Golden Days of Resurrection (2)
Jock Stein
April 22, 2023
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Luke 24: 50-53 (NRSVA)
50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
What a golden memory! In spite of literalistic Medieval pictures, the text is restrained, with the addition of ‘a cloud took him out of their sight’ in Acts 1: 9. God shows himself to us in so many different words and images, and it is golden work indeed when God gives us our own particular testimony of who Christ is. We are part of the ‘all nations’ of Friday’s verse 47; we belong to a city of all peoples (Revelation 21) with a golden street.
Gold is an image of earth which speaks of heavenly things – and resurrection is heavenly. Gold is an image of heaven which speaks of earthy things – and resurrection is earthed in our humanity, because Jesus is one of us. Our life is not a life with the idea of resurrection, but with a resurrected person, Jesus himself. Our experience may be heavenly, or earthy, or likely both: but it is the risen and ascended Lord Jesus who makes it pure gold.
PRAY:
Lord, may I be so solidly based with the incarnate Jesus on earth, that I know the value and values of heaven; and so splendidly lifted up with the exalted Jesus in heaven, that I am of some, and perhaps even great earthly use. Amen.
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