BEHOLD

When storm clouds recently layered above our valley—in a brief respite between weather systems that pumped hundred-degree days into our valley—I had two thoughts. One: could these produce lightning, which could ignite more fires in our area? We'd had too many fires already. Two: there was nothing I could do about it.

That sense of helplessness reminded me of an event described at the end of Matthew's Gospel. Here was Jesus, risen from the dead, just as He predicted. His grisly crucifixion—a criminal's death for a sinless Man—was in God's eternal plan to reconcile a holy God and sinful people. Now this inexplicably “alive” Person was giving His followers some final teaching about God's kingdom and their role as witnesses in it. Then:

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9 KJV)

Beheld. It's an old English word we don't hear much any more, but it was just right for this event. It meant to fix one's eyes on something, to look at it with attention and to observe with care. The disciples watched Jesus' ascension—probably in fear and awe—trying to absorb every mystifying moment. They didn't know what to make of this. There was nothing they could do to reverse the event! Then some “men in white”--angels--admonished them to quit gawking at the sky: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven” (v. 11).

How fitting—that this same Jesus whom they “beheld” in His exit, was earlier welcomed into His earthly ministry when his camel-hair-garbed, radical prophet cousin John declared from the Jordan River where he was baptizing: “Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). It was a bold, radical statement!

In recent months, some exceedingly wealthy men have financed their own trips into the “clouds,” enjoying the awe and weightlessness of space for a few minutes. But gravity eventually pulled their space vessels back to earth. Christ's ascension defied all laws of the planet. He kept going....and why not? Earth wasn't His real home.

But what of Christ's second coming? What will it mean to return “in the same way”?

Our broken, bruised world—groaning with climate change, disasters, disease, despair, crime—keeps hoping for something better. Instinctively, we look up, our perception of heaven—wherever or however that is God's eternal plan. Someday, our visions will extend beyond our layer of clouds. Our Savior will return--”in the same way” as those followers saw Him leave some 2,000 years ago.

Another “John,” the ninety-something apostle John, when granted special visions of the future, wrote: “Behold [there's that word again] he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Rev. 1:7)

How is that possible—total recognition around the globe? Well, did you watch the Olympics from the other side of the world? But who watched every event in its entirety?

Christ's Second Coming will eclipse that! Every eye will see--BEHOLD--Him!