Day 227: Acts 1:1–11

Why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven (v. 11).

Luke begins the Book of Acts, the companion volume to the Gospel of Luke, at the end of Christ’s earthly tenure. Luke tells us Jesus had showed Himself to be alive “by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3 hcsb). Now at the end of that time, Christ and His disciples gathered at the Mount of Olives.

Try to imagine being one of the eleven on the hillside that day. Verse 11 seems to imply they were all standing, so imagine that they were basically eye to eye with Jesus, not letting a single word from His mouth fall to the ground. Jesus promised them the power of the Holy Spirit. Then without warning the disciples realized that they were glancing somewhat upward as He seemed a tad taller. As He rose a head above them, surely some of them looked down and saw that His feet were no longer on the ground. Luke 24:50 tells us Christ was blessing them as He lifted off the ground. Can you imagine what they were thinking and feeling?

Perhaps by now your imagination has drawn a rough sketch of the apostle John on the canvas of your mind. Picture him and the others bug-eyed with their mouths gaping open. Had my grandmother been one of the disciples (a frighteningly funny thought), she would have stood there saying, “Now, don’t that just beat all?” I feel sure they said something comparable in Aramaic.

Just about the time they might have tried to rub the supernatural sight out of their eyes, God threw a cloudy cloak of shekinah glory over His beloved Son and swept Him home. Oh, don’t you know the Father had been watching the clock of earth for that precious moment to finally arrive? While Christ was no prodigal, He was most assuredly a son who had journeyed to a foreign land. I can almost hear the Father say to His servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:22–24 hcsb). Had the angels not broken the stare, the remains of eleven stiff carcasses might still be on the Mount of Olives today.