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Unity After Loss: Is praying together one of the keys?

"After He had said this, He [Jesus] was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. While He was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven."  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem -- a Sabbath day's journey away. When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers." [Act 1:9-14 HCSB]

Observations:

Who did what?

  • God took Jesus away from the disciples. 
  • Two men in white clothes appeared to the disciples. 
  • The two men in white clothes asked a question and gave a promise. 
  • The disciples returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (a Sabbath's Day journey).
  • When they got back to Jerusalem they went to an upstairs room where they were staying.
  • The disciples were continually united in prayer along with the women including Mary the mother of Jesus and Jesus' brothers. 
Who said what? 
  • The two men in white said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven." 
What choices were made? 
  • God chose to take Jesus away from the disciples (in physical form)
  • The disciples chose to obey Jesus and returned to Jerusalem together when he was taken.
  • The disciples, women, and family of Jesus chose to remain united in prayer after their loss. 
What choices could have been made? 
  • God could have chosen to leave Jesus for a few thousand years. I would have appreciated that.
  • God could have chosen to leave Jesus until the Gospel had spread a bit farther. Let's face it, He's leaving the fate of the world in the hands of a few fishermen, a tax collector, and some other misfits. They could definitely still use their leader. 
  • The disciples could have chosen to scatter, much like they did at the Garden of Gethsemane. They could have chosen to return to their homes, or even to return to their grief (they have, after all, just "lost" Jesus for the second time). 
  • The disciples could have chosen to build an altar or memorial of some sort on the Mt. of Olives to memorialize where Jesus was taken up into heaven (I kind of wish they would have!)
  • They could have chosen to do anything else but pray in unity, but they didn't. They chose to pray. They chose to pray together. 
Applications: 
  • Today, does God still leave the gospel in the hands of those that hardly seem qualified to share it by human standards? I feel like the testimony of Calvary Chapel (the church I grew up in and still hold near and dear to my heart) is a very similar testimony. God put the gospel in the hands of a bunch of hippies, and they took it pretty far into all the world. God's still up to his same ol' tricks :)
  • Today, do we still unite in prayer after a loss? Part of me does wonder if this story isn't a model of some kind of what to do when God takes someone. Having experienced a recent loss in our family, I have seen how God can bring unity to those who are grieving through prayer. We may not all be in the same place physically, but we have all been in the same place spiritually. I know that grief does not always play itself out that way. I have heard plenty of stories of grief and loss having the opposite effect on families. I think the truth is that when God takes something or someone, it is a turning point for the community it/they has been taken from. There will be a re-assimilation, a re-configuring of sorts. It is a changing point. I know that for me personally, change scares me. I tend to pray more during periods of change than I do when I feel like things are settled. God often uses seasons of change to inspire me into deeper prayer. I think when we pray through change together, that is also pretty powerful. I mean, after these guys prayed through their loss together, the book of Acts happened! 
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