The Gospel according to Luke shows a beautiful structure also in certain parallels between the beginning and the end of his account of Jesus' life on earth. It begins and it ends in the temple. It begins with some faithful people being in the temple courts and a heavenly messenger announcing the birth of the herald of Jesus Christ. The angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah, the priest, in the temple. That is the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News.

The book ends with the Christ ascending into heaven and His faithful congregation of disciples praising God in the temple. It begins with faithful people praying in the temple court while the priest Zechariah burns the incense offering. It ends with Jesus Christ, the High Priest, lifting up His hands and laying His priestly blessing upon His congregation. The Gospel begins with angels announcing great joy which will be for all people and it ends with the disciples returning to Jerusalem with great joy!

Much has happened in between! The one and only sacrifice which could pay for the sins of the world has now been brought. The cup of God's wrath was drunk to the last drop. Even His close friends had stood by stunned and shocked without understanding why all this had to happen to Him. Even His resurrection at first met with total unbelief and so the risen Lord has opened the Scriptures for them as well as their minds. After all, they shared in His exaltation and they will continue to enjoy the fruits of all His labors. They were to be His witnesses and so the Lord had prepared them for this task by remaining with them for another forty days.

Now the time has come. The High Priest must now enter the true sanctuary, heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24). His ascension is not the end of His mediating work but now He continues to lay His high-priestly blessing upon His people after the sacrifice has made full atonement for all their sins.

The Lord continues as Mediator and one of us. He changed location. "He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven." He did not disappear, neither disintegrates. He did not become an angelic being or spirit but that same Jesus who ate with them, who touched them, who held their children in His arms, whose hands were blessing them as He ascended – He ascended into heaven in His physical being. It is real! He is there until He will come again.

This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.Acts 1:11

The disciples were not troubled when He left. On the contrary, they were filled with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. In this great moment of exaltation the Lord Himself draws the closest link between His exalted state and that of His Church which He leaves behind here on earth. He leaves while He blesses them! That is the last picture, the last image the disciples have of Christ here on earth, ascending up to heaven. That is the picture they passed on to us: a blessing Lord. His church remains here on earth with the hands of Jesus Christ the High Priest extended over them in the process of laying His blessing upon them, the fruit of His sacrifice.

In the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there is a gigantic statute representing Christ, standing high on a mountain, overlooking the city, with His arms stretched out over the multitudes of people far down below. We may not encourage such an image of stone but we certainly would encourage a greater awareness of the reality illustrated by this image. Christ ascended into heaven as the Head of the Church but in order to pour out His heavenly gifts on us so that we may continue His work here on earth and reap the harvest of His sacrifice. The disciples were not impoverished when Jesus left but greatly enriched. They were filled with great joy and praised God!

No wonder! Jesus left them while He blessed them. His blessing is not merely a wish or a prayer but an effective, real power coming from the one and only High Priest. His blessing is a power just like His Word is a power unto salvation. When he lifts up His hands to bless, the blessings will pour forth. Now they are under the umbrella of His heavenly blessings. The gifts of the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them. The work of Jesus Christ continues from heaven through His disciples here on earth. Jesus had charged them to be His witnesses and explained that fulfillment of the Scriptures requires that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:47) The charge has been given and now the risen Lord takes up His position in heaven from where He will orchestrate this final gathering together of His church through His believers. So He leaves, while He blessed them.

These blessing hands are the guarantee that Christ's work will reach its goal and destination. He will enable His disciples to fulfill their mandate to preach the Gospel to all nations beginning from Jerusalem, from the temple. This mandate is being continued by the Church today and we may rely on the power of this same blessing of which we are reminded every worship service again when the minister of the Word, in the name of Jesus Christ, may also lift up his hands and lay the blessing of the Lord upon the congregation. Behind the earthly servant the congregation may see Jesus Christ and His uplifted hands stretched out over them as His people, His beloved flock for whom He laid down His life as a sacrifice for all our sins and now He lays His priestly blessing upon the reconciled congregation.

The first disciples responded with great joy and by continually blessing God in the temple. With great courage and boldness they went about their mandate to preach the Gospel to all nations because they knew that the Lord with His blessing would be with His Church always to the close of the age. May the joy and enthusiasm of these first disciples still abound today since God's people today have the same rich promises and may look forward to Christ returning in the same way as they saw Him going into heaven.