How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" (Isaiah 52:7)
A 2016 film called “Everest” re-captured the fascination and fear of our highest mountains. Based on the true story of a double expedition up the Himalayan slopes in 1996, the film chronicles the deaths of all but two when a fierce blizzard swirls in, thwarting their safe descent. Despite the wisdom and experience of the group’s leaders, they were no match for nature’s force and power.
In a sense, the film captures the true helplessness of humans in the face of forces far beyond our keep and ken.
The scripture for today does something very similar, as Jesus’ disciples follow him up the Mount of Olives in the region of Bethany outside of Jerusalem. Here he is “taken up” into the clouds after blessing them. How helpless and out of their pay grade they must have felt at that moment when God’s power was revealed before them and they witnessed Jesus’ ascension.
At that moment, Jesus was no longer their rabbi, or even their post-resurrection visitor, but the High Priest of God, the Son of the Most High God, the Holy Spirit in Human Form, their heavenly advocate.
Luke tells us what happened to them: they fell down and “worshipped Him, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They stayed continually at the Temple praising God!”
They had witnessed a revelatory event! And that epiphany took place on high ground, just as Jesus’ blessing upon them lifted them too to “higher ground.”
For the Jewish people, like their Hebrew ancestors before them, God always appears on “higher ground.” Moses, Joshua, Jacob, Abram –they all encountered God on those places of “higher ground.” In fact, those places of higher ground were the places where they built their homes, their places of worship, and at the site of Mt. Moriah, the Jerusalem Temple itself. Because the people of God were to worship the Lord on higher ground than anyone else.
On mountaintops, on hills, on places that overlooked God’s beautiful landscapes, those were the places one could expect to meet God face-to-face, or to have some kind of revelatory experience or divine encounter. On a mountain is where Jesus was transfigured in front of several disciples. On the mountains is where he went to pray. On a mountain is where he went before his crucifixion to commune with His Father. On the mountain is where he brought his disciples, according to Luke, to witness his ascension –in the hills a couple of miles outside of Jerusalem, in the vicinity of Bethany.
To higher ground.
The Mount of Olives. The very place Jesus wept in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was betrayed. The very place David wept in defeat years before. Now the very place Jesus would culminate his victory over all defeat, over all betrayal, over all sin and every death. With his ascension, Jesus becomes one with the heavenly Father and will be with his disciples from here forward in the form of the Holy Spirit, who will bring Jesus to life in all of them. The time of ascension is the time when God’s Son has completed his physical time on earth and will now sit at the right hand of the Father, with wounded hands and feet. He is our High Priest, bestowing his final blessing before leaving God’s mission in the hands of his disciples.
“The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it.” (Ezekiel’s Vision of God’s Restoration)
And in a sense, this place too is Jesus’ favorite place. Here, on the Mount of Olives and in Bethany, Jesus spent most of his “down-time” during his ministry. Here, on “higher ground” is where he taught his disciples to take the “high road” and not the “high and mighty” road when it came to ministering to God’s people.
Bethany is an interesting place. Scholars disagree about what kind of place Bethany was in Jesus’ day. Or even what the name “Bethany” meant.
Some sources say that Bethany (Bethanya) should be translated “house of dates” (Strongs), as Bethany was known to be a “little” oasis in the midst of wilderness –with abundance in figs, dates, olives, and other fruits.^
Others have translated the word differently as (beth anya) in Aramaic, which means “house of the poor or afflicted.” This definition is supported as early as Jerome, one of the church fathers, as well as sources such as Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, which translates the name as “house of misery.” Some in particular make the argument that Lazarus (Simon the Leper), whose name means “God will help,” would have lived here in particular, since Bethany may have been the site of an Essene “almshouse” in Jesus’ day, as such places were typically located on the eastern side outside of a city, and Bethany lay two miles from Jerusalem at the perfect location. This makes a lot of sense when you again read some of the scripture stories, in which Jesus references the poor as always with them, and when Judas becomes angry over Mary’s pouring of the perfumed oil upon Jesus instead of giving it to the poor.** Had Lazarus lived at the almshouse during his time of leprosy? Did he then become one of Jesus’ chief friends and benefactors after his healing? Jesus certainly remained a friend of that family and visited Bethany often.
The Essenes kept multiple almshouses at locations outside of cities, where they ministered to the poor. They were known to serve the sick and ailing, acting as a hospital and hospice. You might call them the Salvation Army of the first century.
If Bethany was an Essene outpost for the outcasts of Jerusalem, it makes a lot of sense that Jesus would spend his time there. For the sick and dying, Jesus was their “Bethel” at Bethany.
Not far from the place where Jacob saw the ladder of God in his vision, here Jesus himself would be the “bridge” between heaven and earth for those whom the world had rejected.^^
Jesus loved the “higher ground.” Jesus WAS the higher ground.
Was Bethany a place where fruit-bearing abounded? Or a house of alms for the poor and ailing?
I suspect both. Surely God’s abundant mercy and love abounded here in the place Jerusalem wanted nothing to do with. And those who ministered to those sick and dying bore the true fruit and abundance of God’s blessing.
It is here near Bethany, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, that Jesus would give his final blessing to his disciples, perhaps teaching them that the way to be elevated in the sight of God is to “get down and dirty,” to minister to God’s people at the very bottom of the earthly ladder. From here, those disciples would need to go out into a world filled with the poor and afflicted, calling them to be disciples, giving them the “good news” of Jesus’ victory and salvation hope.
It was a lesson Jesus tried to teach them before, when he got down onto the floor and washed their feet. And it is a final lesson perhaps that he would teach them again –that the true fruit of God’s love is in loving God’s most unfortunate and underprivileged people.
Perhaps God’s true revelation that day of ascension is the truth that God’s higher ground is being on the ground in the ways that count. God’s higher ground is not top down but from the ground up. God’s higher up is sometimes to be in the background, not in the foreground. God’s higher ground is sometimes to be ground-breaking and earth-shaking, not consoling and comforting.
Are you ready to go higher this week? Jesus is calling you to higher ground.
Let’s end today with a very old song. Let’s sing it together. It’s called “Higher Ground.”
I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Refrain:
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.
I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Johnson Oatman, Jr. 1898 (public domain)
*The image for this sermon is a painting by Edward Lear of Jerusalem as seen from the Mount of Olives near Bethany.
^See Jewish Encyclopedia, article by Morris Jastrow and Frants Buhl.
**See “The Dead Sea Scrolls As Background…”Ed James R. Davila. Article by Brian J. Capper, p. 108-115 on Bethany. See also Dr. Eli Lizaorkin-Eyzenberg in an article from November 28, 2013 at http://jewishstudies. The Syriac New Testament retains this meaning.
^^According to the midrash, Jacob’s ladder signifies the exiles the Jews would suffer before the coming of the Messiah. Jesus is the restorer of God’s blessings upon His people.
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Blessing of His Disciples and Ascension (Luke 24:[45-49; 50-53)
Minor Text
God’s Blessing Upon Abram (Genesis 12)
The Blessing of Melchizedek, High Priest of the Most High God Upon Abram (14)
God’s Blessing Upon Jacob and the Experience at Bethel (Genesis 28)
The Blessing and Monument at Gilgal When the Ark Came Up Out of the Jordan (Joshua 4)
Psalm 18: The Lord Lives in High Places
Psalm 24: Ascending the Mountain of God
Psalm 68: Proclaiming the Power of God
Psalm 110: A Priest in the Order of Melchizedek
Psalm 121 (A Song of Ascent): The Lord’s Blessing
Psalm 123 (A Song of Ascent): I Lift Up My Eyes
The Lord’s Servant Will Be Raised and Lifted Up (Isaiah 52)
The Mountain of the Lord (Micah 4)
Jesus the High Priest in the Eternal Order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7)
The Story of Jesus’ Ascension (Acts 1)
The Living Stone of Zion (I Peter 2)
Luke’s Witness to Jesus’ Ascension
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Image Exegesis: Higher Ground
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” (Micah 4:2)
Figs, olives, and dates, oh my! Perhaps the best metaphor in the ascension passage is “Bethany,” oasis of abundant fruit. Or…is it “Bethany,” house of the afflicted?
Scholars don’t agree which one it is, although the spelling may suggest the latter holds more weight. It may also be both. Just as “Bethlehem” means house of bread in Hebrew but “house of meat” in Arabic, perhaps too “Bethany” means house of abundant fruit in Hebrew but house of the afflicted in Aramaic.
If true, what a beautiful set of metaphors, for surely Jesus has told us many times that to “bear fruit” for God means to be a servant to those of God’s children who most need help.
While Bethany was said to be a little patch of beauty, yielding lush foliage and fruit trees, as opposed to its surrounding barren fields, it also may have been in fact the location of a “hospice” run by the Essenes, who typically ministered to the outcast, poor, ill, and dying in small towns in the outskirts of a major city. For Jerusalem, Bethany’s location would fit that description. Located just two miles outside of Jerusalem, separated by a deep gorge the Mount of Olives rose up beyond with Bethany on its eastern flank.
John the Baptist is said to have had contact with the Essenes. In fact, he could well have been educated by them, but we don’t know that Jesus was. However, we do know that John is Jesus’ cousin, we do know that the Great Hillel and many from the school of Hillel fled to the outlying areas among the Essenes when they fled the Shammai in Jerusalem, and we also know that much of Jesus’ teaching and mission is remarkably similar to that of the Hillel rabbis and the mission of the Essenes. Both Jesus’ mission to the gentiles and his compassion for the poor and afflicted are similar to those theologies, as is baptism. Additionally, it was the Essenes who most supported the coming of a Messiah, and would have carefully guarded the knowledge of such a baby who would be the future “king.” So, would Jesus, could Jesus have spent significant time in a place known for its hospice for the outcasts of Jerusalem, a place run by the Essenes? Most certainly he would.
Jesus, the anointed one, had an unusual theology –in order to be elevated in the eyes of God, you needed to go as low as you could go, be as humble as could be. How much more humble could you be than to ministry to those everyone else excluded?
Therefore, the metaphor of the mountain (most likely the Mount of Olives) and the fact that it was deliberately said to be near Bethany (with its multiple meanings) create a very interesting dichotomy. You go high (to the mountain) to go low. By going “low”, you receive the revelation of God (the pinnacle).
While the scripture accents metaphors such as “Power on High” and “Hands of Blessing,” it also reveals a few “hidden” metaphors, such as “light,” high ground/mountain,” and “high priest/Melchizedek.”
This particular mountain has a rich history in Israel’s past, as a holy place. And as the site now of the ascension, it takes on an even more “mysterious” aura. Jesus, as the “high priest’ of the most high God (as seen in Joshua) is taken up into the clouds while the disciples watch in awe. Then, they worship him. They realize that their teacher is not just bodily resurrected, but now will become a spiritual presence who will be their advocate in heaven, seated at the right hand of God. Jesus IS one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And this revelation of who he is now, transfigured (as was formerly foreshadowed) into part of the Godhead, becomes clear, even as it is mysterious. And they worship him.
In the ascension, Jesus’ earthly ministry is complete. And a new phase begins. For the Holy Spirit to come upon them, Jesus first must be ascended.
Hearkening back to Jacob’s vision of the ladder from earth to heaven, Jesus’ ascension proves, HE IS the ladder. And the angels that appear afterward (as recorded in Acts) confirm this. Just as they appeared in the empty tomb, here too the two in white explain what otherwise is inexplicable.
Even as Jesus came down to the very lowest that he could go on earth, he now ascends to the very highest imaginable. And he is revealed even as concealed. He is the eternal priest. His last act on earth was to bless his disciples into mission, just as Abram and others have been blessed by God before them.
They will live out the promise and victory of God. They will proclaim Jesus’ salvation and glory to all coming after them.
As Jesus lifts them up with his blessing to higher ground, as they witness the revelation of his new presence in the form of the Holy Spirit, they are filled with joy, because they realize, He is not leaving them, but will be with them to the “end of the age.”