Luke 24:50 Commentary and Bible Study

Bethany, the place where the Lord raised Lazarus, the place where he received such hospitality from Martha and Mary, a place to which they often resorted and which was well known to the disciples. So he chose for his ascension a site that was familiar, a site that they loved, a site that was associated with friendship and resuscitation from the dead. We couple this with Luke’s description of the ascension at the start of Acts; it is the same occasion that is described there. In Acts he repeats his account with considerably more detail, and tells us additional things that Christ taught the disciples before he ascended. It was at Bethany, a village about two miles east of Jerusalem – only Luke’s Gospel tells us this.‘And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.’ He blessed them even as he departed. It is his blessing not only on them but on all the church until he returns. It is his guarantee that he will not abandon us or leave us behind. It is the priestly blessing with hands lifted up with which Aaron, the typical high priest, blessed Israel (Leviticus 9:22) with what would have been the formal prescribed words of Number 6:23-27). Aaron blessed them after offering up the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. Those typical offerings were offered up for all the people gathered before the tabernacle in the wilderness. Here, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God blesses his church for all time, having offered up himself once for all. The lifting up of the hands was a gesture that signified the appeal to God on high to bless them himself. The final words of instruction given to Aaron in carrying out his blessing on the church were the promise from God that he would bless the people. ‘They [Aaron and his sons] shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them’ (Numbers 6:27). Christ’s blessing is the blessing of all the Godhead on all true believers.As Hendriksen says, this was more than mere well-wishing. He reminds us that the blessing which the disciples were commanded to bestow (Matthew 10:12-13) would return to them if it was pronounced on those who were not worthy. Christ’s blessing is for individuals, and does not lose sight of each one among his people. It is a blessing for his true children alone, those who have repented and trusted in the Saviour of the world. It was the blessing of God which comes with all the intercession of Christ for his people throughout the gospel age attached to it, his effective blessing that bring us to heaven and enables us to enjoy his everlasting reward, and it is blessing earned by his atoning death on Calvary. It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom and to bless his people and to see them enjoy eternal the true spiritual riches on high.The Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to his disciples over the period of forty days. Forty days, that's long enough to reassure them and to prove to them that he was risen – the sympathy of the Lord. During that forty days (Acts 1:3), he was seen by the disciples in ones and twos and up to five hundred at once. Every conceivable combination takes place, as though the Lord appears to those who are closest to him, and they are certain that it is the risen Lord. He appears to those who have walked with him and known him and lived alongside him; they see him at close quarters and they are certain. The most cynical and superstitious among them is able to touch him and put his hand into his wounds. He also appears to large numbers, so that it wouldn't be possible for the disciples subsequently, perhaps, to doubt and to fear and to say, ‘But only one or two saw him. Perhaps they could be mistaken.’ Neither would it be possible for them to say, ‘A great many of us saw him, but we were such a crowd and he was at such a distance from most of us.’ No, he seems to have covered it all ways as he manifested himself to his disciples. But it was also a time of forty days for teaching and he instructs them and prepares them for the new era. They must wait a further ten days until the Day of Pentecost. He pastorally attends to them. Consider the friendship and the closeness of the Lord as he reveals himself to his disciples. He cheers up Mary, he builds up Thomas, he warns the Apostle Peter against himself, and against his weaknesses. He deals personally with them one by one. But that forty days must have been something of a type or foreshadowing of his earthly reign. Here are the disciples. Before he was crucified, they must have experienced a good deal of fear because the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests, who were always scheming to trap him. They must have felt a great deal of insecurity from time to time, even though they knew he was the Lord. When he was crucified, they had been alarmed, terrified. Yet now they get used to the idea that he is moving among them, showing himself, and then withdrawing in all kinds of circumstances. They have got used to the fact that he is now untouchable. He is now glorified beyond the reach of anything that the authorities can do. Nobody can interfere with him. Nobody can contradict him now. Nobody can arrest him or inflict pain. He is more powerful than anyone on earth. And he can move freely, almost to the disciples. It is a little foretaste, a little advanced picture, of his eternal reign when he should be supreme.