Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 33 · February 2
Ye Shall Be Witnesses
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
What was the last question the disciples asked Jesus before He was taken up into heaven?
Acts tells us: "they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus had been appearing to them for forty days since He rose from the dead, and they wanted to know the date.
Jesus will not give them one. "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Then He gives them a different sentence in place of the one they wanted: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." He does not argue with their hope or explain the kingdom to them. He turns the whole subject to what they will be doing while they wait without knowing.
Witness is a courtroom word, and Acts uses it carefully. Later in the same chapter, the disciples set out to replace Judas. The man they choose must have been with them the whole time, from John's baptism to the day Jesus was taken up, so that he can be "a witness with us of his resurrection." A witness is someone who was there and tells what he saw. Anyone who wants to argue with him has to argue as someone who was not there.
Now look at the map Jesus gives them: Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and "the uttermost part of the earth." It reads like a table of contents for the rest of Acts. For the people standing there, Samaria was the hard name on that list, because Jews and Samaritans kept well away from each other. Jesus put it on the list anyway, and He did not make it optional.
Then He was taken up, and they stood staring into the sky until two men in white asked them why. They did not need to keep looking up, because the promise had already been made. The power would come, because the Holy Spirit would come. And the job Jesus gave them was smaller and heavier than the one they had asked about: be there, and tell what you saw.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 33 is What to Wear (Colossians 3:12).