Thursday, May 21, 2015
Acts 1:11 "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."
AGAIN SHALL YE BEHOLD HIM SO
One week ago today, the fortieth day of Easter, Jesus was received up into heaven. Not only did the disciples witness the event. The LORD sent two messengers to point out what they had seen, and to get them to think about it.
They were gazing up into heaven, where their Lord's ascension had led their eyes. But why? Were they looking in anticipation of His being restored to their sight? As though He had gone up a high mountain and would soon come back down after planting some flag on the summit?
They were right in one respect: He will come back down, bodily, just as they had seen Him go. But they did not need to be sky-scanners lest they miss His return. Every eye will see Him, just as their eyes had seen Him go.
This promised return also meant that He was alive forevermore. He would not need to be made alive again. He would simply come in the same way as He had left. We still count the years of His life, something we do not do for those who have died. Of them we might say, "My great-grandfather would have been 156 years old last February." But of Jesus we say, "We are in the 2015th year of the Lord," which means: He is alive, and ruling all things for the good of His people.
"Again shall ye behold Him so
As ye today have seen Him go,
In glorious pomp ascending high,
Up to the portals of the sky." Alleluia!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 212:4)
