Luke closes his gospel with Jesus sharing his experience with the disciples about the downward pull of this world. I’m reminded of John Mayer’s song of blues and soul about gravity working against us; about gravity wanting to bring us down. “The Messiah suffered and was raised from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:46).
He will ascend like he has risen and send the disciples to Jerusalem to wait for power from on high! Witnesses of these things, they are to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations beginning in Jerusalem (24:47). They are to stay where they are until they have been clothed with power from on high.
This season of calling a new pastor is a time for letting the power of God anoint Royal Lane for the journey that begins with a single step. It takes great power to take one step at a time.
Before ascending to heaven, Jesus sends the disciples forward, reminding them of all they have shared together. They were launching from Jerusalem to the utter most parts of the world with no limits to the expanse of their mission. He did not want them to jump shift over the actual place where they then stood but to begin right at the place where they were (v. 47). First steps are best taken as steps of appreciation upon the firm footing of the life and blessings given.
We are grateful for those who have borne evidence of power to confront the downward pull that wills for all to suffer. It is not easy to be appreciative of what we have; to understand as Mayer sang, “twice as much ain’t twice as good, and can’t sustain like one-half could. It’s wanting more that’s gonna send us to our knees.”
Lyndon Johnson had two fears: that he would always be just a nothing and he must rid himself of his poor Texas Hill Country origin. It is too easy to assume that if only we had more, we could be grateful. We have been given enough to make it to this day; enough blessing for the first leg of the journey. Wait for the coming spirit with deep abiding gratitude.
The power to proceed forward is dependent upon faith. There is never so much certainty that faith is not needed.
Robert Johnson, in Balancing Heaven and Earth, encourages us to be afraid of someone who claims to know exactly what he is doing. Watch for good souls who rely upon faith, who carry a bit of doubt and humility. To carry a small bit of doubt is to be well served; a posture of dependence upon the living God (p. 164).
Jesus opened their minds, and they understood the scripture. He was a model of the Suffering Servant (Verses 45-46) bearing the curse and depravity of human sinfulness. They were to proclaim a change of heart that would lead to the forgiveness of sins (Verses 47-48).
Not one of us lacks a need for forgiveness. Because of forgiveness we can be positively defined by our failures and our successes. We do not always do the best we had hoped to do, and even our best can be disappointing. Sometimes our best cannot get the job done. His disciples were to proclaim encouragement for people in every kind of dilemma. Forgiveness was a plan for dealing with failure and disappointment.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the disciples to stay in the city and received the one that God had promised (V. 49).
I have a friend that described going to college as trying to pack way too much into a suitcase, a car and a dorm room. When you can’t take everything, be sure to take the right things. Don’t venture forward without the gift of God’s spirit and the power to see it through..
Christ completed his work on this earth known for its huge gravitational pull by conferring the blessing upon his disciples. His last act was a blessing, but it does not bring down the curtain. Luke’s gospel has an epilogue, a stage call. The final curtain never comes down. The blessing conferred upon the disciples is operative to this day. Be blessed with confidence that the challenge that belongs to you will come to meet you as much as you will go to it.
He led them out, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them, and withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven (24:50-51). Receive this blessing! The blessed bless, and the cursed curse. We are blessed with enough to begin.
I preached the funeral for Bill Rose, a man who came by our church for a cup of coffee every day. You could set the clock by his daily excursion around the town square by the law office, past the bookstore, and down the hill to the church for a cup of coffee and a brief rest in a green leather chair in the foyer. It was evident the gravity of life had worked against him and brought him down.
I remember the steel set of his eyes, his straight posture, somewhere between attention and at ease. He gently caressed his cup of coffee with both hands. I wish I could participate in the activities on my own life with such appreciative care. For a simple cup of coffee, Bill would share a smile, and yet you knew there was another story. Life for him was not without its angst, and its struggles. but the warm aroma seemed to settle him.
Morris West in The Clowns of God states with conviction that the pace of this world should be set more by the kingdom of our Lord than by the kingdom of this world. Bill held his cup with a kingdom-kind-of-grip. He cherished it.
On what would be Bill’s last Sunday morning at our church, I saw him at the coffee pot. He didn’t seem to be himself. He was agitated. Wanted space. No contact. I said good morning and left him to settle in. Later, I found his cup on the counter; still full, but grown cold. He wasn’t in his usual place for worship. The next day his caretaker, Nancy, said she had taken him to the hospital. He died a few days later.
The story has these purposes; we, too, will finally walk away to heaven empty-handed; and I wish you could have known Bill. He had a habit of offering his blessing to the people he encountered. He’d stop by my office door and say, “You’re a good man, Steve Graham. I know about you!”
There is not one of us who doesn’t need a word of affirmation. We are contingent beings living in a world where the gravity of abuse and neglect can work against us and bring us down. Receive the blessing and cherish it wherever and whenever you can. Offer the blessing to whomever you can.
While blessing them, Jesus took his leave and was carried up to heaven. For Luke, Jesus is still conferring the blessing, and that’s good! It takes a good amount of receiving if we are to give just a little!