1:6 Therefore, when
they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to
know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you
shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of
the earth.”
I love it! Do you remember when Jesus took Peter for a walk
on the beach and told him how he was going to die? Peter immediately looked
around and pointed at another disciple and said "What about him?!" Do
you remember what Jesus said? He basically said "What does that have to do
with you? You follow Me!"
In other words the details of another man's journey were none
of Peter's business.
Now a few weeks later the disciples want to peer into the
future again. This time it's just a ridiculous question. They want to know when
Jesus is going to overthrow the Roman occupation and give Israel back to Israel.
Jesus never said He would do any such thing but bad theology built of
generations of repeating it had convinced the people that this is what the
Messiah would do. Now that Jesus has died (which wasn't part of "the
plan") and risen again they are assuming He can get back to the "real
plan".
Jesus' response is a rebuke to how we would have handled the
situation. We would have launched into correcting their bad theology. We would
have made sure they knew how wrong they were and why. We would have buried them
in proof after proof to ensure they never entertained such a wrong and stupid
idea again.
Jesus did no such thing. He didn't even really address the
question. He basically said it was none of their business and then drew their
attention back to what was their business. See paying attention and staying
focused is not only a modern day challenge. Humanity has always tended to drift
off into rabbit trails that have little or nothing to do with the task at hand.
Jesus' response is genius. He says "Let the Father worry
about those details. Your job right now is to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy
Spirit. When He comes upon you, you are going to receive power and become
witnesses to Me here and all over the world."
He just reined them back in. Brought them back into focus.
Put their attention back on their present situation.
How often do we spend time and energy contemplating/worrying
about the future and some big event that may or may not come all the while
missing out on the present? I feel as Christians we are guilty of this way too
much. We are worried about being good enough 'some day' or when the prophecies
of Revelation will unfold or when Jesus will come. We wonder why 'the church'
isn't growing faster, or why it isn't more effective etc... We have these ideas
of how things are supposed to be and we wonder when it's all going to happen.
We pray "Jesus are you at this time going to fix me and/or fix the church
and/or turn this community/world upside down?"
Do you think Jesus has a different answer for us? I don't. I
think He is still saying "Let the Father sweat the big stuff. Just make
sure you are doing the things I am asking you to do today. Remember Susie down
the street that I asked you to visit? Let's start there..."
"Today if you hear His voice..."
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