Focal Passage: Luke 24:44-53
As Luke begins to draw his gospel account and letter to Theophilus to an end, he reiterates the fact that Jesus was the Christ by reminding his readers, and Theophilus, of Jesus’ words to His disciples.
That everything had now been fulfilled that had been promised in Scripture. That He was the long-awaited Messiah of God who fulfilled everything that was written about Him in the Law of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament; the Torah, (God’s revelation of Himself and His instructions to His people); the Prophets (the history, major and minor prophets, and God’s interactions with His people and His restorative actions); and the Psalms (the writings). In other words, the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament.
Beginning in verse 46, Luke’s account begins to transition from reminding them of who Jesus was and how He had fulfilled all things, to what was going to be coming next. It is a transition from what has happened to where are we going from here.
Jesus, after reminding His disciples of what He had said about Himself and what had to happen, now begins to tell them what is going to happen.
Nimmo
The Good News was now going to be preached to all the nations (the world). It would start in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Jesus tells them that it is going to be them who would be doing it. Probably not something they thought would happen. Sure, they had helped Jesus share the message until now, but still it was Jesus doing the proclaiming for the most part. This, however, was going to be very different.
I can’t help but think they were a little skeptical about how they were going to accomplish that. I wonder if any of them had remembered Jesus’ words in John 14:12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
Jesus knew this task was bigger than what they humanly were able to accomplish. So, He encouraged them with the promise of help. With this commission would also come power to help carry it out.
However, He also knew they needed a little time to let all that had happened and the reality of their new mission and ministry to sink in, so He instructed them to stay in Jerusalem for a while. They needed some time to ponder, reflect, meditate and heal. Their minds were no doubt reeling. Jesus wanted them to begin this new commission with clarity and focus of mind.
In verse 50, we find Jesus in the vicinity of Bethany with His disciples. We don’t know for certain if they were actually in Bethany or if they were just close to there. Tradition suggests that it may have been the Mount of Olives. That is a strong possibility since it is very close to the city of Bethany, but the Scripture does not say specifically. Luke’s account is the only one that even references a location.
However, here Jesus blesses them and while He was blessing them, He is taken up into Heaven. We then see the disciples returning to Jerusalem worshiping and praising God just as Jesus told them to do. What a glorious ending to this wonderful account from a Gentile named Luke B&R
