Our Lord's Attitude in Ascension

Jesus having spoiled the grave, and sanctified the earth, now purified the air as he passed through it on his way to Heaven.

He arose to Heaven in a manner worthy of special note.

We will review a few points connected with his ascension.

1. The time he sojourned on earth after his resurrection, namely, forty days, sufficed to prove his identity, to remove doubts, to instruct his disciples, and to give them their commission.

2. The place from which he rose was a mountain, a mount where he aforetime had communed with them. This mount looked down on Bethany, his dearest earthly rest; and was near to Gethsemane, the place of his supreme agony.

3. The witnesses were enough in number to convince the candid, persons who had long been familiar with him, who could not be deceived as to his identity.

   • They were persons of character, of simplicity of nature, of ripe years, and of singularly cool temperament.

4. The scene itself was very remarkable.

   • So unlike what superstition would have devised.
   • So quiet—no chariot of fire and horses of fire.
   • So majestic—no angels, nor other agents to lend imaginary splendor; but the Lord’s own power and Godhead in sublime simplicity working all.
   • Our chosen theme at this time shall be the last posture in which our ascending Lord was seen.

I. HIS HANDS WERE UPLIFTED TO BLESS.

1. This blessing was no unusual thing. To stretch out his hands in blessing was his customary attitude. In that attitude he departed, with a blessing still proceeding from his lips.

2. This blessing was with authority. He blessed them while his Father acknowledged him by receiving him to Heaven.

3. This blessing was so full that, as it were, he emptied his hands. They saw those dear hands thus unladen of their blessings.

4. The blessing was for those beneath him, and beyond the sound of his voice: he scattered blessings upon them all.

5. The blessing was the fit finis of his sojourn here: nothing fitter, nothing better, could have been thought of.

II. THOSE HANDS WERE PIERCED.

This could be seen by them all as they gazed upward.

1. Thus they knew that they were Christ’s hands.

2. Thus they saw the price of the blessing. His crucifixion has purchased continual blessing for all his redeemed.

3. Thus they saw the way of the blessing: it comes from those human hands, through those sacrificial wounds.

4. A sight of those hands is in itself a blessing. By that sight we see pardon and eternal life.

5. The entire action is an epitome of the gospel. This is the substance of the matter,—“hands pierced distribute blessings.” Jesus, through suffering and death, has power to bless us out of the highest Heaven.

   • This is the last that was seen of our Lord.
   • He has not changed his attitude of blessing.
   • He will not change it until he shall descend in his glory.

III. THOSE HANDS SWAY THE SCEPTER.

His hands are omnipotent. Those very hands, which blessed his disciples, now hold, on their behalf, the scepter—

1. Of providence: both in small affairs and greater matters.

2. Of the spiritual kingdom: the church and all its work.

3. Of the future judgment, and the eternal reign.

Let us worship him, for he has ascended on high.

Let us rejoice in all the fruit of his ascension, to him, and to us.

Let us continue praising him, and proclaiming his glory.

Glimpses

What spot did Jesus select as the place of his ascension? He selected, not Bethlehem, where angel-hosts had chanted his praises; nor Tabor, where celestial beings had hovered around him in homage; nor Calvary, where riven rocks and bursting graves had proclaimed his Deity; nor the Temple-court, in all its sumptuous glory, where, for ages, his own Shekinah had blazed in mystic splendor: but he hallows afresh the name of a lowly village, Bethany; he consecrates a Home of Love.—Dr. Macduff’s “Memories of Bethany.”

The manner of Christ’s ascension into heaven may be said to have been an instance of divine simplicity and sublimity combined, which scarcely has a parallel. While in the act of blessing his disciples, he was parted from them, and was carried up, and disappeared behind a cloud. There was no pomp; nothing could have been more simple. How can the followers of this Lord and Master rely on pomp and ceremony to spread his religion, when he, its Founder, gave no countenance to such appeals to the senses of men? Had some good men been consulted about the manner of the ascension, we can imagine the result.—N. Adams.

This is no death-bed scene. “Nothing is here for tears.” We are not at the close, but at the beginning of a life. There is no sign of mourning that a great career is over, that the lips of a great Teacher are forever dumb; no ground for that melancholy question that twice rang in the ears of Elisha, “Know you that the Lord will take away your master from your head to day? And he said, Yes, I know it; hold you your peace.” No; the scene before us is one of calm victory—

“All the toil, the sorrow, done;

All the battle fought and won.”

The earthly work of the Redeemer is over; the work which that short sojourn on earth was designed to inaugurate is now to begin. We are in the presence of One who said, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and in earth”; and again, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”—Dr. Butler, Head Master of Harrow.

That wonderful hand of Christ! It was that same hand which had been so quickly stretched out to rescue Peter when sinking in Galilee’s waves. It was that same hand which had been held in the sight of the questioning disciples on the third evening after they had seen it laid lifeless in the tomb. It was that same hand which incredulous Thomas must see before he would believe its risen power; it was that same hand which was extended to him not only to see, but to touch the nail-prints in its palm. It was that same hand which the disciples last saw uplifted in a parting blessing when the cloud parted him from them. It was only after ten days that they realized the fullness of blessing which came from that extended, pierced hand of Christ. Peter at Pentecost must have preached with that last sight of it fresh in his memory, when he said, “God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” That hand, with its nail-prints, knocks at the heart’s door for entrance. That hand, with its deep marks of love, beckons on the weary runner in the heavenly way.—F. B. Pullan.