What was Jesus’ final gift to the disciples/church?
Though you can argue many answers to this gospel question, all of them scripturally based, I wonder if his final gift was not the “peace” of the resurrection accounts, nor even the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost. Rather, I wonder if Jesus’ final gift to the disciples/church was that he left them/us? Perhaps Jesus’ final gift to the disciples and the church was that he left us.
Like the parent who is teaching a kid to ride a bike, you walk first, then run along side of the child as s/he strives to keep their balance. And then, if you are really good, you are able to let go without your son/daughter knowing that you have let go. They are surprised for just a moment, and then JOY takes over as they ‘ride under their own power.’ Sure, you are there to pick them up should they fall, to dust them off, and clean up the wounds – but once you have taught them to ride, they no longer need you in the same way.
So, too, with Jesus at his Ascension. Before the disciples really could take it in that he was going, Jesus was taken up to the heavens. And because he knew his disciples would need a little ‘kick start’ – Jesus send an ‘angel’ to them: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to the heavens?” “Don’t you know, it is in your hands – his mission; it’s on your hearts to bring his kingdom to fruition.”
Think for a moment about the faith Jesus had in the disciples, and in us. After pouring himself into them for three years, after dying on the cross for the redemption of the world, after returning to them in the power of Easter, Jesus left the entire enterprise of his mission to that group of disciples, and by extension, to us. Now that is an amazing faith indeed! Jesus trusted that his disciples would not fail with the mission. Even after their many failures, from Peter’s denial of knowing Jesus, to Judas’ betrayal, to all of the disciples repeated failures to grasp the point of his teaching, Jesus still had the courage to leave them. What an audacious faith was this on the part of Jesus!
In fact, the very last question they asked Jesus before he ascended showed how far they still had to go in their understanding. They were still stuck in the notion that he had come to earth to establish an earthly rule for Israel over other nations, leaving them on thrones of authority in the new regime. “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel,” they asked with one last question before their Master left.
You can almost hear Jesus’ sigh.
Yet he still has the courage to LEAVE US. To entrust to us the mission. It is ours to do. Like a mother who gives birth to their child, though they don’t necessarily look forward to the coming of the day, they know that at one point, their child has to be launched into the world. And though they may not do it perfectly, isn’t that what each of our mother’s has taught us in their sacrificial love? – How to take up our place in the world. And so Jesus’ final gift is that he does indeed leave us. And now his love is our to bring to the world.
So, I had a meeting this week about just that – how do WE, as a parish, empower one another with the task that Jesus leaves us to do – to be his presence? The gist is simple, and you will see this, hopefully, as we roll it out over the course of the next year or two. And that is to plan and evaluate everything that we do according to three criteria.
How/how well does it help people to ENCOUNTER Jesus?
How/how well does it help people to GROW in their relationship with Jesus?
And How/How well does it help people to SHARE (witness) Jesus?
ENCOUNTER, GROW, SHARE. Those are the three practical ways we take the final gift of Jesus – his leaving of us, his ENTRUSTING of us the mission of the church – into this world of ours.
Sometimes, absence seems like the worst kind of gift anyone can give us. For Jesus – to leave us was perhaps his greatest act of trust – and his greatest empowering of us as his disciples. Spend some time encountering our Lord in prayer. Ask him what still needs to GROW in you. And then share that story with all whom will listen…