And he led them out as far as Bethany, and having lifted up his hands, he blessed them.
Luke's Gospel does not end with a sermon or a command. It ends with a gesture. The risen Jesus walks His disciples out to a familiar village, raises His hands, and blesses them. The place, the posture, and the timing all carry meaning — and the blessing was still going on when He left.
Of all the places on earth, He chose one that was dear to Him. Rising from the dead did not cool His love for what He loved before.
It was a spot that used to be most precious to Him, and, notice it well, was not less precious to Him after He rose from the dead. There is no greater mistake than to think that He loved someone before He died and stopped loving them once He rose. So it seems to stand in open contradiction to those who deny the reality of the resurrection body and its proper affections. He was indeed a real man, though the Lord of glory.
The choice held more than memory.
Bethany is remarkable as the spot where He ties the hearts of those attached to Him to the place He was going… So Bethany connected heaven with the person of Jesus.
They did not wander there. The leading out is part of the blessing.
I fully accept, and I believe it is perfectly true, that the words "He led them out" express the character of all real blessing. They describe exactly what must happen to every person who receives blessing of this kind. And you will find this. The more heavenly and distinct the blessing is, the more you will have to be led out for it… Could anything be more precious than to see the blessing coming from those pierced hands, the very same hands?
The raised hands repeat an older scene. Aaron was Israel's first high priest. After he offered the sacrifices, he lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them.
All these offerings picture the one sacrifice of Christ. He was sin offering, burnt offering and peace offering alike. He is the reality behind all the sacrifices found in Leviticus. With this in mind, we can see the wonderful match between what Aaron did and what our blessed Lord did. The Lord had finished offering His sacrifice, and His resurrection proved that God had accepted it… On the foundation of that one perfect and effective sacrifice, He had become the channel between the heart of God and His people, carrying all the blessing He had secured by His death.
One writer sets Aaron's blessing beside this one.
When we read the four verses that close the Gospel of Luke, we feel at once how far more wonderful were the uplifted hands and the blessing of the Lord Jesus. He blessed them just as He ascended into heaven, to take up His High Priestly work there. He had accomplished propitiation by His blood on earth.
Look at who stood under those hands. They had earned nothing.
He went up in the very act of blessing His disciples. When we remember what they had proved themselves to be, this is indeed touching. Six weeks before, all had abandoned Him and run away. One had denied Him with oaths and curses, and to all of them He might have said what He did say to two: "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe." Yet on these foolish, faithless, cowardly disciples He lifted up His hands in blessing. And His blessing still comes down on us too. We live in the day when the Spirit is given, and yet we are very like these men.
Luke told this moment twice — here, and again at the start of Acts. The two accounts do not report the same thing.
In the Gospel we learn what the Lord was doing at the moment He parted from them. He was blessing them — a blessing which was not finished (Luke 24:51), and we may say will never be exhausted. His instructions were completed in Acts 1:9. His blessing was not ended in Luke 24:51.
The last scene answers the first.
It has been well said that the Gospel of Luke ends in perfect keeping with the way it began. It opened by showing you the priest of the order of Levi serving on earth in the temple. It closes with the Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek going up to heaven.
- Led — You do not stumble into blessing of this kind. He walks His own out to it, and the more heavenly it is, the further He leads them.
- Lifted — The raised hands are a priest's hands after sacrifice, and they are pierced hands. The blessing flows from finished work, not from good behaviour.
- Loved — Bethany shows a risen Christ who still loves what He loved before. His resurrection body is real, and so are its affections.
- Undeserved — The men under those hands had fled, denied, and doubted. That is precisely who the blessing falls on, then and now.
- Unfinished — His words to them ended; His blessing did not. He left in the act of it, and it has never been exhausted.
And it came to pass as he was blessing them, he was separated from them and was carried up into heaven.
The last thing the disciples saw of Jesus on earth was His hands raised over them in blessing. He left in the middle of that act, and Luke's wording raises a question: did the blessing ever stop?
Luke does not say Jesus blessed them and then went. He says the parting happened while He was blessing . One writer weighs what that wording means:
The real sense of the expression is that His blessing was an unfinished act! Although His position is changed since He has gone on High, He is still in the process of blessing His people.
Luke tells the ascension twice — here, and again at the start of Acts. The two accounts do different work:
Luke is the only historian of the ascension; Mark just mentions it, but gives no details about it... In Acts we learn what the disciples had been asking, and how the Lord finished answering them before He left. The gospel tells us what the Lord was doing at the moment He parted from them. He was blessing them — a blessing that was not finished, and we may say will never be exhausted. His instructions ended in Acts 1:9. His blessing did not end in Luke 24:51.
Why could He bless them at all? An older pattern gives the answer — Aaron, the priest who offered Israel's sacrifices:
The moment that Aaron had finished offering the sacrifices, he could bless the people. Until that moment he had never acted that way toward them... it shows us on what ground it is that people can be blessed, namely, the acceptance of the sacrifice. Without Christ's death, pictured in those offerings, this could not have happened. Once God has accepted the sacrifice, He can bless righteously.
Aaron's hands and the Lord's hands did not look the same:
Aaron also raised his hands to bless (Lev. 9:22), but his hands had not been pierced. Those of the Lord Jesus had indeed been pierced, and that is how the disciples saw Him ascend.
The words "carried up" say something about what went into heaven:
In that same body He was "carried up into heaven"... "a cloud took him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9). You could not say that a spirit was carried up, and no cloud is needed to take a spirit out of human sight. He was still a Man.
One writer sets this parting beside the fall that began human history:
Jesus had often gone to that spot outside Jerusalem. There was the family that He loved. There He leads the disciples for the last time on earth. From there, in the act of blessing, with uplifted hands, He parts from them and is carried up into heaven — the risen Man, the Lord from heaven. What a contrast with the man who fell, and all the earth through him, passing on the curse to his sad descendants! Here it is not the first Adam, but the Last.
Luke opened his account in the temple, with a priest named Zechariah at his duties. The last scene answers the first:
The Gospel of Luke ends in perfect keeping with the way it began. It opened by showing you the priest of the order of Levi serving on earth in the temple. It closes with the Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek, going up to heaven. The Gospel of Luke began with Zechariah, but it ends with Jesus about to begin His priestly work on high.
Watching Him go might have crushed them. Instead they were full of joy, because they knew where He had gone:
With hands uplifted in blessing He was parted from them. They knew He had gone to the exaltation of God's throne. They knew that place was the only one worthy to receive Him — it was His due. Infinite perfection had received its just recognition, and as they felt this, their hearts were filled with exultant joy and praise.
- Sacrifice first. Aaron could bless only after God accepted the offerings. Christ's raised hands rest on a death already accomplished — and that is the ground on which God can bless.
- Blessing unbroken. Luke says He was parted while blessing. The act was never finished, and that blessing has never run out.
- Pierced hands. The disciples' last sight of Him was of pierced hands, lifted over them in blessing.
- Carried up as Man. No one would say a spirit was "carried up." The risen Lord entered heaven in a real body — the Last Adam, unlike the first man, who brought the curse.
- Joy as the result. They knew He had reached the throne that was His due, so they went back praising God. The Gospel that opened with a priest on earth closes with the Priest at work on high.
And *they*, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
Luke's Gospel ends with the disciples worshipping a Lord who has just gone up into heaven. Their last sight of Him was His hands raised over them in blessing, and they walked back to the city full of joy.
The order matters. He blessed them first, and their worship came after.
He who filled with blessing the hearts devoted to Him in His life was still blessing them when He was separated from them for heaven. "And they worshiped him." Such was the fruit of His blessing, and of His great grace... He who blesses us does not only give a blessing. He also gives the power that returns a blessing to God. The risen Lord Jesus gives the power of real worship to human hearts on the earth.
They worshipped Him, and He did not stop them. One writer lines this up with earlier times when He accepted worship.
We also worship the Son. Although He became man, He always was and is God. He is worthy to be worshipped. Even when on earth He accepted worship from men (Matt. 14:33; John 9:38). When He ascended to heaven the disciples still worshipped Him (Luke 24:52).
This was not the first time people worshipped while a man passed out of sight into God's presence. One writer finds something here that had never happened before.
When Moses went into the cloud, shut in as if behind the veil of God's sanctuary, the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door (Exodus 33). So here the risen Son of Man enters within the cloud (Acts 1:9), as within the veil of the true temple. The people outside recognise the power of His ascension there, and again look after Him, and worship. But it is here, and only here, that they are His own people worshipping Him personally.
Losing someone you love rarely brings joy. Their joy came from knowing where He had gone.
With hands uplifted in blessing He was parted from them. They knew He had gone to the exaltation of God's throne. They knew that place was the only one worthy to receive Him; it was His due. Infinite perfection had received just recognition, and knowing this, their hearts were filled with overflowing joy and praise.
The news that He was leaving had once crushed them. The leaving itself did the opposite, and one writer carries that from their day to ours.
The disciples saw Him ascend, and overflowing worship was the result. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Before His death He told them He would leave them, and sorrow had filled their heart (John 16:5-6). But when it happened, sorrow was forgotten. Their joy was so full that they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. We too have reason for the same unspeakable joy in this present time of grace, whatever our circumstances, for "we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor" (Heb. 2:9).
They went back to the same city they had left. What changed was not where they lived, but what held their hearts.
And now see what they do: the disciples worship Him. Their hearts are linked with the heavenly Saviour. They had been looking for an earthly kingdom; now they have a heavenly Friend. Their eyes follow Him into heaven. They return to Jerusalem, the seat of God's interests on earth, "with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God."
One writer looks past the first disciples to the last days of the church on earth.
We see by faith the risen, victorious Man, ascended into heaven. We receive the benefit and blessing that flows to us as a result. So great joy will also be our portion at the end of the assembly's history on earth, and we too shall be found together "praising and blessing God."
- Blessing first. He blessed them, and their worship was the fruit of that blessing.
- Power given. He gives the blessing, and He also gives the power to return a blessing to God. Real worship is His gift to human hearts.
- Him Himself. They worshipped the risen Son, and He accepted it. He became man, but He always was and is God.
- Joy, not loss. The news of His leaving had filled them with sorrow. The leaving itself filled them with joy, because the place He went to was His due.
- Great joy still. They carried that joy back to Jerusalem, and the same joy belongs to believers now and at the end of the church's history on earth.
and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.
The Gospel of Luke ends in the same building where it began, but with a very different sound. The disciples have just watched their Master leave, yet they carry great joy back to Jerusalem — so what turns a farewell into worship?
Luke's first chapter and his last chapter both stand in the temple. The difference between the two scenes tells the story of the whole book. (Older translations read "praising and blessing God" here, and the writers below quote it that way.)
Luke starts and finishes with a temple (1:9; 24:53), but there is a great difference. In Luke 1 the people stand outside (v. 10), and inside is a priest who cannot speak (v. 20)! But at the end of the Gospel the disciples "were continually in the temple", and there they were "praising and blessing God" (24:53).
Earlier these same men were shaken by the news that He was leaving. Their joy after He went needs an explanation.
These men were distressed and troubled when they knew their Lord was going away. He had to comfort them by telling them of His Father's house, and of His coming again to take them there. But when He had gone they showed no sign of loss. They were not sorrowing orphans, but men overflowing with confidence and joy. Something must explain this… They were clearly the true priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God, even though they were not sons of Aaron.
What they had watched was not a loss but an arrival. A real Man, with flesh and bones, had taken His place at God's right hand.
…He has ascended as a Man with "flesh and bones" to God's right hand. This has turned what looked like the defeat of God's purpose for man into a most glorious and everlasting victory. Man fell in Adam: man is exalted in Christ.
Their worship was itself a gift. One writer traces where the power to praise came from.
"And they worshipped Him." That was the fruit of His blessing, and of His great grace… The One who blesses us does not only give a blessing. He also gives the power that returns a blessing to God — the power of real worship, given to human hearts on the earth by the Lord Jesus, now risen from the dead.
Luke says they were there "continually". That word matches the way He left them, with His hands still stretched out over them.
Their full hearts overflowed with gladness, and rose up to the blessed source of it in the heart of God. They recognised Him as the source of all the blessing they had been brought into… So we might say that their unending worship was the answer born in them to the unending blessing shown by those outstretched hands.
They stood in the same courts as everyone else, but they were not there for the same reason.
They fill the temple, but not as worshipping Jews, with sacrifices and reminders of sins. They fill it as believing souls, with thanksgiving for the resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
Where they stood had not changed. Who they belonged to had.
After Christ's ascension, the disciples returned to Jerusalem and to the temple. But they no longer belonged to the Jewish religious system that had cast out their own Messiah. They were there rejoicing, praising and blessing God without a break, as a priestly company for God's interests, linked with the glorified Christ.
Their joy is not a one-off burst of feeling. Luke has sounded that note from the start, and it is tied to strength.
Luke's is very much a Gospel of joy; there is a great deal about it all through. It begins, continues, and closes with joy (see Luke 1:14, 44; 2:10; 10:17; 15:7, 10, 23; 24:41, 52). Show me a joyless Christian, and I will show you a weak one… the Spirit of God has said, "The joy of the LORD is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).
- Cause — a Man has gone up to God's right hand. What looked like defeat became victory: man fell in Adam, man is exalted in Christ.
- Gift — the One who blesses also gives the power to bless Him back. Worship here is the fruit of His grace, not the disciples' effort.
- Reach — the temple once held a silent priest, with the people shut outside. Now it holds a company inside, praising.
- Content — they come with thanksgiving for the resurrection and the forgiveness of sins, not with reminders of sins.
- Result — His raised hands kept blessing, and their worship kept answering. Joy opens Luke's Gospel, runs through it, and closes it.