HOW JESUS LEFT THE WORLD.
“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.” Luke 24:50. This was the last literal view the disciples had of their Lord in this world. That view was one calculated to inspire in them courage and good cheer. It was a view of their leader’s hands, as he was ascending to the glory of his Father’s heavenly courts, uplifted to them in benediction and blessing. They would remember him, and would think of him with this attitude of loving favor deeply impressed upon their minds. This was in accord with all his previous dealings with them, and with all the children of men. He never revealed himself to any, other than in the spirit and aspect of love and mercy. When he left heaven to come to this world, it was under the unbounded impulse of infinite love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And when he left the world, after telling his disciples to be of good cheer for he had overcome the world, and assuring them that he left his peace with them, it was with hands uplifted in blessing that he took his leave of them. And then he ascended through the parting heavens to the throne of his Father, and the celestial choirs chanted the joyful anthem, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” How comprehensive had been his work! He had spoiled the grave; he had sanctified the earth, even wearing its crown of thorns; and now he blessed and consecrated the air, by ascending through it to the portals of heaven. Everything was calculated to beget in the disciples all assurance of faith. After his resurrection, Christ had sojourned with them for forty days, long enough to establish his identity, to remove all doubt, to instruct his disciples, and to give them their great commission. He ascended from the mountain where he had often communed with them. This mountain looked down on Bethany, the place of his dearest earthly rest, and it was near to10Gethsemane, the place of his supreme agony. There had been many witnesses to his personality, more than five hundred persons meeting him at one time; and these witnesses were of simple and honest character, of mature years, and of cool and unexcitable temperament. The scene of the ascension itself was also remarkable, being very different from what superstition and imposture would have devised. There were no chariots of fire, nor horses of fire, no booming of cannon, no scenery, no pomp, no parade; but there was the power of the Godhead, in its sublime simplicity, working the whole scheme; and the best of the experience was the blessing Christ pronounced upon them, with uplifted hands. His pronouncing a blessing was no unusual thing. His whole life was full of it; but here he parted from them with the blessing still proceeding from his lips. And it was authoritative, and had the highest sanction of Heaven; for he was just ascending to heaven in attestation of his Father’s acceptance of his work. It was a blessing full and free, as was indicated by his raised hands, as if he would shower upon them all that he had. It was a blessing for all beneath them, and for all beyond the sound of his voice. Those hands uplifted in blessing had been pierced for their sins. Thus those who beheld him knew that they were the hands of Christ, and saw therein the purchase of their redemption. The whole transaction was an epitome of the gospel—pierced hands to purchase the gift, and then the benediction of eternal life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Jesus, through his sufferings and death, has power to bless us out of the highest heaven. His last attitude as he ascended was that of blessing, which has been recorded for the contemplation of the world. Think for a moment what these hands now hold, and the power they sway. “All power,” he says, “is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” On behalf of his disciples he sways the scepter of providence, in small matters as well as in great. Those hands hold the scepter of his spiritual kingdom, the church, and all his work. They hold the scepter of the judgment, and of his future and eternal reign. He has ascended into heaven, and there ever lives to make intercession for us. Let us give ourselves and our all into those hands, which have never made any move toward us but to help and bless. Wonderful hands of Christ! They had been stretched out to rescue Peter, when sinking in the waves of Galilee; they were the same hands that had been held in the sight of the disciples, doubtful and questioning disciples, on the third day after they had seen them laid lifeless in the tomb; the same which doubting Thomas must see before he would believe, and which the Lord not only permitted him to see, but also to put his finger in the prints of the nails, that his doubt might have no hook upon which to hang itself. Those hands were lifted up in blessing, when a cloud received him out of their sight. Ten days after, on the day of Pentecost, their power was realized, when Peter boldly declared to the assembled multitude, “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Those same hands, with their nail-prints of sacrifice and love, are still knocking at the hearts of all who can be reached by God’s mercy, and they still beckon onward the weary runners in the heavenly way. The scene of the ascension was one of joy. The earthly life of the Master was ended; but his heavenly service was begun. There was no sign of mourning that this change had come—that his earthly work was over, and that the work he was to inaugurate in heaven was begun. His life was not curtailed nor limited, but expanded into that sphere where he could say, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Between his personal presence here, and his bodily departure, to be seen no more among men, was a convulsive change, calculated to produce among the disciples a shock and trial hard to bear; but angels appeared immediately upon the scene to bridge over the gulf. They appeared, as the Lord disappeared. The disciples were wistfully gazing up to the spot where he had passed from view; and then the angels said, “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.” He went away with a blessing falling from his lips upon his watching people. Will he return in the same manner, with a blessing for his waiting people?—Yes, to all who are in that posture, watching and waiting for him. Christ never takes the initiative in the work of destruction, for the mere purpose of inflicting judgments and wrath upon the children of men. We would wipe off from his character the aspersions that the enemy has all along been so assiduously attempting to throw upon it; namely, that Christ stands before the world as an enraged and vindictive tyrant, waiting, watching, and longing to inflict upon men the most terrible destruction that his power can command. We are happy to affirm, from the testimony of his word and works, that he, the God of love, does not act from this principle. He ever acts solely from love for his people. Whatever is necessary for their good, he will carry out in strict accordance with his purposes and his promises; and whoever gets in the way of the accomplishment of that work, must be removed, even if it be by tribulation and wrath, as the result of his own position and action. No vengeful or cruel spirit can be attributed to Christ in this matter. Alluding to the feelings of the people on the dark day, when they thought the day of Judgment had come, Whittier says,— “All ears grew sharp
To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter
The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ
Might look from the rent clouds, not as he looked
A loving guest in Bethany, but stern
As justice and inexorable law.”
To whom will the face of Christ be dreadful in that day?—Not to his people, who joyfully exclaim when they behold him: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us;” but only to those who are not prepared to meet him, who will wail because of him, and pray for the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them “from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come.” He comes to redeem his people, and comes, as it is only appropriate that he should come, in the glory of his Father and of all the holy angels. To his children this is a delight; but to all the wicked it is devouring fire. But Christ is not responsible for the fact that they have not prepared themselves to endure the scene, but vanish before the breath of his mouth and the brightness of his coming. Christ’s face is dreadful to the wicked, and justice stern, and law inexorable, because they have not so related themselves to him as to find in him a friend, although justice and law met for them in his life. The wicked simply get in the way of the work of the Lord, which must be carried out; and they perish, not because the Lord wishes to destroy them, or has any pleasure in their destruction,—for he says, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,”—but because, for the good of the saved, he must “gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity.” It is even so in the final destruction of the wicked at the end of the thousand years. Those on the left hand are sent away, with the words, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Even here, God does not destroy the wicked because he delights to do so. He does not say to the wicked, Depart into the fire prepared for you; but it was “prepared for the devil and his angels.” For those spontaneous generators of evil, nothing less than the eradicating fires which melt the elements with fervent heat, will suffice. For these the fires were prepared; and the wicked find themselves involved therein, simply because, of their own free will and volition, they have joined that side, and cast in their lot with them. God will not destroy, by coercing, man’s free will, but lets all make their own choice. But from start to finish, his throne is clear, and only love characterizes his dealings with his creatures. When he came into the world, and when he left it; when he shall come again, and when finally he clears the field, and sets up his everlasting kingdom, he does that only which is necessary to carry out his beneficent designs of love and mercy to his people. But alas for those who place themselves as obstructions upon the track of his gracious purposes, and so perish in the ruin, when he finds it necessary to clear from the place of his kingdom “all things that offend, and them which do iniquity.”