What a terrible way of discribing those who were full time followers of Jesus at this time.
For a group that held things in common and avoided status positions Luke certainly does a major status treatment in his mention of Those serving Jesus. Why would he not name Jesus brothers? Why would ne not name certain other women and acknowledge that they were leaders? Surely Mary of Magdala had a very prominant position among the followers by then and such a deliberate omission of such names while including others is quite a slap in the face.
To the unsigned poster:
Jesus says: "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" (Matt. 12:48) Perhaps that is why they are not all named here in this pericope. Because Jesus goes on in that Matthean passage to say, "whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
We are all called to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. That is doing the will of God, and so our names are listed there as well - you know, written on the palm of God's hand.
Thank you all for your insights. I enjoy reading and sometimes using your thoughts. This is a wonderful source of preparation for me and I thank God for its availability and your wisdom.
Betty from NY
I agree with the unnamed poster about the disjointed ordering. The references to Magdalene in the Gospels at times appear to be reluctant, even backhanded (as the wording in Acts which says, "...together with certain women..."); yet clearly she and the other women disciples played a vital and central role during our Lord's life and during the founding of the church.
I have often thought the "inner circle" should never be limited to "twelve" men (and exactly who were the 12 in the first place? Who can make the different lists of 12 agree???)
The role of women has already changed. The women are not preparing food and tending to the housework; they are constantly devoting themselves to prayer as the men are.
Da Rev in CT
I want to do something with our need to know--Is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Is this when??? Maybe even tie it into the impatience of children, always asking Is supper ready yet? Are we there yet? I think a frustration is always why can't we be given all the answers now, even though it is clear we can't even understand some of the answers we have already been given (Nicodemus, etc. in JOhn's gospel)
Rev in E. PA
Thanks Eric,
That is the site I was looking for. Rev. Tim, Ontario, Canada
The ascension may have less to do with Christ and everything to do with us. It isn't about a leaving, of Jesus, but a coming of the Holy Spirit (HS). The image of waiting on God and the doctrine of the HS and what that means for the ongoing work of the church then and now is more essential, otherwise this text ignores Lukan theology as well as the first part of this pericope. Just a thought, USA in UK
Mother's Day is also not a church holiday, but a commercial driven holiday, it is all well and good to identify mothers, but the text is mistreated by trying to tie it to mothers. Make a liturgy that addresses Mums, instead of curving a sermon text to a point that Luke would have no inclination of at the time of his writing Acts. Just a thought USA in UK
I'm thinking of focusing on the phrase, "Why are you looking up into heaven?" i.e., don't just stand there gawking---you've got work to do!
God has not abandoned you. God will come to you in a more powerful way. You *will* be my witnesses.
Thanks for all your input, friends!
---David in NE Ohio
In his commentary on Acts, Richard Longenecker provides a nice three point outline for anyone so inclined - and they all begin with 'P' no less. He talks about the commission given to Christians as a gift that comes with a promise. "It concerns a person, a power, and a program..." That is it's about the person of Jesus whose witnesses we are, it concerns the power of the Holy Spirit without whom witness is impossible, and it is about a program that begins in Jerusalem and moves out to the whole world.
RG in Ontario
I remember my first encounter with graffiti as a young boy. My parents purchased a wheel camper and we were going on our first family vacation together. It was my first venture into the “world” beyond the rural farming community I grew up in. At one rest stop (remember the old fashion disgusting ones?) I discover the world of graffiti in the rest rooms. As I was using the facility (if one could call it that) I was reading. My eyes gazed upward and on the ceiling it said:
“What are you looking up here for, you’re peeing on your feet.”
That stuck in my mind, that bit of poetic wisdom and sometimes the think the church “pees on it’s feet” where our gaze is fixed upward and we aren’t mindful of the things that we need to attend to immediately around us…
Early thoughts and I may risk that illustration this week.
Pr. del in IA
I am thinking about Jesus' "Famous Last Words." We focus on last words as having particular significance. This passage captures Jesus' last words (or one of the various versions - even the Luke/Acts writer doesn't record them the same way twice). But are the words, "You will be my witnesses," famous last words like the guy in the US. Patent Office of 1899 saying "Everything that can be invented has been invented."? You will be my witnesses - and good Lord, we are, what an awful choice that was! But other "last words" sum up a person's life, and encapsulate what their purpose was in life. Perhaps Jesus' words are that kind - reminding us that he tried to give the ministry to us all along. (By the way, if you search on "Famous Last Words", there are some very entertaining sites out there!) KE in GB
I have two things to add one a quotation and the other a question:
John Stott wrote in his book "The message of the Acts [IVP 1990], p51) “The was something fundamentally anomalous about their gazing up in the sky when they had been commissioned to go to the ends of the earth..."
and the question:
Are there times when we should "wait on the Holy Spirit" before we act. As we prepare for Pentecost is this a time to remember and perhaps do a bit of praying and waiting?
Some commentaries say that "since the day of Pentecost, it is not necessary for Christians to pray for the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:9)".
Personally I don't read Rom 8:9 that way. To me it all links into the question from v6 when is the Kindgom coming?
If someone asked me that today I might answer "well it's now ... well sort of ... it is for me and my ministry in music but, oh .. well not so much for my ministry in ethics/witness at work".
I think it's the same with the Holy Spirit. We all have it, sure, but which parts of our lives is it working fully in? And so I think it is OK to pray for more of the Spirit, or at least for it to reach more parts of my life. Similarly, it's OK for some of us to pray for the H.S. more earnestly than others at certain times. What do you, my great human helpers, think ?
Oh and now a third thing to offer:
Verse 14 the word "constantly". My greek dictionary also translates this as "to be earnest towards, that is, (to a thing) to persevere, be constantly diligent" and so I rather like the Message Translation of this verse:
"They agreed they were in this for good, completely together in prayer, the women included. Also Jesus’ mother, Mary, and his brothers."
It seems that by verse 14 they had stopped gazing upwards and were getting ready for action!
All the best
Adam in Hertford, UK
PS My Cold is a bit better now! Thanks for the concern Sally (12th May Acts thread)
I was intrigued by the question also, Why are you standing around looking up into heaven? In a lectionary group I go to one of the pastors said they had visited a cathedral in England which had a lot of art, and when you looked up there was a painting of the ascension, which was just the bottoms of two feet. To be Christ witnesses, it seems that we should, as I Peter puts it,Follow his steps, instead of looking at the bottom of his feet as he ascends. Some silly thoughts from an ILLinois preacher. I liked E. Penn comment about our wanting to know certainties too. Just think how many books have been sold by people who purported to know certainties, in spite of Jesus words more than once that only God knows.
To our anonymous sister or brother: Considering the culture in which Luke is writing, the status of women is elevated. We just can't take scriptures that are written in a different culture at a very different time and interpret them with 21st century Western minds. We need to research what the scriptures were saying back there in that time and place and what meaning does it have for today. lp in CO
My thoughts on this passage take me to discerning the difference between when we need to:
Don't just stand there, do something!
or
don't just do something, stand there! (wait)
BJK in PA
Dear Anonymous, Being angry in 2020 about omissions in a text from 1900
hundred or so years is a waste of emotional energy. In the Apocryphal Gospel of
Thomas it is very clear that Peter is jealous of Mary Magdalene, especially when
she reports a vision that Peter has not been given. The traditional author Luke
was a Greek Physician that any mention of the women makes the text is
remarkable. It is likely that the original hearers of these stories knew who the
women were and who Jesus' brothers were so their names were not recorded. When I
find I am angry about an issue I ask, "Why is this threatening to me?" I was
angry with the Apostle Paul and wouldn't teach his letters although I read them
in my daily devotion plan. Then as I was in prayer the Lord said, "Apologize to
your brother Paul." "Yes, Lord, but he has been dead for more than 1900 years."
"You have grieved his spirit." I apologized to Paul and you know his letters
have never been the same. I understand what he was saying in a whole new way. Rev Sue in Cuba, KS
I will be preaching this Mother's Day using the lectionary, and trying to be true to the text, while lifting up the mothers and mother-figures, and acknowledging that at least a couple of people present had mothers that they do consider praise-worthy.
I am thinking that the mother of Jesus is worth considering. She was a strong woman, who first of all said "Yes" to God, knowing what a "child born out of wedlock" meant in her culture. She followed the expectations of her culture, taking him to temple, etc. -- even though she pondered in her heart a frightening prophesy. When he attended a wedding with her, he dismissed her wish that he relieve the newly weds of the taint of inhospitality that would surely be theirs, and he refused. But she persisted and he did turn that water into wine. Lots of it. She was concerned for his reputation, and he snubbed her. But still she supported him, even at his death. And surely she was among his strongest followers. Probably that boy was a lot of heartache for her, yet she became a follower.
I think of all the mothers that have sought to bring their children up well, from what we in Hawaii call "small-kid time". I think of the moms that have stood by their kids when their kids' acts had no redeeming value, but hoping and praying that their children would turn around. I think of Thomas Edison's mom, whose son was sent home from school with a note that said, 'Your child is dumb. We can't do anything for him.' Mrs. Edison wrote back, 'You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself'.
And I think of all this love and support as a mirror -- perhaps a very poor mirror-- of the love God has for us and showed us when he showed up on earth in human form.
So here's to the moms, who like Mary devote themselves to prayer. I think we'll give flowers this Sunday to all the ladies over 18....
HW in HI
Pr. del in IA - nice risqué illustration. Maybe I'll even use it. :)
Adam in Hertford, UK - Your comments are an immense help. Thanks.
Now, my early ramblings seemed to have made some wonder if I was violating the text saying that Mary was with the disciples, keeping an eye on her son's work until the Spirit got there. Well, it was only a preliminary thought, but it has gelled with the comments others have made. Mary was truly part of the early work of the church and though this is the last mention of her in the Bible, I'm hope the honor she deserves for the courage she showed was remembered by the church and should be remembered and admired by us today. Naturally, as a Baptist, I don't hold her up as a co-redemptress, but she is to be admired and lauded for her part in the plan of God.
What is striking me this afternoon is that we are caught in the between times. In the church year, it's the time between Jesus' ascension and the coming of the promised Holy Spirit. So like the apostles and the others we must gather together and constantly devote ourselves to prayer with our brothers and sisters. And in the history of salvation we are in the time between the coming of the Spirit and the promised time when Christ shall come again, even in the same way as they saw him going up to heaven. So what we musst be doing is being witnesses for Christ, even to the ends of the earth.
Barbara in SW MO
