Thursday, May 20, 2004
The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ
3rd Vespers of Ascension: Zechariah 14:1,4,8-11 Apostle: Acts 1:1-12 Gospel: St. Luke 24:36-53
Zechariah 14:1, 4, 8-11, especially vs. 9: "And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on
that day the Lord will be one and His Name one." The Ascension of the Lord Jesus marked the beginning of the age of the
Church, the present era that shall continue until once again "His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before
Jerusalem on the east...." (vs. 4). In that day, the Lord will be "King over all the earth," reigning over all as the one and
only Lord Whose Name alone shall be acknowledged by all peoples (vs. 9), and "every eye will see Him, even they who
pierced Him" (Rev. 1:7). The two Angels who appeared to the Apostles after the Lord "was taken up....out of their sight"
(Acts 1:9), revealed that "this same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw
Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). The Prophet Zechariah further discloses something of what shall take place until that day
and on that day, when "there shall be no more curse," and the Holy Church, the true Jerusalem, "shall dwell in security"
(Zech. 14:11) under the Lord Jesus' gracious reign.
When the Prophet speaks of "spoil" (vs. 1), he employs an image of valuables or treasures seized as plunder by the victors
of wars. What, however, is 'the' spoil, the great treasure that is 'taken' from us in this life? It is our hearts and souls and
our very life and breath. The priceless gift of life itself is taken from all by death, for mortality reigns over all today. We
are handed over to death as a result of sin which separates us from God the life-Giver. Ah, but when the Lord of glory
comes, He will portion out true life to us, eternal life, Life without separation from Him. We will share in the spoil of His
victory and receive that which death takes from us. When the Lord comes "there shall be no more curse; Jerusalem shall
dwell in security" (vs. 11).
As He ascended from the Mount of Olives, so in Zechariah's vision, the Lord will come again to stand on the same Mount.
He pictures Olivet split in two, with a great valley pushing through it on an East-West axis, allowing "living waters [to]
flow out from Jerusalem" to all the earth, to the seas East and West (vss. 4,8). The truth of this vision is far advanced
through tangible history. The Living Waters of the Church now have flowed out from its Apostolic beginnings in
Jerusalem to every continent across the whole face of the globe. Barren cultures filled with death and bitterness have been
introduced to the Gospel. Lives are being quickened, are receiving life, and are flourishing, where before all was desert,
superstition, and death.
May God grant us eyes to see that, despite times of terrible repression and the killing of men's bodies and souls, the
Church, the Life-bearing water, has continued to flow and has not been stifled nor dammed up by the most systematic
efforts of nations, empires, and tyrannies. As the Prophet Zechariah foresaw, the advance of life "shall continue in [the]
summer as in [the] winter" of men's efforts to stop the water of life from reaching the great sea of humanity (vs. 8).
Today, the earth is being converted, from North to South, into a fruitful plain fed by the life-bearing water of the Gospel,
flowing from the true Jerusalem, the Church. When Zechariah speaks of Geba and Rimmon (vs. 10), he uses these cities as
reference points for markers of the northern and southern extremes of the land known to his readers in the sixth century
before Christ. Modern technology provides us with a larger geographic vision, and because the Life, Death, Resurrection,
and Ascension of the Lord Jesus have illumined our hearts and minds, we are able to see the point the Prophet sought to
proclaim: "Jerusalem shall remain aloft upon its site" (vs. 10), with Jesus Christ as its corner stone. Furthermore, it is
being "inhabited" (vs. 11).
Save us, O Son of God, Who didst rise from us in glory to the heavens, as we sing unto Thee. Alleluia!
