Page 22 - January 2023 - Truth & Tidings

he disciples anxiously followed gazing (v11) – all words which attest to an
their Lord from Jerusalem to eyewitness account.
TBethany (Luk 24:50). Did they stop He passed:
as they crossed the brook Kidron and Through all ranks of creatures, to the
remember the last time they had stepped central height,
across its waters? Did they want to linger To the throne of Godhead,
at Gethsemane? We are not told. It was to
Bethany that they ultimately came. to the Father’s breast;
Perhaps they were thinking that the Filled it with a glory of that perfect rest. 1
time had finally come. Their triumphant Its Vicinity Defined
Savior was about to establish the King- “He led them out as far as to Bethany”
dom, to assert His Messiahship and (Luk 24:50). The small village lay in the
2
claim the crown. No one would be able proximity of Gethsemane. Perhaps the
to gainsay that the Man who had been reason He chose Bethany was that it was
placed upon a cross, who was now alive, the only place He frequented where He
must be the Messiah! Their expectations was always welcome. Bethlehem had no
must have been high. After three years of room for Him, Nazareth and Capernaum
having been misunderstood and denied, rejected Him, Jerusalem gave Him a cross,
doubtless He would assert with power but Bethany always had a welcome for
His Kingship. Instead, something totally Him. The last week of His sojourn here
different yet as amazing as the resurrec- on earth, Bethany, and more particularly
tion took place, something as important as the home in Bethany, welcomed and cared
His death, burial and resurrection: it was for Him.
His ascension. Acts 1 describes it in detail. The Verbs That Describe It
Its Veracity Defended The language of Acts 1 is thrilling to
The disciples were eyewitness. There is consider. Action verbs give us a sense of
no possibility of spiritualizing this as men the wonder which marked the moment:
have tried to do with the resurrection. “he was taken up,” “a cloud received
This was not an “uplifting experience” him,” “as he went up,” “this same Jesus …
in which the disciples somehow had a taken up.” Luke, in his Gospel, adds to the
spiritual experience that saw the power list that He was “carried up” (Luk 24:51).
of God still present at God’s right hand. The Shekinah cloud escorted Him into
This was not an illusion brought on by the throne room where He entered with
emotional ecstasy. The account in Acts full moral right and sat Himself down at
1 emphasizes the experience as a real- ¹ Caroline M. Noel (1817–1877)
ity by employing words such as seeing, ² Bible quotations in this article are from the
beholding (v9), sight (v9), looking (v10), KJV.

22 TRUTH kTidings January 2023