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FROM A READING FOR MAY 14 or 17, ASCENSION
'He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight....Suddenly, two men in white robes stood by them. They said..."Jesus...has been taken up from you into heaven..."' -- Acts 1:10-11

(Editor's note: This column is based on the May 14 readings for the feast of the Ascension.)

It's important to understand that this Gospel passage (Mark 16:15-20) originally wasn't part of Mark's Gospel.

The passage isn't found in any of the earliest and best Marcan manuscripts, and none of the earliest Church "Fathers" seemed to know of its existence. Even the bishops at the Council of Trent in 1545 agreed it was an addition to the Gospel.

Most scholars today believe it was written about 100 years after the original Gospel, a century or so before Christians began to regard gospels as divinely-inspired Scripture -- at a time when it wasn't regarded as "sinful" to tamper with what later would be called sacred writings.

The question is, why was it written, and why was it eventually attached to Mark's Gospel?

Many Marcan experts contend its composition had something to do with the way Mark's Gospel originally ended. In 16:8, after the angel tells the women at the tomb, "Go, tell His disciples and Peter, 'He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him,'" the evangelist mentions, "They went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."

Out there?
Having read the three other Gospel empty-tomb passages, we're logically expecting some post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Though Mark's angel promises an encounter with the risen Jesus in Galilee, he abruptly ends his Gospel without narrating it.

The readers of this first Gospel are left to wonder where the risen Jesus is. He's simply "out there somewhere." No telling where you'll run into Him.

The person responsible for this addition seemingly wanted to put order into something that originally wasn't very ordered: Jesus' post-resurrection activity. How long did He stick around? To whom did He appear? Where did He appear? Did He eventually ascend into heaven, like Luke says; or is He still in our midst, as Mark, Matthew and John contend?

An unknown writer tried to pull all these diverse (and often contradictory) elements together, squeezing them into an orderly pattern and attaching them to a Gospel that originally narrated no such activity. He or she felt obligated to "fill in the blanks."

Yet, the disorder in the Gospel and I Corinthians 15 accounts of how people experienced the risen Jesus seems to have mirrored the fact that there was no one way to appreciate and understand the activity of this "new creation" in the lives of those who believed in Him.

Carrying on
Luke, the author of Acts (1:1-11), appears to have believed that the risen Jesus' presence for 40 days after Easter was proof that the Apostles' teaching was authentically rooted in His teaching. That's why, in some sense, Jesus' physical presence wasn't needed anymore. Though Luke's Christ eventually ascended into heaven, His disciples could now legitimately carry on His work. They were "graduates" of that unique 40-day course in Christianity.

Other Christian sacred authors had different experiences. The Pauline disciple responsible for the letter to the Ephesians (1:17-23) speaks about the risen Jesus as being "seated at [God's] right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion."

He's a majestic being. All things are "beneath his feet...and He's the head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way." The writer is obviously overcome with the power of the risen Jesus, not necessary with His immanence.

Followers of Jesus are expected to "pay their money, and take their pick." Our personal relationships with that new creation create the norms we follow. Though it's important to reflect on other people's experiences, none of them were ever meant to trump our own. [[In-content Ad]]

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