IT was on the fortieth day after nis resurrection, that
the Lord, with his apostles and the rest of his disciples,
assembled by appointment for the last time on the Mount
of Olivet. When they were come together, the disciples
put one last question, prompted by the Lord's discourse
on the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and expressive
of a holy, though not a well-informed longing on
their part for its arrival. This question was to the following
effect :' Will what is written in the prophets concerning
thy divine kingdom, under the name of the Kingdom
of Israel, be speedily accomplished, or is this
accomplishment still far off?' And the Lord's answer to
this question is the last of all his sayings on earth. On
the point of ascending from them into heaven, he refuses to
his disciples any further information respecting the times
and seasons of the development and fulfilment of the kingdom
of God ; withholds all dates, all numerical statements
as to epochs or persons. But instead of these he gives them
the promise of soon receiving the Holy Ghost. As the Gospels
have led us onward from the first to the second article
of our belief, and the whole of that which Jesus began to
do and teach may be summed up in the words, "Ye believe
in God, believe also in me ;" so now we are about to be
led onward by the Acts of the Apostles (or, as we might
rather call the book, the History of the Church), from the
second to the third article of our Christian faith. But in
thus referring to the Holy Ghost, the Saviour, about to
ascend into heaven though he was, directs the attention of
his disciples from heaven to earth ; to earth, where his witnesses
were to begin to found and establish his kingdom,
by building up the Church, through the Divine power
working within them. The Lord ascends to heaven, that
henceforth he may live, work, and reign on earth through
his people and in his people.
Such is the meaning of his last words ; and as he spoke
these things he was taken up before their eyes, with lifted
hands ; hands raised in priestly benediction over these
his disciples over the holy city and the chosen land
over the whole earth. "While they beheld," he was taken
up. Visibly and gradually he began to ascend towards
heaven ; not suddenly vanishing from before them, as he
had done several times since his resurrection, but rising
in a way that they could watch; not like the prophet
Elijah, swept away by a whirlwind and in a chariot of fire.
For, as it has been very well observed by Baumgarten,
" The interval of space betwixt earth and heaven was not
overleapt by a sudden act, but measured out by a calm
and continued progress, and so the past earthly career
of Jesus in no way cut off or obscured, but retained as
an eternally- enduring foundation, and glorified by a
heavenly light. If the translation of Elijah may be
likened to the flight of a bird which no human eye can
trace, the ascension of Jesus is like a bridge spanning
earth and heaven, for the benefit of all who have been led
to him by the beauty of his earthly life." His ascending
form was first concealed by a cloud, and this cloud only
gradually and slowly rose and melted out of their sight."
Looking steadfastly up into the heavens" that had received
him, petrified, immovable, the apostles gazed on and on, as
though they could still see their vanished Lord ; they could
not turn their eyes or their thoughts back to earth again !
Surely the comfort and guidance of an angel's voice was
never more needed than at a moment like this.
Whether the " two men in white apparel" that suddenly
appeared standing beside them, were the angels that announced
the resurrection, may well be doubted, when we
consider the multitude of the heavenly host, ready and
willing ever to minister to man. In Luke xxiv. 4, we
find the expression used slightly different, perhaps designedly
so. But from a comparison with that passage, as
well as with Acts x. 80, and Dan. ix. 21; viii. 15; x. 5.
we feel persuaded that at the ascension we have the actual
presence of angels recorded, and not that of glorified saints,
like those who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration.
But not only did they appear and stand by, but they
spoke ; they" also said" as Luke emphatically writes, in
order to bespeak our attention to the words of the men
from heaven to the men of Galilee on earth. This angelic
appearance to the disciples must have been, as Lange observes,
"a merely secondary wonder, a commonplace occurrence,
compared to their last sight of their glorified Lord ;
it seems as though angels themselves were destined, on
this occasion, not to excite their astonishment, but to recall
them to the sphere of their ordinary consciousness, so
entranced and absorbed were they in gazing after their
Lord." Yea, verily, after the last word from Jesus, these
heavenly speakers served to make the transition back from
the heaven, where they would be, to their continued living
and working upon earth, easier and more intelligible to the
disciples. Accordingly, the angelic words run as follows :
" Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
this same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven."
Three times in succession the word heaven, and this in
order to recal to earth ! Yet this recalling from their
raptured gazing to earthly consciousness and earthly activity,
is implied in the very first words of this rousing
appeal, Ye men of Galilee ; for certainly most of those
present were Galileans ; indeed, we may almost infer that
all were so, Judas of Kerioth (Josh. xv. 25), the traitor,
having been the only disciple belonging to Judea. This
calling up of all their Galilean recollections, graciously
reminded them of the low commencement of their earthly
career, of their being found and called by the Lord, of
the time when they became his disciples and lived with
him ;all this would be comprehended in one far-reaching,
retrospective glance, like, in a measure, to that which
Jesus cast upon the earth that he left. But these men are
to remain on earth as the Lord's apostles, chosen out of
that highly-favoured Galilee, that hitherto had had, not as
the doctors of the law mistakenly believed," no prophet"
(John vii. 22), but only Jonah (2 Kings xiv. 25) and
Nahum. The name Galilean, now a term of ridicule and
contempt, should be rendered honourable by them, as the
name of Jesus of Nazareth had been glorified by the
resurrection.
And now again, as before at the sepulchre, we have a
reproof implied in the question put : Why stand ye gazing
thus into heaven ? Before, the women were admonished
to look away from the sepulchre, and now the disciples
must be content to part with all trace of their Lord's visible
presence. Since Jesus had actually gone awayfrom them
into heaven, it was vain to stand and gaze. Enough that
he was gone to prepare a place for them ; while for them
there remained a walking in and working according to his
commandments, as well as in his strength and fellowship,
upon this earth of ours. This pregnant speech, universally
applicable to disciples as it still is, dissuades from
and chides all idle waiting, all inactive longing and dreaming,
all presumptuous inquiries that transcend the limits of
our world ; and constantly enjoins, and encourages us to
the faithful discharge of our appointed duties in the life
that now is. Thus the very first words of the angels are
a continuation, as it were, of the last words of the Lord,
and deeply imbued with the same spirit.' Why stand
ye f Remember the last question ye put to your Lord.
You know your duty already. It is to go forth out of
your Galilee into all the world, and to preach the gospel
to every creature. Look below you ; there is Jerusalem,
there is the appointed place for your first witnessing of
Jesus, for the exercise of your faith and obedience ; tarry
there, and tarry in sure and certain hope."
And now comes a second intimation, which the Lord
had left to be delivered, on this occasion, by these angelic
ministers of his. He had spoken of the Holy Ghost, and
of the building up of the Church ; they point to the end
of all times and seasons, to his second coming to judgment.
"This same Jesus shall so come." Ye men of Galilee ; this
same Jesus ; the two are brought into close contact, no
intervening mention of the heavenly messengers themselves.
The single name Jesus, which Gabriel announced
at the first, is here emphasized, in token that, although
withdrawn from their flight, the now exalted and glorified
personality of the God-man would Htill remain unchanged
in its essential character. He is, he ever will be, the same
Jesus; there is here a profound truth, an infinite source
of consolation and .strength, the full appreciation of which
led Peter, <ui the day of Pentecost, to use these very
words: "Jesus of Nazareth; him ye have erucified ; whom
God raised up;" this Jesus; yea, the same Jesus still!
(ii 22, 24, 32, 36). All the humanity, and all the divine
power ; all the humiliation, and all the wondrous works ;
all the truth witnessed, and all the love shown, by this
Jesus, would rush back upon their memories at once
at the words, and they are spoken now in connexion with a
new fact," who is taken up from you into heaven." From
you men upon earth; just as the first words to the shepherds
were," There is born to you a Saviour" (Luke ii. 11).
There is, indeed, a taking up, a taking away from us,
from earth ; the heaven into which our Lord lias entered
being not merely a state but a place, but there is no real
separation from him, ho being by his Spirit still present
with us.
He will "so come" as ye have seen him "go." Both
events are equally real, and between them lies the whole
history of the Christian Church, the first part of which Ht.
Luke was now about to write. The passage is often mistakenly
rendered," he will come again." But that word"
again" would be misplaced here. It is not the antii i
of taken up like the shall descend in 1 Thess. iv. 16. And
also we find that henceforth it is customary with the
writers of the New Testament to speak emphatically of
the coming (not coming again) of the Lord in glory to
judgment, because this will really be his first perfect coming,
the fulfilment and proof of his lowly coming in th
flesh. It was thus the Lord himself always spoke of it,
even in the parable of the talents (Luke xix. 13-23). It
is only in John xiv. 3 that a coming again is definitely expressed
; in ver. 18 of the same chapter the word again
is omitted. This last, this all-fulfilling coming of the Lord ;
alas ! how sadly have many Christians, in the present day,
lost sight of it altogether ; and yet, it is not only the very
key-stone of all revealed truth, but faith and hope therein
are the very life of all Christian character and activity.
There is a fictitious looking up into heaven, indeed, which
is reproved ; but the true, the right looking up of the
Christian is ever commended ; the waiting for God's Son
from heaven (1 Thess. i. 10). But now as to the question
of how soon or how late he will come? Naturally the
angel does not affix any time after what the Lord himself
had said (ver. 7). So much the more strongly in its simplicity
runs the promise," He will come." It is not necessary
that the angel should, on this occasion, add, as he said,
for now the disciples vividly remember the Lord's words,
spoken to them so often, both openly and in the form of
parable, up to the very last (John xxi. 22 ; Matt. xxvi. 24).
But though we are not told when he will come, we are
told how :" In like manner as ye have seen him go." As
the Son of man, visible to human sight, as the same Jesus,
and in a cloud (Luke xxi. 27). And it is also probable
that the expression, in the same way, may have a mysterious
reference to the very place, the Mount of Olives, as
certain passages in the prophets, agreeably to an ancient and
well-grounded exegesis, might lead us to infer (Zech. xiv.
4, 5 ; Joel iii. 7). Still this last point remains open to
dispute, but one thing is certain ; the coming of Jesus will
be visible as was his departure, and incomparably more
glorious, though this the angel leaves unsaid, because the
Lord's own words had established the fact (Luke xxi. 27 ;
Matt. xxiv. 30 ; xxv. 31, to which we may add 1 Thess.
iv. 16). Now, of all the thousands of thousands who welcome
him to his throne in heaven with joy and rapture,
only these two men in shining raiment are visible. Then
he shall come with all the holy angels (Mark viii. 38 ;
Matt. xvi. 27).
Another clause in the angel's comforting, re-assuring
speech deserves our special attention. Pointing as it does
from heaven back to earth, it appeals on behalf of all other
men, to the experience and the testimony of those whom
it addresses: " as ye have seen him !" Indeed, how do we
know of this very speech of the angel, save from the testiaiony
of these trustworthy men of Galilee who here record
what they saw and heard ? If there be any who seriously
incline to doubt this statement, behold its proof in the whole
history of the Acts of the Apostles, and the history of the
Church up to this very day, up to the last day of all. Ye
shall be my witnesses, thus said the Lord, and they were
and are so. He has built up his Church before our eyes.
In it we already see him coming in his kingdom. The
existence of Christianity proves the divinity of its origin.
And not only the history of the Church, but the history of
the universe, of heaven and earth both, is included between
the first and second coming of the Lord, of this
Jesus, the God-man in whom the earth is exalted to the
mercy-seat of the Highest. Yea, when He who is taken
up into heaven, He whom the apostles saw go into heaven,
shall come down from heaven, unbelief itself will be forced
to own that His first coming was from heaven also. The
angels do not say to these early disciples and apostles, ye
shall so see him come. Yet, doubtless, though after another
fashion, they shall be there, and their eyes shall see.
And now, what do we learn from all this? Are the
words of these angels intended to prevent our looking up
into heaven ? Far otherwise ; man, in the obscurity and
oppression of his present limited existence, never has,
never can cease to do so ; nay, an earnest, thoughtful,
upward glance such as the prophet Isaiah enjoins (xl. 26),
is the very thing to awake man's belief in the existence of
God. But faith in Christ, in the revelation, comfort, and
power of the Holy Spirit, is itself the real, the true looking
into heaven ; faith in Christ, as having entered into
heaven's glory, as being the dispenser of the Spirit to his
kingdom on earth ; as the all-accomplisher, redeemer, and
judge, who shall come from heaven at the end of this dispensation.
He who thus looks up into heaven does not
remain idly standing as he gazes. His glance will not
remain fixed thereon in blank astonishment, or even ardent
desire such as that of the disciples, still less will it sink
incredulously back to earth to fix itself there like that of
the worldly-minded ; no, it will be the heaven-strengthened
glance of the witness of the Lord on earth, who lives
and works in the good hope of faith, looking for the time
when this same Jesus will re-unite earth and heaven. Now,
indeed, the throne is above, the kingdom below ; but then
the king shall dwell with his people, in the new heaven and
the new earth which we look for according to his promise.
All this, then, is included in the angelic address at the
ascension, in these last words which angels add to the last
words of Christ. And, as answer to them, there arises in
our hearts and to our lips the oft-repeated cry of believers
and saints from that time to this," Even so, come, Lord
Jesus !" For this is in no way forbidden us ; nay, we are
encouraged so to pray, both by the Lord's parting words
and those of his angels.
