe beatings and imprisonment.
In scene two,
Paul and Silas sing hymns in prison at night and an earthquake strikes,
springing their manacles and the cell doors.
The jailer is saved from suicide by Paul who declares that no one has
escaped – though the doors were open.
(This is the real miracle, rather than the earthquake!) The jailer and his family are converted to
the new faith and become mainstays of the church in Philippi .
Paul and Silas appear to be isolated and defenseless
here, to the extent of receiving cruel floggings in the market place. However, they endure and things work out for
them, with the result that the community of faith is strengthened, starting
from those in the dungeons.
Jesus seems absent, but some greater power is
working for the life of the spirited church.
Psalm 97.
The Ascension is about a departure from earth. BUT, it is also an ascension to heaven. The heavenly destination is portrayed at
length in the book of Revelation, a complex
portrayal that is based on such ecstatic visions as this psalm.
It is standard lore that “clouds and thick darkness
are all around” God (verse 2, NRSV). In Israel 13:21 -23).
The psalm is declaring what could be seen if the
cloud were not there! The cloud hides the inner secret of God’s
explosive appearance.
“Yahweh
is king” (verse 1). In the Hebrew, this is an event (Yahweh has become King!), not a status.
It is such an amazing thing that cosmic phenomena break out in joy over
it – fireworks, lightning, earthquakes, melting mountains (verses 3-5).
Our psalm becomes a celebration of the Acts
narrative when it proclaims the folly of idolaters. “All worshipers of images are put to shame, /
those who make their boast in worthless idols” (verse 7) – like the greedy ones
of Philippi . “The
Lord…guards the lives of his faithful; / he rescues them from the hand of the
wicked” (verse 10), as happened in the prison holding Paul and Silas.
The reign of God – and of God’s anointed – is a
heavenly reality that appears mysteriously within the earthly scenes from which
Jesus has departed.
The destination of the ascension, the heavenly presence of God where the Lamb receives
authority over the forces that cause chaos on earth, is also the place from
which the final return will come. This
passage presents the last
words of Jesus, the heavenly Lord,
giving assurance that he is coming – that is, he is about to reverse the departure!
That assurance is answered by the church’s prayer
that he will indeed come.
“See, I am coming soon… I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (verses 12-13,
NRSV).
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely
I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come,
Lord Jesus! (verses 17 and 20).
The departure that is seen as the ascension is not
final. It will last only during the time
of the servant and spirited church on earth.
The whole of John 13-17
Jesus’ prayer is about the completion of his own
mission (verses 1-5), about the disciples who have been prepared but are now
being left behind (verses 6-19), and about the later generations who will
believe because of the testimony of the disciples (verses 20-26, or at least
verses 20-21).
Our reading is this final section – the
believers of the future who will not know
Jesus directly but only through the communion with the disciples.
After Jesus’ departure, the believers will share a
mystic communion with God, Jesus, and each other.
I ask not only on behalf of these [disciples present
at the supper], but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may all be one. As
you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the
world may believe that you have sent me (verses 20-21, NRSV).
This communion is manifested in the world as love (agape),
which binds the unity of the faithful.
Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I
know you; and these know that you have sent me.
I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the
love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (verses
25-26).
At his departure, Jesus leaves behind the model and the command to love one another, and in such
loving the believers will experience the truth and reality of the righteous
God.
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