Here the travel narrative ends. Luke recorded it just as he did any other stop on their journey (Acts 18:11;Acts 18:18; Acts 20:6; Acts 21:4; Acts 25:6; Acts 25:14; Acts 28:12).
He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
So, it feels unfinished. It feels like there is more to come. You want to turn the page. There is no valediction or other close to the book, which is much like the way Luke closed his gospel account.
And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Luke does not avoid martyrdom having recorded that of John the Baptist (Luke 3:19–20, 9:9), Steven (Acts 7:54-60), and James the brother of John (Acts 12:1-5). But Luke does not record the final acts of either Peter, Paul, John, or James.
The temptation for us would be to piece together Paul’s fourth missionary journey to Spain and eventual martyrdom from the evidence within his copious epistles, but that would be a disservice to the ending of this book.
Luke is not documenting the end but rather the beginning of the Church. With each event, each visit, each conversation, being one more stone in its construction.
James also closes his epistle in this unfinished style (James 5) with a series of admonitions but without any valediction. One of the last concerns prayer for an ill believer.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
James encourages us to commit the sick to the will of God in prayer. Then, God may heal them miraculously in the moment, or over time using the God-designed self-healing mechanisms of the body, or in God’s providence the believer may, in fact, die. It would be a misreading to understand that this verse guarantees healing.
But regardless of the outcome, the Lord will raise them up. The Lord will forgive. James is not pointing us to the surety of healing but rather to the surety of resurrection.
Why then the oil? Anointing with oil sets someone or something apart as holy and for a purpose. The reader is encouraged to search the 25 other occurrences in scripture to confirm this. We do a disservice then to connect it here with healing.
But in our humanity, we want something magical and under our power to heal our loved-one, when in fact we simply are being told to set them apart for God’s holy purpose. That purpose may be present and temporary or future and eternal, but it does not end.
So, then it is fitting that the Acts of the Apostles is left unfinished!
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