Ascension of the Lord, May 9, 2013: Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:44-53
What is it those angels invite us to see on the earth from the Mount of Olives?
The Augusta Victoria Hospital sits on the highest point of the Mount of Olives, one of the sites claimed to be the place from which Jesus ascended into heaven. Administered by the Lutheran World Federation, hospital staff serve Palestinians who are living in the midst of occupation. Every day medical personnel and patients navigate Israeli checkpoints and closures to reach this hospital in East Jerusalem, which is renowned for its radiation therapy and pediatric kidney dialysis.
From a church tower on the grounds one can see the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim and the separation barrier that snakes across the West Bank landscape. Next door is the land known as Area E-1. Palestinians and international governments oppose Israel’s plans to build here, as it is the last remaining West Bank land that connects East Jerusalem to the rest of Palestinian territory.
A late 19th-century mosaic on the high apse wall of the hospital’s Church of the Ascension portrays the ascending Jesus on a cloud and flanked by two angels. The angels are gazing not up at the ascending Jesus but out toward the congregation. They point both us and the disciples in this text earthward: “Why are you standing looking up toward heaven?” they ask.
