Returning after Lockdown? Ascension as a Re-turn towards being Witnesses: Reflecting on Acts 1:6-14

In the context of the pandemic today, as we are preparing towards the return from one kind of a normal to a different kind of normal, the discussions have been dominated by the term ‘new’ normal. We need to ask for whom is it going to be ‘new’ and who defines ‘new,’ for to the people on the margins the return is going to be a difficult normal, with issues of poverty, hunger, discrimination and inequality have been up on the rise. Many have been discussing about returning back to work after lockdown, with businesses and workplaces assessing on the preparations for return. While some have been suggesting ‘building back better’, others are working on making work spaces safe and secure from this virus. In such a context what should be the Christian response to that return? Ascension of Jesus Christ offers us some sign posts in that direction.

The Acts of the Apostles is the second book, after ‘Gospel according to Luke’, that Luke writes to his audience, explaining the work of the early Church, as a testimony of following Jesus Christ in their time and age. However, for the audience of this book, the ascension of Jesus Christ serves as an introduction, as a genesis to understand the work of the early Church. By making the ascension of Jesus Christ into the heaven as an introduction to the rest of the book of Acts, Luke invokes some lessons in the ascension of Jesus for understanding the work of the then early church and to our church today. To understand that we need to reflect on the last words of Jesus’ earthly ministry as recorded in Acts 1:7-8.

Ascension of Jesus as a re-turn of the particular being to the cosmic being:

From ground zero on earth, for the disciples who witnessed the ascension of Jesus as recorded by Luke, Jesus ascended up into the heavens. But from the perspective of the trinitarian God, what we know as Jesus’ ascension was in fact, a reception, as Jesus re-turned into God-self from material-self to a cosmic-self, from local-being to universal-being. In other words, in ascension, Jesus takes a (re)turn from a particular-being to a cosmic-being, and in that turn, God in Jesus calls his disciples to be witnesses to the ends of the world. In that re-turn of Jesus into the God of the cosmos, Jesus entrusts his local role, function and mission to his disciples to carry forward by being his witnesses. Having recorded the life and ministry of Jesus as the one who always chose to be with the people on the margins in his gospel, Luke mentions no detail about the kind of re-turn and reception of Jesus in his ascension. There is no coronation ceremony with all the pomp, glitz and fanfare in the streets of the heaven, like we assume to happen for a king (6v), in this episode of Jesus’ ascension. Such silence on the part of Luke, re-emphasises the servant kingship of Jesus, whether in his earthly ministry or on his re-turn, God in Jesus always resists and denounces power, for God choses to be among and with the vulnerable people always as Immanuel. The material broken-crucified-risen body now ascends into heaven, for the broken body becomes the site of a transfigured body, seating at the right hand of the Father of the holy Trinity. The love of Trinity receives and embraces bodies into their fold, and the ascension of a bodily Jesus is a foretaste to such a reception of material body. Those that are embraced by the love of Trinity, are called to receive the broken-hearted and partake in the healing of their broken-infectious bodies.

The call for us as a church is to a re-turn of just rebuilding by being and becoming Jesus’ witnesses, receiving people as they are, particularly those people who are on the margins and deliberately striving for inclusion of all people irrespective of their identities. For our communities, as we re-turn to that post-pandemic future, we are called towards building a society of justice, for we as churches will have to serve as spaces of loving embrace, caring and supporting one another transcending all barriers. God in Jesus, in his ascension took a re-turn from a particular-being to a cosmic-being, entrusting us as people of God to be his witnesses, which is to be Jesus’ hands of love in serving the poor and needy, to be Jesus’ feet of peace in walking a way of justice, to be Jesus’ compassionate presence with the lonely and sick, and to be Jesus’ mind in critically reflecting and asking difficult questions in addressing the unjust status quo,  and strive for peace and justice in our world today.

Ascension of Jesus as a re-turn to be witnesses in powerlessness:

On the Mount Olivet, the last question that the apostles asked the risen Jesus, prior to his ascension was, “Lord, are you now going to give Israel, its own king again?” (6v) This question explains the disciples yearning for a political messiah in Jesus, for they were assuming that since he came out victorious from his death in resurrection, he would be enthroned as a king of Israel over against the Roman empire. In the ascension of Jesus Christ, the disciples had to witness a different kind of kingship in Jesus, which was founded on a way of grace and not on a way of power. Jesus’ ascension was not a self-centred, pompous coronation ceremony as a king, but a reaffirmation of his servant-kingship, where he disperses power through the Holy Spirit to his disciples, ordaining them to be witnesses, beyond themselves, beyond geographies, beyond histories and beyond times, for it is recorded in 8v, “you shall be my witnesses from Jerusalem, to Judea to Samaria and to ends of the world.” Jesus’ ascension into heaven is not an occasion of celebrating the centralising of power, but a moment where he decentres his powers through the Holy Spirit to his disciples to witness his life, death, resurrection, ascension and coming again. So when Luke starts this book of Acts with the ascension of Jesus as his introduction, he was emphasising that the church of God and the people of God are called to be his witnesses not by centralising powers, but in decentralising power, sharing in the vulnerability of people, for it is among such locations of vulnerabilities that the Holy Spirit does her work, starting from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria and to the ends of the world.  

The call for us as churches is to take a re-turn in being and becoming corporate witnesses of Jesus Christ, sharing our time, ministry and resources in the decentralisation of powers, identifying with the powerless people, recognising that among and within such sites of vulnerability, the Holy Spirit dwells. The early church received that message from ascension seriously, addressed exclusion by deliberately involving and including people from every nation, race, ethnicity and identity to be part of God’s movement for transformation, making the relevance of church felt. The later chapters of Acts of the Apostles are a testimony to such radical inclusions. This ascension Sunday is an opportunity for us to resist ascribing and seeking powers to the self, willingly giving up our privilege to be with the powerless people among and around us, and striving for inclusion of all people, dismantling any and every kind of walls. In such acts, witnessing to Jesus Christ births, evolves and happens.

Ascension of Jesus as a re-turn to witness beyond our spaces:

In Jesus’ re-turn, Jesus promised the downpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people and also invited them to witness about God in Jesus from their own locality to neighbourhood to community to town to region to the ends of the world. Witnessing to Jesus has a ripple effect, for it cannot be contained to a territory but transcends territories to the ends of the time and space. Witness is not time bound, nor space bound, for we are called to live out for Christ beyond our parochial clusters and groupings with consistency. In verse 8, the word ‘witness’ in the Greek translation is ‘marturios,’ which is to say we are called to be witnesses, living out the values of Jesus Christ till the point of death. Re-turn as witnesses is costly, inviting us to join with Jesus in not settling to the normal but to move beyond in striving for justice and peace today. It is also important to note that Jesus pronounces ‘witnesses’ in plural seeking a corporate witnessing in our public spheres. It was an invitation of Jesus to live in the ‘now’ as a preparation for the future.  

The calling for us as churches as we re-turn is to be and become the witnesses of Jesus Christ in that different normal, which is living out Jesus and living like Jesus. To be a witness today is to reimagine the story of Jesus Christ relevant for our times today, so that we live out Jesus and live like Jesus, without any compromise. The church when it re-turns, it will not be the same as it was before, with fewer numbers, fewer resources, more challenges, and many pastoral issues to deal with. In such a context, witness is to offer friendships, building bridges in the community, offering hospitality to the vulnerable and in addressing hunger and poverty.  What would be the one thing you want to do as witnesses when the church re-turns? For me, it would be attending to the needs of the people in our communities as Jesus did, for in such acts, our faith is shown in actions, and witness happens.

Ascension of Jesus as a re-turn from the mountain-top experiences to ground realities:

In Acts 1: 1-11, the episode where Luke records the ascension of Jesus Christ, after Jesus ascends into heaven, the disciples were struck staring at this spectacle of amazement. “When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (9-11V) Ascension was a wake-up call to his disciples to not get struck with this gazing, but to get back to the ground realities in addressing the needs of the people around. Only in actions of compassion, justice, peace and dignity the descent of Christ happens and is witnessed. Douglas Farrow, proposes that the power of Spirit is left with the eucharistic assembly, for as they receive the body of Christ, they become the body of Christ, for ascension is ensured to all such bodies of materiality. Discipleship calls for a continuation of Christ’s work in ensuring justice and peace, liberating the bodies who have been bonded towards transformation into a new creation. Discipleship is attending to the grave realities of our context, and striving for the bodily liberation to all bonded by oppression and discrimination.

The call for us as churches as we seek a re-turn is to not pat our backs for the kind of worship services we have been leading online at this time, not to look at the amazement on (zoom)cloud, and not to be self-content with the performances at worship, but to get down to address the ground realities of hunger, poverty, homelessness, loneliness, issues of migrants, racial discrimination, domestic violence, etc. that we find within our own contexts. The two people who came and asked the disciples, “why do you stand looking toward heaven?” is also asking us the same question and is inviting us to descend, to re-turn to our communities, and witness for Jesus by attending to the needs of our people around us. Only in such acts, witness happens.

As we start to think about the return to the future, our call is towards a re-turn to be and become witnesses of Jesus by participating with Jesus in transforming our world today. One of the recent tweets from Learning Network in Northwest read out, “which approach to change and church leadership have you taken during lockdown? – transfer, translate, transform.” It is an important question we need to ask as churches as we plan to re-turn: transfer – carrying the same thing with a change in the medium; translate – interpreting in a new form with a change in communication; or transform – doing radically new thing for a new world, because the world around us is changing. After the lockdown we are called to re-turn towards that trans-formation as our act of witnessing collectively as a church.

Let me conclude with the words of an Indian writer Arundhati Roy, who has written recently on the pandemic:

“The pandemic is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

May God grant us strength to re-turn to the future where we will walk through lightly, with little luggage, imagining and striving for another world, a world determined and lived in peace, justice, equality and dignity for the entire creation.

Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,

21^st May 2020

Ascension Day

Picture courtesy: http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48398