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.