Chapter 7 - Martha
...‘I am the resurrection, and I am the life.’ he’d said to me, and he was… I could feel the vitality of his life… his presence… it covered the whole mountain!...
Acts 1:3-11
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’
6 Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’
7 He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’
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Background:
This passage poses several questions… Why does Jesus ascend into the sky rather than disappear as he did after the previous appearances? Let’s face it, both ways of leaving seem more than a little bizarre, but why do something different on this occasion? Where and when does it take place, and who was present?
As before, it helps to have more information on the passage before we look at it through Martha’s eyes.
This is the last time the New Testament records Jesus appearing to the disciples who were with him during his ministry. Acts 9:3-6 records Jesus appearing again to St Paul on the road to Damascus, but that was a different type of appearance to the ones witnessed by the apostles.
The location for this appearance is the Mount of Olives. It doesn’t make that clear in the passage above, but in the next verse (Acts 1:12) it says that ‘the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives.’
The Mount of Olives is a hill just to the east of Jerusalem, and its peak is about 80m higher than the temple mount in Jerusalem. So, when you stood at the top, you looked down on the grandeur of the temple and all of Jerusalem spreading out below you.
The Mount of Olives comes up often in the Gospels…
When Jesus approached Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, Luke records that he wept when he saw the city (Luke 19:28-41). His first sighting of the city would have been as he reached the top of the Mount of Olives.
It was when he was sitting on the Mount of Olives that Jesus told his disciples there was a time coming when the temple would be destroyed (Matt 24:3, Mark 13:3)
Luke records that in that final week he spent each night on the Mount of Olives (Luke 21:37).
Between the Mount of Olives and the mountain that Jerusalem is built on, there is the Kidron Valley. And at the foot of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before he was arrested (Matt 26:36).
Acts 1:3 says that Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days. As this is the last recorded appearance, then this must have been the 40th day after the Passover, which makes it 10 days before the Jewish festival of Shavuot (commonly known as the Feast of Weeks). This festival was linked to the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22) and it started 50 days after the first day of Passover, which is why it was sometimes referred to as Pentecost (Pentecost comes from the Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) meaning "fiftieth").
Over that 40-day period, Acts 1:3 says that Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom of God (a key theme in his teaching since the beginning of his ministry). The Jews were expecting the Messiah to bring Israel back to its former glory and saw the kingdom of God as synonymous with the kingdom of Israel.
For anyone who has ever worked hard to get an idea across to someone, and they just haven’t got it, it may be a relief to realise that even Jesus failed to get his disciples to understand the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Israel… even after 3 years of teaching before his crucifixion, and 40 more days of teaching after the resurrection, the disciples still ask, ‘Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?’ (Acts 1:6). I wonder if Jesus rolled his eyes at that question.
For the Great Commission, Matthew says that it was just the 11 apostles present, but Luke (the author of Acts) does not specify how many of the disciples were present at the ascension. However, in Acts 1:13-14, he names the 11 disciples and then goes on to say that ‘the women’, Mary (the mother of Jesus) and his brothers (Acts 1:14) were also there with them. Acts 1:15 says Peter stands up to address the believers in the upper room, and they number about 120. So, the implication is that there were far more of Jesus’ disciples at the Mount of Olives than just the 11 apostles. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul records that on one occasion Jesus appeared to five hundred of his followers (1 Corinthians 15:6). It’s possible that the ascension was the occasion where that number of people witnessed the risen Jesus.
If hundreds of Jesus’ followers were gathered in one spot, wouldn’t that have alerted the authorities? Not necessarily. Groups of pilgrims would frequently have been making their way to Jerusalem, so another few groups converging outside the city wouldn’t draw much attention. Also, in the days before the types of communication we have today, it was a lot harder to keep track of people. In 1642, at the start of the English civil war, opposing armies totalling 26,000 men nearly missed each other, even though they were camped only a few miles apart in South Warwickshire. So, it’s more than possible that the Jewish and Roman authorities were unaware of this gathering of Jesus’ followers.
Finally, why this strange ending with Jesus ascending into the sky? And before that, how does Jesus appear and disappear at will?
For the latter, advanced mathematics and theoretical physics embrace the idea of multiple dimensions beyond the space and time we experience. And many sci-fi stories explore the idea of moving between those dimensions. So, it would be entirely reasonable for a God who is beyond space and time to be able to move in and out of our dimensions. But why change and do something different for this last time? I’ve read various theories on the spiritual and theological reasons for this, but I wonder if the main reason is psychological. I believe that Jesus leaves in this way to help his disciples understand that his departure this time is different:
We know that heaven is not in the sky, but in Jesus’ time, heaven was definitely regarded as being beyond the sky, so Jesus ascends after this last appearance to make it clear that he is now going to his Father in heaven, as he said he would (John 20:17)
To the disciples present, Jesus ascending like this would be a reminder of the story in 2 Kings 2, when Elijah doesn’t die but ascends to heaven. The Jews believed that Elijah would come again to herald the coming of the Messiah. Jesus identified John the Baptist as that same Elijah come again on earth. Similarly, the two men in white say that Jesus will come again (Acts 1:11).
This would all speak volumes to the disciples.I think the appearances, disappearances, and finally the ascension, are all part of a process Jesus uses to help his disciples get ready to be operating in the world without him being physically present.
When I was in the Air Training Corps, I learnt to fly a powered glider (a Venture T Mk2). This is a twin seated glider with a propeller on the front that allows it to take off under its own power, and then you switch off the engine to glide. When I started learning, the instructor would talk me through what we would do, then he would hand over to me saying, ‘You have control.’ to which I would reply, ‘I have control.’ However, at the beginning of my training, I rarely felt like I had any control… I remember being scared and thinking I don’t have a clue what I’m doing. Gradually I learnt to fly, but it was always comforting to know that the instructor was sitting next to me. Then came the day when he got out of the cockpit and sent me off on my own. I would never have thought I was ready, but he did, and he knew that the only way I was going to move forward was to be given the responsibility.
Similarly, I think that the ascension is a way for Jesus to make it clear to his disciples that he is giving them responsibility for what happens next.
I’ve chosen to share this story from the perspective of Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus. Acts Chapter 1 doesn’t record Martha as being present at the Ascension. However, Martha’s home in Bethany was a place that Jesus and the apostles frequently visited, and John records that Jesus was very close to this family (John 11:5). Bethany would have been on the route that the disciples took as they came south from Galilee to the Mount of Olives. So, if this was the occasion when Jesus appeared to 500 disciples, then it seems reasonable that Martha would have been among them.
Martha sometimes gets bad press because she is seen to be too busy taking care of her guests to sit and listen to Jesus, as her sister Mary does (Luke 10:38-42). In the passage, Martha criticises Mary for not helping, and Jesus says, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’
However, someone has to take care of the guests. You don’t invite Jesus and his followers to dinner and then sit back and hope that somehow everything will get sorted. I don’t want to write a sermon on Mary and Martha but in short… I don’t think that Jesus is saying that it’s wrong to be busy, or that it’s always right to just sit and listen to him. It’s not about choosing between activity and prayerful contemplation. Both prayer and action are part of what we do in following Jesus. However, our personalities, gifts, and passions are different, so the balance of the need for prayer and action will be different for each of us. And that balance may change over the years. So perhaps Jesus doesn’t correct Martha because of her busyness, but because of her criticism of Mary’s choice.
I thank God for the many Marthas there are in the church because they get things done. And I thank God for the many Marys, too, because of the inspiration they bring and the things that happen because of their prayers.
I see Martha as a doer, someone that loves to help, to get stuck in, to make things happen. She would be in her element having to look after a large number of guests, revelling in the challenge, and taking great satisfaction in ensuring their needs were met.
So, with all that in mind, pause, and ask God to speak to you through this reflection, read Acts 1:3-11 again, and then imagine that you have Martha sitting with you (or more likely working in the kitchen alongside you), sharing her story, witnessing to what happened on that day.
As before, when you read through the Bible passage and the story:
Take time to notice how you feel about what you are reading.
Are there things in the story that jar, or resonate with you?
Are there things that surprise you or that you disagree with?
Why is that?If you were Martha, how would it feel to have all those guests arriving unexpectedly? What does it feel like to hear all the stories of the times that the risen Jesus appeared to people? How would you feel if you knew you would meet the risen Jesus tomorrow?
At the end of the story, before moving on to the thoughts and questions for reflection, pause and ask God what he might be wanting you to take from this.
If you find it helpful, make notes in a journal as you read and pray.
Click here or on the button below to read Martha’s story.