Biblion Bible Commentary
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He Was Carried Up
Luke 24:50-53
50 He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. · WEB
He leaves with his hands raised in blessing, and the book ends where it began — in the temple.
He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them Luke 24:50.
The last four verses are this Gospel's alone, and every detail closes something the book opened.
The place is Bethany , on the far side of the ridge that carries the Mount of Olives — the ridge he came over to enter the city, and the hillside he slept on all that last week.
He lifted up his hands and blessed them. The gesture is a priest's. It is what Aaron did coming down from making the offering Leviticus 9:22, and the words that went with it were the blessing of Numbers — the Lord bless you and keep you, and give you peace Numbers 6:24–26.
And this book began with a priest who came out of the sanctuary unable to give that blessing, signing to a crowd because his mouth had been stopped Luke 1:22. The interrupted benediction of chapter one is completed here, by someone else, with his hands raised.
While he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven Luke 24:51.
The closing words about the ascension are printed differently in different English Bibles, and they are treated here as they stand in the text before us. What is unmistakable in every form of the verse is the timing: he goes while he blessed them. The blessing is not finished and then followed by a departure; the departure happens inside it, which means the hands were still raised.
The second volume gives the scene at greater length, with the two men in white and the promise that he will come back the same way Acts 1:9–11.
They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy Luke 24:52.
Joy is the last emotion in the book, and it should be an odd one. They have just watched him leave. What the account records is not bereavement but the thing the angel promised the shepherds — good news of great joy Luke 2:10 — and the thing the seventy came back with Luke 10:17.
And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God Luke 24:53.
The last sentence puts them inside the building where the first sentence of the narrative began. Chapter one opened with one priest at the altar of incense and The whole multitude of the people were praying outside Luke 1:10. It ends with the people inside, continually, praising — no longer waiting in a courtyard for a man to come out and tell them what he saw.
And they are told to wait in that city, so what the book leaves them doing is waiting in the temple with their hands empty and their mouths full of praise. The story is unfinished on purpose. There is a second volume, and it begins ten days later.
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