Scripture Daily

Context No. 1410 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 1:6-11: in context

6Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” 9When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing, 11who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”

Just before Jesus ascends, the disciples ask him, Lord, are you at this time restoring the kingdom to Israel? He redirects them: it is not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has fixed by his own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Then, as they watch, he is lifted up and a cloud takes him from their sight. As they stand gazing into the sky, two men in white appear beside them: men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus will come back in the same way you saw him go.

The disciples wanted to know about the end, the timing, the restoration of the kingdom, and Jesus gently turned them away from that question toward another: not when the end will come, which is not theirs to know, but what they are to do in the meantime, which is to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. And the angels reinforce the redirection: why do you stand looking into the sky? There is a mild rebuke in it. The disciples are gazing upward, caught between speculation about the future and wonder at what they have seen, and the angels call them back to earth and to the task. He will come again, as surely as he went; but standing still and staring at the sky is not what the interval is for. There is a word here for a recurring temptation, the pull to become preoccupied with speculation about the end, the times and seasons, the details of the future, while the actual mission sits undone. Jesus does not satisfy the curiosity about timing; he redirects it into a commission. The interval between his going and his coming is not for gazing at the sky or calculating dates but for being his witnesses, for the work he gave. He will come back in the same way he left; until then, the call is not to stand looking up but to go.

Am I preoccupied with speculation about the future and the end, standing and gazing at the sky, while the mission Jesus gave sits undone, and will I turn from calculating times to the work he actually left me, to be his witness until he comes?

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