A Blessed People - Luke 24:50-53

“He lifted up His hands and blessed them”

Luke 24:50-53

I have to admit that I did not realize that I was a forgetful person until I got married. I doubt that more than a month has gone by in the last 6 years of our marriage without my wife saying something to the effect of, “Don’t you remember me telling you about this on a Friday night last month?” So, in light of this discovery, I have begun using my note and reminder app on my phone quite a bit more which seems to have helped me a little, although there are still events that pop up and catch me off guard.

Well, if you are like me, you may have found your spiritual life to resemble that issue to some effect as well. Sometimes, in the chaos of daily life, little events that we don’t consider extremely important slip through the cracks and catch us off guard and in some sense, as Christians, in the midst of suffering, or busyness, or distraction, we find ourselves needing reminders about who we are.

As we look at the conclusion of Luke’s gospel tonight, we find the final encounters of Christ with His disciples before He ascends into Heaven. These followers have ridden emotional rollercoasters with heights exceeding Mt. Everest and lows as dark and as deep as Hell. Here, as they, like so many times before, are seen following Jesus as He leads them near Bethany on the Mount of Olives. It is here, just outside of a place that Jesus held precious as it was the home of His dear friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, that they would be able to glance back over Jerusalem to reflect on many of the events that they’ve experienced since coming to know the Lord.

Following this event, these people will go on to experience imprisonment, persecution, and even martyrdom all for the sake of the One who we see standing before them in this very passage. How could they endure? What motivation would they have for facing a life of such hardship and how could they write of it as though it were a purpose filled joy? Well, I am convinced that the answer to such questions might be found in the blessing pronounced over them and the ascension that took place in front of them. I believe that they harbored this event in their hearts as a reminder for life’s journey and that it is recorded for our sake that we might do the same. In this text, we will find that we can march into and through life’s difficulties with hope as we are reminded that we are a blessed people.

We are blessed on the account of Christ’s sacrifice.

In Leviticus 9, we see the inauguration of the Aaronic priesthood. In that passage, Aaron, after offering the burnt, sin, and peace offerings, is seen coming out to bless the people of Israel with his hands raised toward them. Now, before we go any further, I think it might be good for us to ask about these offerings and what they mean and I would like to particularly focus on the burnt and sin offerings. The burnt offering would be a mandatory offering where the worshiper would bring a bull, or goat/lamb or bird, depending on their wealth, and there they would lay their hands on this animal as a sign of them being identified with the animal which would then be killed and fully burnt on the altar. The smoke that ascended would be like a sweet aroma symbolically ascending to God which would represent a reconciliation made between God and the worshiper.

The next sacrifice would be the sin offering. Most of this sacrifice would be burnt outside of the tabernacle walls and its blood would be sprinkled for the cleansing of sin. As a matter of fact, they would sprinkle this blood on the tabernacle furniture symbolizing the polluting effects of sin as the tabernacle would be in the middle of the people of Israel’s encampment. The final one is the peace offering, which was a voluntary offering made in response to the goodness of God as an act of worship. It is on account of these sacrifices, and what they point to, that Aaron walked towards the people and, as Leviticus 9:22 says, “Aaron lifted his hands towards the people and blessed them…” We could word it this way, the Priest, could lift the heads of these poor failing sinners to remind them of God’s gracious provision.

Well, as we look at our text for this evening, we find that Jesus, after His resurrection, leads them near Bethany (meaning the house of obedience) and raises His hands over them to bless them. Now, many modern commentaries skip right over this and I believe that’s too bad because this is Luke’s way of highlighting the Priesthood of Christ. You see, at the end of the Old Testament we enter a season of darkness over the people of God and in the beginning of Luke’s gospel, we meet a man named Zacharias who is performing his priestly duties and as he enters the Temple, he is confronted by an angel telling him of the coming of his expected son, John the Baptist, and what happens in response to Zacharias’s disbelief? He is struck with muteness! Well, Luke 1:21 tells us that the people are outside waiting for Zacharias to finish up and to come and pronounce the benediction over them, but when he arrives, he can’t say anything. In short, there is no blessing over this people.

What is amazing to me is that the only times we see someone blessed is when it comes to Christ. Elizabeth blessed Mary for being the one to carry Christ. Simeon the Prophet blesses Christ as being God’s salvation and after this, we don’t see another blessing delivered in this capacity until we reach Luke 24. Here, Christ has made His sacrifice, and here He pronounces His people as blessed on account of Himself as the sacrifice for sin. Jesus is the perfect burnt offering which Paul in Eph 5:2, says, “Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Christ is the perfect sin offering which Hebrews 13:10-12 says, “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”

Beloved, we are blessed tonight because on behalf of the sacrifice of Christ Himself, He, as our High Priest, raises His hands over us and pronounces us as blessedly reconciled and cleansed people! Thomas Goodwin writes that Christ declared, “I have been dead, and in dying made a curse for you; now that curse I have fully removed, and my Father hath acquitted me and you for it; and now I can be bold to bless you, and pronounce all of your sins forgiven, and your persons justified” (Goodwin, Works, 4:46).

We are blessed, because God’s face has shone on us.

If you’re like me, you might be wondering what Aaron said when he blessed those people back in Leviticus. Well, I don’t believe we have to do much guessing since his benediction is seen in Numbers 6:22-26 “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

In line with men such as Luther, Calvin and Gill, I am persuaded that if Christ is seen ministering in the fullness of what Aaron typified here, then I don’t believe it would be improper for us to understand that Christ is pronouncing that same Aaronic benediction over His people. As a matter of fact, I don’t think He’s just declaring it over them, I think He is the fulfillment of the benediction itself. Kelly Kapic writes, “Here the medium is the Mediator, and thus He is not to be looked beyond, but rather looked to. Those who saw the ascension witnessed the personification of Aaron’s benediction in Jesus Christ.”

Now, we have already clearly seen that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, as Paul would put it. But what about the statement of God’s face shining on us? Well, the face is an interesting theme traced through the Bible. For instance, the word for “presence” in Genesis 3 where it says that Adam and Eve hid from God, can actually be read as “God’s face.” In Genesis 4, when God exiles Cain, Cain cries for he is being sent away from God’s “face.” In Genesis 32, Jacob has wrestled all night long and when the fight is over, he names the place Peneul because he had seen the face of God. Later on in Exodus 33, Moses speaks with God face to face and God promises that His presence, or face, will go with them and Moses responds that if your face doesn’t go with us, don’t let us go. In my understanding, for God’s face to shine on you is to enjoy the delighted smile and divine presence and blessing of God with you. One commentator writes, “The Lord’s presence is radiating divine favor in the midst of His people…”

In the gospels, we read of the story of Jesus’s transfiguration. It is there that Matthew 17:2 says, “and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun…” In this event, there is a lot of correlation between this event and Moses’s encounter on Sinai. Both have shining faces, both are encompassed by a great cloud, both come off the mountains to find faithlessness at the bottom. However, one clear difference is that for Moses, his face only shines in response to God speaking to him. But in Jesus’s transfiguration, He radiates like the sun without a word spoken. Why? Because in Jesus, we see the beaming face of God shining among us and we who believe, are like Moses who reflects the glory of the sun like the moon.

Jesus is the One by which we are blessed, He is the face of God shining upon us, and He is our peace. In Jesus, God’s face shines on us forever. I believe that this text is the fulfillment of David’s cry in Psalm 67 which is a key to understanding the Church’s actions in the book of Acts. Psalm 67 reads, “God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.” What is the response of the Church following the ascension of the Lord whose face shone on them? They were seen striving to make His way known on the Earth.

As Christians living in a chaotic and distracting world, we have a breath of fresh air forever available in the reminder that we are blessed on account of Jesus’s work for us and that because of this, His face is forever shining on us. In Acts 1:11, Jesus ascends into Heaven and two men in white apparel approach the disciples and say, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” As I read this passage this week, I noticed something I’d never seen before. Not only will Jesus return from the Heavens just like He ascended into them. But what was He doing when He ascended into them? He was blessing them. The same Lord who came, lived and died for us won’t tire of His affection for the Church but will return will blessings still dripping from His lips to all of us who belong to Him and what could this possibly do for us except to motivate us to tell everyone that Jesus Christ is the Savior of all who believe?

The Getty’s sing a song called, “Facing a Task Unfinished” which goes:

1 Facing a task unfinished

That drives us to our knees

A need that, undiminished

Rebukes our slothful ease

We, who rejoice to know Thee

Renew before Thy throne

The solemn pledge we owe Thee

To go and make Thee known

4 O Father who sustained them

O Spirit who inspired

Savior, whose love constrained them

To toil with zeal untired

From cowardice defend us

From lethargy awake!

Forth on Thine errands send us

To labor for Thy sake