From Ascensiontide to Pentecost, 1

In the classical Roman Rite, the liturgy lingers on one small, short passage from the Acts of the Apostles--

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom He had chosen (Acts 1:1-2).

Do you see something curious about what St Luke the Evangelist said?  "[A]ll that Jesus began to do and teach..."  Began!  The entire "first book"--the Gospel According to Luke--was simply about what "...all Jesus began to do and  teach..."  Think about it:  The story of Jesus, from the Incarnation (Lk 1:26-38) up to and including His Ascension (Lk 24:50-51) that St Luke records in his "first book" was only a beginning.

If St Luke's gospel was only a 'beginning,' where's the rest of the story?

St Mark the Evangelist does something similar in his gospel:  "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mk 1:1).  Again, Mark's "beginning" spans the baptism of Jesus (Mk 1:9-1) all the way to His Ascension in the longer, canonical ending (Mk 16:19).

Again, if St Mark's gospel was only a 'beginning,' where's the rest of the story?

In a word:  "Christ" is the beginning of Jesus' story.  "Christians" are the continuation of that same story of Jesus Christ.

The longer ending of the Gospel According to Mark concludes thus:

And they whent forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signes that attended it.  Amen (Mk 16:20).

The "two men" who were dressed "in white robes" essentially tell the Apostles to quit lollygagging and get busy--

Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?  This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in teh same way as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11).

In a forthcoming post, I will talk about the relationship between the Ascension of the Lord and His Return.  For now, we need to explore what St Luke meant by telling this "Theophilus" that the prequel to his Acts of the Apostles was only about what Jesus "began to do and teach."

What happened between Ascension and Pentecost?  Jesus took His seat at the Father's right hand--which is to say He took up His rightful throne to rule, to inaugurate His Lordship.  I do not mean that Jesus was without authority previously; I mean that His Lordship took upon itself a new modality, thanks to Pentecost.  St Paul makes a clear connexion between the Paschal Mystery and the Lordship of Jesus:

None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  I fwe live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.  For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Rom 14:7-9). 

Mind you, St Paul was writing to a Roman audience, where the Greek word for Lord, Kyrie, was a loaded one.  Whenever the Roman Emperor processed into the City with booty from war, the citizens of Rome would line up alongside the road where the Emperor was passing by and shout out, "Kyrie, eleison!  Kyrie, eleison!"

Yes, that's where we got the liturgical expression.  We'll come back to this in a moment.

Ten days after the Ascension, the very first Christian sermon was preached.  At one point, St Peter said:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified!

Both of these titles have to do with the Holy Spirit.  As "Christ," Jesus was the "Anointed One," that is, chock-full of the Holy Spirit.   He was concevied by the Holy Spirit (Mt 1:18, 20; Lk 1:35); He was "driven" by the Holy Spirit to face down Satan in the wilderness (Mt 4:1; Lk 4:1; Mk 1:12); He "rejoiced in the Holy Spirit" (Lk 10:21f), and was even raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:11).  In fact, the mission of Jesus was not merely about forgiveness of sins and eternal life; those were, really, part of the 'package deal' of the Gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised.  Just before His baptism, St John the Forerunner promised that the Coming One--Jesus--who wil "baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Lk 3:16).  They were about to get, finally, what Jesus came for.

That is why the Four Evangelists all begin with the story of St John the Forerunner--it was not only his baptizing Jesus that was important, but his prophetic word about Jesus' ministry which would be a long preparation for Pentecost.  Hence, just before His Ascension, Jesus spoke of the "promise of the Father which, He said, 'you heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 1:4-5)

But there is a significant information gap, and a very telling one at that.  Just prior to His Ascension, St Luke tells us, Jesus spent forty days with His disciples

...speaking of the Kingdom of God.  And while staying with them He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father... (Acts 1:3-4).

One searches in vain for much reference to this "Kingdom of God" which the Risen Jesus spoke about in the Resurrection narratives.  What, exactly, did Jesus say about the Kingdom?  Where are His words?  No details are given.

Here's why:  The Gospel proclamation is precisely about the Kingdom of God (Mt 4:23; cf Mk 1:15), one that we would become members of thanks to baptism and the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:5).  What Jesus said--and was left unrecorded by the Evangelists--is precisely the content of the Gospel's preaching.

The Upper Room, where the Holy Spirit was outpoured upon the Apostles (Acts 1:13; cf 2:1), was (and is) located on Mount Sion.  This was not fortuitious.  In many places, "Mount Sion" was the place of the King of Israel:  "I have set up My King on Sion, My holy mountain" (Ps 2:6); "His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy fo all the earth.  Mount Sion, in the far north, the city of the great King" (Ps 48:2); verses could be easily multiplied.  But the fact that the Holy Spirit was first outpoured on Mount Zion shows a connexion between the Holy Spirit and Jesus' dominion.  Hence "the Gospel of the Kingdom."

Remember what I said earlier about the Romans lining up, shouting "Kyrie, eleison" to receive from the Emperor's largesse?  That is exactly what happens between Christ and Christians:

 And from His [= Jesus'] fulness have we all recceived, grace upon grace (Jn 1:16);

...and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (1 Tim 1:14);

...It is like the precious oil upon the head [= Christ], running down upon the beard, upon the beard of Aaron, running down thecollar of his robes!  It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls uopn the mountains of Zion!  It is there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore (Ps 133:2-3).

When Jesus was enthroned at the Father's right hand, He "received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit" and "has poured out this which you see and hear" (Acts 2:33).  Thus, like the oil flowing down from Aaron's crown, the Holy Spirit overflowed from Christ to Christians.  And having received those same Seven Gifts which Jesus was anointed with (Is 11:2-3 LXX), His disciples then take on a certain likeness to Jesus, a certain 'connaturality' with Him:  This is the source of Jesus' Lordship over Christians--Jesus is Lord over us Christians because we are conformed to Him by receiving the same Holy Spirit that He has in such a way that we "live as He lived" (1 Jn 5:6).

The mediaeval Christians got it right when they depicted the Ascension and Pentecost together (as in the image above), because the Ascension of Jesus instigated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon His disciples, thus moving them to submit themselves to His sweet and gentle Lordship.

And that, my friends, is how we continue the story of Jesus:  The Holy Spirit overflowed from Christ to Christians, from the Head to the Body, so that your life and mine would be the many spin-offs of the Acts of the Apostles telling the story of the same Lord Jesus to the world, all in the power of Pentecost.

Be the sequel to the story of Jesus!