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This Same Jesus

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 20, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 3.

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This Same Jesus

By F. M. W.

THE early disciples loved their Lord. They loved to sit at his feet, to listen to his words, to gaze into his face. His blessed, personal presence was a source of constant joy and rejoicing. There was a reason for their feelings. Christ had proved a true and tried friend. He had been a comforter and counselor. His hands had ministered to their temporal needs and physical welfare. His words of courage had fired their hearts with new hope. He had so closely identified himself with all their interests that they felt that their lives were wrapped up in his.
No wonder that when told that he was about to go away, sorrow filled their hearts. Earth would be desolate without the Lord. Christ sees their grief, and hastens to administer the needed comfort: “Let not your heart be troubled: . . . I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself.”
The night these words were uttered saw the shattering of their hopes. He who they thought would redeem Israel, and take the throne of his father David, was delivered to the ungodly, and in a few brief hours was hanged as a common criminal and imposter upon the cross. A gloomy outlook presented itself. Where now was all their cherished hopes?
The resurrection morn arrives. The entombed Christ comes forth triumphant over death. Vanquished hopes return. This surely is the day of deliverance. Eagerly they press the question, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Expectantly they await the answer. Again they are bidden to look to the future, to the work to be done before the kingdom could be established. Before the victory must come the conflict, before the reaping the sowing, before the resting the labor. They were to be witnesses for the Lord to earth’s remotest bounds. While Christ’s personal presence would be removed from their midst, his Spirit would go with them, and would accomplish for them and through them what he could not do in person without its influence.
Christ is separated from their midst. A cloud receives him from their sight. Wondering at this new revelation of celestial glory, they are addressed by two angels: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Their minds are carried back to the words of the Lord himself. This was the going away to which he referred. And he would come again. This same Jesus with whom they had lived and labored, the same Jesus with whom they had associated in such sweet communion, he who had been a friend and brother in every time of need, he was to come again. This thought, this faith, this hope, was to be henceforth the inspiration of their labor. For him they could toil on. With his loving gaze still upon them, his Spirit to guide and keep them, they could do and dare for the spread of the gospel message.
This was the hope of the early disciples; it should be the hope of his disciples to-day. If in our experience Christ has become as precious to us as he did to Peter, James, and John, we will long for his appearing as earnestly as did they. We can not separate our love of our friends from our love of their personal presence. We can not separate our love of the Lord from our love of his soon coming. If we have entered into communion with his life, if he has become to us our dearest friend, the sharer of our joys and sorrows, we will long to be near him, to see his face, and clasp his hand, and listen to his voice of love. The pursuit of no human plan will lead us to desire that his coming be delayed. His time will be our time. Every plan and purpose will be subservient to his divine leading, and we will rejoice in every indication that this same Jesus is coming to take us unto himself. Desiring his presence, we shall seek to be like him, purifying ourselves even as he is pure. Washed by the grace that he freely gives, we may enter unabashed into his presence, and enjoy at his right hand pleasures forevermore.
F. M. W.