“…but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1: 1-11
“And now, I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.” Luke 24: 46-53
The disciples to whom Jesus gave final instructions before he left them, were fresh from the stunning experiences of his torture, death and resurrection. Moreover, the Risen Jesus had, yet again, reiterated for them the purpose of his coming into the world, living among them and demonstrating to them by his suffering and death the extent of his and God’s boundless love for the world. His parting words were a clear summary of the substance and purpose of his life death and resurrection. Yet, buoyed by their experience of his resurrection, his appearances to them and his endless encouragement, they dared to ask, one last time, if he was about “to restore the kingdom to Israel”.
Still, Jesus did not lose patience with them. Instead, he made a powerful act of faith by stating that the Holy Spirit would be more successful than he at encouraging and empowering them to embark on the commission that he had given them, the commission about which he had spent three years teaching them. In calling them to be a community of witnesses to what he had taught them and to what they had learned, he directed them to go into the city and wait patiently for the time when they could expect to “be clothed with power from on high.” Note that Jesus was not just talking to twelve close friends, but to a community of disciples, to women and men who together had grown close to him and to one another as they followed him in his journeying. As the Acts of the Apostles unfolds, Luke gives us examples of how these disciples had come to grasp a process of discussion, debate and discernment. Their learning is demonstrated in how they dealt with the tension that arose among them in the matter of having to resolve the issue of circumcision that some wanted to impose on Gentiles who were attracted to the message of Jesus taken to them by the missionary activity of Paul and Barnabas.
The very last verse of today’s gospel-reading informs us that a marked change was taking place in the lives of the disciples who had just witnessed Jesus’ departure from this world. Luke noted that rather than being overtaken by grief, they worshipped Jesus as he disappeared from their sight Then, they “went back to Jerusalem full of joy;” (Luke 24: 53) The inference is that they were content to wait on God’s time for whatever blessing or request God was preparing for them. The encounters they had had with the Risen Jesus certainly had had some kind of transforming impact on them.
The Risen Jesus had visited them, engaged with them, let them see the scars left on his body from the torture he had endured, and he had even eaten with them. Those experiences eventually prompted Thomas to utter an expression of faith that till that moment had been uttered only by a Gentile, Roman centurion who had witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion and death.
Therein lies a challenge for all of us. The disciples who feature in today’s gospel-reading actually encountered the Jesus whom God raided from the grave. They also witnessed the Risen Jesus departing from this world and being returned in glory to God. This gospel-reading asks us if we truly believe in the God who raised Jesus from death and who returned Jesus to his true home. I am asked if I believe in a God who is really God; if I believe in a God who will take me home to Jesus my brother who. out of love. lived and died for me.
There are times in our lives when we experience our faith wavering. Like Thomas when he wanted proof, we sometimes struggle. Today’s gospel-reading reminds us that we need to hang in with the other members of the community we call the people of God and join them in praying the Spirit of God to touch us. We do trust that God’s Spirit will come to us, but that will be only in God’s good time.
In conclusion, let’s not ignore the fact that, before his Ascension, Jesus told his disciples that they would become his witnesses “throughout Judaea (still to the Jews) and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8) Remember, it took a Syrophoenician woman to remind Jesus that he ought be reaching out not only to the Jewish people but to Gentiles as well. When she had asked Jesus to cure her sick daughter, he had said: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs.” She quickly replied: “Ah yes, but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps” (Mark 7: 24-30; Matthew 15: 21-26)