Week 42 Acts
There’s a bit of a lull as the book begins. The Lord had miraculously left earth for the second-last time: he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
Once the Lord was gone the disciples just stood there looking up at the clouds that were already reshaping in the breeze and drifting across a Mediterranean sky. They were kind of transfixed. Immobilized: looking intently up into the sky… Until they were interrupted by two men dressed in white who told them: this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way. Then they went back into the city and waited.
One exercise they did in the meantime – along with the women who followed the Lord – was to devote themselves to prayer.
There was also a practical detail to deal with – that was to replace Judas (in a sombre note Luke said Judas had left his apostleship to: go where he belongs). The apostles used a pretty interesting and maybe unorthodox selection technique. They chose two men – Barsabbas and Matthias – who had known the Lord from the very beginning. So with two good candidates for one important position what-to-do-next? The early church drew straws: and the lot fell to Matthias.
There’s a bit of a lull as Acts begins but things pick up the pace in chapter two.
Note: quotes from Acts 1:9-11, 25-26 (NIV)