This passage occurs for Ascension in the RCL, all three years; sometimes this is celebrated on a Thursday, the 40th day after Easter; other times it takes the place of Easter 7.
I added in 2022: A long digression about repentance and metanoia
Summary: Normally good-byes are sad. But not the Ascension! Luke wants to point out a few things about the ascension. Namely that it is a commissioning; a celebration; and a crescendo. A closer look at the Greek suggests this often overlooked story is vitally important for the Christian understanding of God in Christ Jesus. In fact, Luke's account of the Ascension challenges me to include sending in my list of core Gospel actions: forgiveness and resurrection. (If that just sounds too much for your Lutheran piety, you can go with this: Jesus knows that preaching forgiveness will get us into trouble because, well, the world cannot handle law and Gospel.
Key Words:
μαρτυρες ("witness", from μαρτυς, 24:48) The Greek word there for witness is "martyros," from which we get our word Martyr. It originally had a simple legal connotation, as in give testimony, or generally, to speak on someone's behalf. Yet in the Christian context, it very quickly came to mean suffer for this proclamation, including Jesus himself. So Jesus says (literally), "You are martyrs of these things." This is the ultimate commissioning: You will go out and testify to the resurrection and forgiveness of sins and be persecuted for it.
χαρας ("joy", from χαρα, 24:52) Luke uses this word more than other authors. It is significant that worship of the ascended Christ still fills the believers with great joy. Luke makes the point: Just because Jesus isn't here on earth doesn't mean we cannot worship him. In fact, worship of the risen (and ascended Christ) still fills the believers with joy. Jesus ascension means unlimited access instead of only local contact; hence the possibility of a universal church.
προσκυνησαντες ("worship", προσκυνεω, 24:52) For all of the times Luke has Jesus praying, this is the only instance where people are worshiping in his Gospel. The only other mention of the verb is in the temptation of Christ where Jesus declares we must worship God alone. For Luke, the ascension confirms Jesus' divinity in a way that allows the disciples to worship him as God in way even his resurrection did not. The ascension completes his first mission on earth: his suffering, his resurrection and his commissioning. Now he shall return to be exalted and come again in glory.
διηνοιξεν ("open", 24:45) We saw this verb last week in Acts account of Lydia's Baptism. It is interesting that this word is associated in Acts and Luke with understanding the Word. It also suggests the need for proclamation, because the Scriptures need to be opened. They are not self-explanatory.
αρξαμνοι (participle form of "αρχω" meaning, in middle voice, to begin; 24:47) In both Luke 24 and Acts 1, this word shows up: begin. The three year ministry of Jesus Christ is only the beginning of the work of God! The promised Holy Spirit will move the disciples forward in mission and ministry!
αποστελλω ("sending"; 24:49) This is the only indicative verb in this entire section is present tense. I would argue this is the last action of Jesus on behalf of his disciples: To send the Spirit. One could make the argument, I think, this is why Jesus came back from the dead. To send out the Spirit! Interestingly, it is only once Jesus has sent the Spirit that the disciples can worship!
One could also argue that this is in the present tense, suggesting that Jesus is continually (always) sending forth the Spirit.
καθισατε ("sit", καθιζω, 24:49) The disciples are told to "sit" until the Holy Spirit comes. Part of the Christian life is waiting.
δυναμιν ("power" from δυναμις. 24:49) This word comes into English as dynamite. Christ calls us to be both the martrys and dynamite for the world. The two seem related in tragic ways; yet, Christ does not call us to cause suffering in others, but simply to suffer for others as the world persecutes the news of forgiveness and resurrection.
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μετανοια(ν) (literally metanoia, meaning perhaps "repentance", 24:47). This is a word whose history of translation is fascinating.
In classic Greek, the word simply meant: "change one's mind" (Fascinating article on this here. I believe it is by Robert Wilken.). The word retains this meaning when used in the Greek OT. In fact, in the translation of the OT into Greek, the translators almost never translated the classic OT word for repentance "shub" (שוב) as metonoia. The more common word translated as metanoia is "nakham" (נחם), which means to change one's mind, often after emotional consideration. For a variety of reasons that remain unclear to me, in the early Latin church, the word came to be understood as "do penance." Apparently Tertullian indicated this word should have been translated as "convert."
Codified by St. Jerome, this translation of metanoia as 'do penance' became the standard in Latin Christianity. This way of thinking would hold sway over a millennia until late Medieval translators (Wycliffe and Luther) came along and 'liberated' the word from the medieval penance system. The first of the 95 theses, in fact, is about the translation of this word! Generally, these translators used words having to do with regret and repentance - emotionally loaded words.
Today, a critique of translating metanoia as "repent" has emerged. Interestingly, one of those leading the charge is Richard Rohr, who aims for the pre-biblical idea of "change one's mind" or "new mind." While I am not convinced that Rohr goes as far as his students, I think that some of his followers get pretty close to Gnosticism (see here for an example of this), wanting to claim that a specific new mind set, liberated from the past vestiges of bad religion, will free them to be special people.
That said, Rohr and others make a valuable contribution: shame has limits. True spirituality is not about fear and regret, but love and hope. I also wonder how often our people experience shame over sins that are not biblical. I mean, how many people in our congregations are taking anxiety medicine because they haven't lived up the beatitudes? Far more often we lead lives of shame and are plagued with a sense of inadequacy that has nothing to do with a failure to love their neighbor, but rather living up to the expectations of their neighbor. Metanoia in this case then often means rejecting these false judges and replacing them with ourselves as the determiner of true living. Progress, I guess, but not terra firma.
That aside, God is okay with humans experiencing regret. The people on Pentecost were, as it turns out, cut to the heart. As Paul writes in 2 Cor 9-10, there is such a thing as godly sorrow. Furthermore, metanoia does seem to imply regret in the Bible (Luke 17:4)
Alas, what to do. I offer that the word metonoia has at least two strands of meaning:- 'insight': when one has a paradigm shift that leads one to reconsider old ways to operating
- 'regret': when one has an emotional experience of guilt (perhaps even shame) that leads one to reconsider old ways of operating.
The former seems more Greek, the later more Hebrew. While the NT is written in Greek, it is also hard to separate out the Jewish mindset of most of the New Testament voices. Would first century Jews really aimed for a repentance that was simply a matter of "have a new mind"?
In this case (Luke 24:47), Jesus says "repentance for forgiveness of sins" (They are linked by the preposition εις). One way we could understand this verse to mean this: repentance -- feeling bad -- is a precursor to forgiveness. This works well and is an easily defended position.
However, I think one is also justified in saying that Jesus is saying, proclaim "a new way of thinking that results in the forgiveness of sins." This could mean, for example, that one believes that forgiveness is actually possible! I wonder how many people this is the new mind they actually need -- that a God of mercy is on the loose in this world!
Grammar concept: hendiadys; or in this case, hendiatris
Hendiadys refers to the literary device of using two words to mean one thing. For instance: "formless and void" of Genesis 1 means "a whole lot of nothing!" or perhaps more accurately, "chaos."
In this case, Jesus refers to Scriptures by calling them: Moses, Prophets and Psalms. Here he is referring to all of the OT, not simply Gen-Deut; 12 prophets and Psalms. He is laying out the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) division of Scripture.
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