(Acts 1.6-11) Ascension/Easter 7
Neil Millar (24 May 2020)
In the two volumes written by Luke in the New Testament, the story of Jesus’s ascension functions as a literary lynchpin. Volume one, the gospel of Luke, ends with a description of Jesus being ‘carried up into heaven’ (Lk 24.51), and volume two, the Acts of the Apostles, opens by recounting the time when ‘he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight’ (1.9). At this point in the bigger story, the disciples lose contact with Jesus and it is, we assume, a moment of crisis. On the surface, it looks to be a decisive parting of the way, a radical severing of their connection…but is it? ‘Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?’ ask two men dressed in white who have suddenly appeared in their midst; as if their gazing this direction is
strange and unnecessary.
Full reflection here