Chapter 87—“To My Father, and Your Father”
This chapter is based on
Luke 24:50-53
;
Acts 1:9-12
.
The time had come for Christ to ascend to His Father’s throne. As
a divine conqueror He was about to return with the trophies of victory
to the heavenly courts. Before His death He had declared to His
Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
John
17:4
. After His resurrection He tarried on earth for a season, that His
disciples might become familiar with Him in His risen and glorified
body. Now He was ready for the leave-taking. He had authenticated
the fact that He was a living Saviour. His disciples need no longer
associate Him with the tomb. They could think of Him as glorified
before the heavenly universe.
As the place of His ascension, Jesus chose the spot so often hal-
lowed by His presence while He dwelt among men. Not Mount Zion,
the place of David’s city, not Mount Moriah, the temple site, was to
be thus honored. There Christ had been mocked and rejected. There
the waves of mercy, still returning in a stronger tide of love, had been
beaten back by hearts as hard as rock. Thence Jesus, weary and heart-
burdened, had gone forth to find rest in the Mount of Olives. The
holy Shekinah, in departing from the first temple, had stood upon the
eastern mountain, as if loath to forsake the chosen city; so Christ stood
upon Olivet, with yearning heart overlooking Jerusalem. The groves
and glens of the mountain had been consecrated by His prayers and
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tears. Its steeps had echoed the triumphant shouts of the multitude
that proclaimed Him king. On its sloping descent He had found a
home with Lazarus at Bethany. In the garden of Gethsemane at its foot
He had prayed and agonized alone. From this mountain He was to
ascend to heaven. Upon its summit His feet will rest when He shall
come again. Not as a man of sorrows, but as a glorious and triumphant
king He will stand upon Olivet, while Hebrew hallelujahs mingle with
Gentile hosannas, and the voices of the redeemed as a mighty host
shall swell the acclamation, Crown Him Lord of all!
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