Forty Days

One has to wonder what Jesus told His disciples during the forty days He spent with them from Easter to the Ascension. We get precious little in the Gospels of what Jesus taught during this period. We have to admit, however, that we do hot have every day or every week or even every month of Jesus’ 3-year ministry conclusively documented across all four Gospels. It is actually shocking sparse and there can be little doubt that Jesus performed many more miracles than we imagine. He probably taught things that are not recorded in the Gospels, and there is no doubt that Jesus repeated Himself and reiterated His teachings. We have an example of this with the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew (Mt 5-7) and the teachings found in the Sermon on the Plain found in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 6:20-49).

Therefore a gap in what Jesus taught should not be all that surprising then. But isn’t this 40-day period leading up to the Ascension kind of important? Yes! Things are very different after the Resurrection than they were prior. The Apostles are hardly the same either. They would have listened to Jesus quite differently after Easter than they did before. Even though the details are on the sparse side, we are not totally in the dark here. Luke tells us in our reading from Acts that Jesus “presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”

One of the things Jesus did in those forty days was to cement the reality of the Resurrection firmly in the hearts and minds of the Apostles. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus is so crucial to the faith that He was seen, He was heard, He was touched, He was do doubt smelled, and He tasted food with them. He was recognized in the breaking of the Bread in Emmaus, not just in His words, but by the other senses as well. Jesus was no ghost, no phantasm, no hallucination, no illusion. He had risen.

So, besides driving home the reality of rising from the dead, Jesus also spoke to the Apostles about the Kingdom of God. This too is something that Jesus had to teach about so that there would be no confusion. For example, when Peter, John, and five others chose to go fishing (Jn 21:1-14) and having caught nothing all night, Jesus taught them about the Kingdom of God by bringing about the large catch of 153 large fish that six men could not bring to shore, it is Peter and Peter alone that landed the fish without tearing the net. Thus, Peter is the nexus of unity and the prime Apostle who did what other disciples and Apostles could not do. Jesus instructs Peter to feed and tend the sheep of the Kingdom (Jn 21:15-19). But even after those forty days, the Apostles don’t quite understand. This is evident in their question: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). It is as if the Apostles expected Jesus to enthrone Himself as King in Jerusalem and reign like David over the Holy Land. A common misunderstanding of the Messiah.

This misunderstanding persists to this day. Many followers of Jesus, mostly protestants, think He will return and establish His Kingdom, rebuilding the Temple, and even returning to the ritual sacrifice of various animals. Why does Jesus need an earthly palace, an earthly Temple, or a return to animal sacrifices? Doesn’t He already reign over heaven and earth? Isn’t His Mystical Body – the Church – the new Temple and the earthly manifestation of His Kingdom? Hasn’t Jesus already offered the one true Sacrifice? This misunderstanding is reinforced by misinterpreting Jesus’ words “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority” as if the establishment of His Kingdom lies in the vague future.

The reality is that Jesus does not tell them a specific date, but tells them how and by whom the Kingdom is being established. The Kingdom will spread forth from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And Jesus tells them who will spread the Kingdom of God: the Holy Spirit working through the Apostles.

In other words, the ‘what’ is the Kingdom on earth. The ‘who’ is the Apostles and the Holy Spirit. The ‘how’ is the witness of the Apostles and the Power of the Spirit. The ‘where’ is the mustard seed of Jerusalem growing into the whole world.

—Fr Booth