taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Christ's Return into Heaven. S. Mark xvi. 19; S. Luke xxiv. 51; [Dan. vii. 13, 14]. So then He was received up into heaven. And, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and 23. shall so come. The angels repeat, now that our Lord was gone, the promise which He Himself had so emphatically given before: for all the glory which surrounds Him, He will never forget it; His very occupation amidst that glory, is the perpetual preparation for His return. He was taken up from the disciples, but He shall come again to the hope, and expectation, and to the joyful beholding, of the universal Church, which He has redeemed. 24. and, behold.-This prophecy, unlike many which concern our Lord, which are prophecies of what shall be, is a vision of reality. It supplements what the disciples saw, with what Daniel was permitted to see in prophetic vision; it carries us from where they stood gazing upon earth, into the heaven of heavens, into which Christ had passed as the angels conversed with the disciples; and, in point of time, seems to be intermediate between this message to the disciples, and the commencement of their labours. It is one scene of the ascension into heaven. There is, therefore, reason sufficient for taking such a vision from its place in ancient prophecy, and inserting it here, amongst the revelations of the ascension. 25. the Son of man.-This title was one which the Jews understood of the Messiah; it could not be used of any but of One who was more than a son of man; it would be an unmeaning designation, if applied to any of the sons of Adam, who was simply that, and nothing more. There was, therefore, great significance in our Lord's use of the term, and in His application of it to Himself. "The title, the Son of man,' as employed by our Lord, is the more remarkable, in that He always uses it of Himself, as to His work for us on earth; no one ventures to use it of Him, except that S. Stephen points to the commenced fulfilment of His prophecy to Caiaphas, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.' Our Lord called Himself the Son of man,' i.e. He who was foretold under that name in Daniel." (Pusey.) 26. with the clouds.-Veiling Him from human sight. In that magnificent description of the majesty of God's presence, in Ps. xviii., it is said (v. 11), "His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given unto Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. And [He] sat on the right hand of God. The Apostles return to Jerusalem: they commence their Mission. S. Mark xvi. 20; S. Luke xxiv. 52, 53; [Acts i. 12]. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem thick clouds of the skies." The mention of these clouds of heaven, and, immediately after, of those who conducted our Lord to heaven, connect their vision closely with the narrative of S. Luke: we see Him arrive in heaven in the clouds, and amidst the angels, of His ascension from earth. 27. near before Him.-To receive, at the hand of the eternal Father, investiture of that kingdom to which He had before appointed Him (Luke xxii. 29). 28. all people, etc..-"Daniel foretold, not a kingdom in Israel only, not a conversion of the heathen only, but that He who sat above, in a form like the Son of man, should be worshipped by all peoples, nations, and languages, and that His kingdom should not pass away. And to whom have peoples, nations, and languages throughout the world, millions on millions, and hundred millions on hundred millions in successive generations, looked to and worshipped as their King, hereafter to be their Judge; whom have they confessed in their Creeds all these centuries since any questioned it, as Him whose kingdom shall have no end,' save Him who came in the form of a servant, like a son of man, in Judea? . . . Daniel does certainly foretell of the Christ, that He should be man, and yet more than man: 'One like the Son of man.' He speaks of Him, not as before His birth, nor in His days on earth, but, as He is now since His ascension, at the right hand of God. He speaks of Him, not as 'to come,' but as already come, His life on earth past (for on earth only could He have become a son of man); His days of humility ended; not coming from heaven, but ascended to heaven, and receiving all power in heaven and earth, which, He said on earth, was given to Him on His resurrection. We see in act, what was said in words in David's psalm, which Jesus quoted as written of Himself, 'The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.' We see that everlasting dominion given to Him, which has now been acknowledged for above eighteen hundred years; and we behold Him receiving the beginnings of with great joy, from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the that homage, which has been rendered to Him ever since, and shall be rendered to Him for ever, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him." (Pusey.) 29. worshipped.-They now, as never before, pay to Christ the full honours of Divinity, honouring the Son, even as they honoured the Father. 30. joy. The expression here is worthy of note; it is in entire contrast with their utter despondency whilst their Lord was removed from them for the three days of His burial. It is also the spirit of their future mien before the world. It was, henceforth, joy and thankfulness with them, even when they faced the terrors of the world's opposition. The promise was already theirs, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you;" "in Me ye shall have peace" (John xiv. 27, xvi. 33). 31. sabbath day's journey. So near to the bustle, life, and preoccupation of the centres of human life and enterprise, are the deep mysteries of heaven; and, again, it is but a sabbath day's journey from out of the business of life and its anxieties, to the excellence of heavenly converse, to those who can engage in the worship of Christ, upon the Lord's day, with the joy of His presence in their hearts. 66 32. in the temple.-We still see the disciples constant at all the religious services of the Temple; but they trod those courts of the Lord's House, so often hallowed by the Saviour's presence, with far different feelings from those which animated other worshippers there. They saw the fulfilment of type and ordinance in Christ. They had not the restless, and unsatisfied, heart of those who paraded their goodness before God, as did the Pharisee, nor the dread of the conscious sinner; they were continually praising and blessing God." Their happiness was not to be theirs only; but all who tread the courts of the Lord's House on earth, in our Lord's absence, with like faith in Him, and in His promises, and with like earnest purpose to serve Him in the world, will have the heart to praise and bless God, though there gather around them the difficulties, and troubles, of their earthly calling. Their presence continually in the Temple, may find illustration in 1 Chron. xvi. 40, and may imply that they were carefully observant of those services, and laws, which were then ordained. 33. went forth.-This expression is suggestive. They went forth from their own prejudices and narrow views, into a more liberal and Christlike mind. They went forth from their sorrow and despondency, now past, and from their gazing up to forbidden heights, into earnest and practical work in the world. They went forth from their closed and 238 THE HOLY WEEK AND THE FORTY DAYS. [VIII. Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. guarded chamber, to the public resort of those before whom they had to maintain the cause and truth of Christ, and to offer to them His Gospel. They went forth from the restrictions of the Law, into the freedom of the Gospel. They went forth from the narrow peculiarities and national exclusiveness of the Jew, into the broad and general brotherhood of the race for which Christ died. They went forth from Jerusalem, into the wide world of God's kingdom upon earth. "They went forth, and preached everywhere." 34. signs following." Who, then, and what, goes before? The believing preacher, with the word of the Gospel." (Stier.) Miracles followed the first utterance of the Gospel; success, in due season, has ever attested it; and the truth that Christ works with those who proclaim His Name, becomes, as the Gospel steadily advances, ever more patent to the world, which, one day, must take up the closing words of the Evangelist, and subscribe to the eternal truth of Christ's religion: "It is truth." Amen. |