Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St LukeBurton, Henry
Religion
Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St Luke
Burton, Henry
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
The interview was not for long, for the risen Christ dwelt apart from
His disciples, coming to them at uncertain times and only for brief
spaces. He lingers, however, now, to explain to the eleven, as before to
the two, the great mystery of the Redemption. He opens their minds,
that the truth may pass within. Gathering up the lamps of prophecy
suspended through the Scriptures, He turns their varying lights upon
Himself, the ME of whom they testify. He shows them how it is written in
their law that the Christ must suffer, the Christ must die, the Christ
must rise again the third day, and "that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations, beginning from
Jerusalem." And then He gave to these preachers of repentance and
remission the promise of which the Book of the Acts is a fulfilment and
enlargement, the "promise of the Father," which is the gift of the Holy
Ghost. It was the prophecy of the Pentecost, the first rustle of the
mighty rushing wind, that Divine breath which comes to all who will
receive it.
Our Evangelist passes in silence other appearances of the Resurrection
Life, those forty days in which, by His frequent manifestations, He was
training His disciples to trust in His unseen Presence. He only in a few
closing words tells of the Ascension; how, near Bethany, He was parted
from them, and taken up into heaven, throwing down benedictions from His
uplifted hands even as He went; and how the disciples returned to
Jerusalem, not sorrowing, as men bereaved, but with great joy, having
learned now to endure and rejoice as seeing Him who is invisible, the
unseen but ever-present Christ. That St. Luke omits the other
Resurrection appearances is probably because he intended to insert them
in his prelude to the Acts of the Apostles, which he does, as he joins
his second treatise to the first. Nor is it altogether an incidental
coincidence that as he writes his later story he begins at Jerusalem,
lingering in the upper room which was the wind-rocked cradle of the
Church, and inserting as key-words of the new story these four words
from the old: Repentance, Remission, Promise, Power. The two books are
thus one, a seamless robe, woven for the living Christ, the one giving
us the Christ of the Humiliation, the other the Christ of the
Exaltation, who speaks now from the upper heavens, and whose power is
the power of the Holy Ghost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account