And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, a cloud taking him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
In a Nutshell
When Jesus had prepared His disciples for the coming of the Spirit, He left. Peter, James and John had seen Moses and Elijah when they were on the mountain with Him but now they were all witnesses of Jesus' lordly departure with the two angelic witnesses.
Questions
What do you think the disciples were talking about on their way
back to Jerusalem immediately after this event?
The little word "up" can sometimes be very irritating. What are we to make of it in the angelic message? And what can we say about this event? What does it mean? What happened? What went on? We could spend days on it … Luke hints strongly that the two men in white robes had a message which is relevant for us.
Something big had happened. Something massive. There's no doubt about that. Jesus had left them. But all the details are beyond us. It is as if Luke is saying that the apostles were not able to say precisely what had happened. The event was witnessed by them all - yes they all agreed that two angels were there - but that's about as much as we can now conclude. It was beyond their abilities to describe. Jesus was there. A cloud came. Jesus was gone. And so, we now hear what the two angles said to the apostles. It's this to which we must listen when we think about Jesus' departure. He has been exalted "up" to God's right hand.
The Son of Man has done what He was sent to do - God's Kingdom is restored in the lives of God's people. When we accept that humankind is back on course, thanks to God's own Son, then we begin to see what the angels were getting at. Peering into heaven is not our regular human task. Our human task does not require us to spend time imagining Jesus going "up" as if He had some kind of jet-propelled rockets on His sandals. Our human task is on this earth. It involves doing what we have been given to do. What we do, our life, is what Jesus has given to us. That is what we do. Our life is living out what He has given as we wait for Him to come.
Trying to look into heaven and figuring out what is going on "up" there, is like trying to work out God's timetable. Such times and the seasons are fixed by God's own authority and so we can work within God's timetable. We accept it as a given. The admonition of the angels reminded the apostles that they were under orders to remain in Jerusalem until the coming of the Spirit. This was just as Jesus had said and then the work would take them to the ends of the earth. In God's own time that will be completed and then Jesus will return.