Saturday, May 5, 2018
Luke 24:51-52 Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
HE BLESSED THEM
Grace...Mercy...Peace...Love -- one of these is a part of practically every blessing spoken in the New Testament, and all of these are the result of the Savior's work. It was the unearned GRACE or favor of God that was shown in sending His only Son to die for us. It was MERCY that saw our needs and moved to help, and still does, from day to day, for Jesus' sake. It was in the blood of Christ that we were cleansed from sin and hostility with God was ended: PEACE. And hereby know we the LOVE of God, that He sent His only Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Grace, mercy, peace, and love -- surely this was also the content of Jesus' blessing on the Day of His Ascension.
The disciples could return to Jerusalem without a visible Jesus, but with great joy, because even as Jesus had been parted from them, He had raised His hand in blessing. He could still bless them even when parted from them! We often trust our own eyes to tell us whether or not Christ is with us and able to bless us, don't we? But if we stand with the disciples on Ascension Day and see Jesus parted from us, but never stopping His blessing of us, then we too will be able to return to our tasks with great joy and comfort.
The disciples had seen that not even the death and burial of their dear Lord had stood in the way of His blessing them with more than they were able to ask or think. They had seen, and so have we through their testimony, that "neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
-- From the "Lutheran Spokesman"
