In the third verse of this chapter we have the only information which the whole Bible gives us about the time of the ascension. Here we learn that this great event took place on the fortieth day after his resurrection. We are not told why the ascension was delayed so long after Jesus had risen from the dead. But, no doubt, there were good reasons for it. And it may be that we shall know all about these reasons hereafter, though we do not know them now.
If we begin and count the forty days from Easter Sunday, the fortieth day will always come on the Thursday in the fifth week after Easter. And this day is always kept in the Church of England, in the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country, and in some other churches in memory of the important event we are now considering. It is called Ascension Day, or Holy Thursday; and the portions of Scripture read on that day all have reference to the ascension of our blessed Lord. And this is all that need be said about the time of the ascension.
The place where the ascension occurred is the next thing to notice.
From what we read in the gospel of St. Luke, we might suppose it was from Bethany that Jesus made his ascension. Here it says, “He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” St. Luke xxiv: 50, 51. But in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, after describing his ascension, we read that the disciples “returned unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet.” Acts i: 12. But there is no contradiction here; for Bethany, the home of Lazarus and his sisters, was on the Mount of Olives. It was situated just below the top of the Mount, on the other side from Jerusalem. And so we know that it was either from the village of Bethany, or from some spot between that and the summit of the Mount, that Jesus made his ascension. When he was here on earth he often went to the Mount of Olives. It was from this mountain that “Jesus beheld the city and wept over it,” when he used that beautiful illustration, “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” It was on this mountain that he sat with his disciples when he gave that wonderful prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, and his coming again into our world, of which we read in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew.
The Mount of Olives was the last spot of this earth on which the feet of the blessed Saviour stood before he went up to heaven. And when he comes again into our world he will return to the place from which he ascended. This we are told by the prophet Zechariah. For it is when he is speaking of the return of Jesus from heaven that he says—“And his feet shall stand at that day on the Mount of Olives.” Ch. xiv: 4. This thought very naturally makes Olivet an interesting place to visit.
Jesus Revealeth Himself to Mary Magdalene
Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre. And seeth two angels in white sitting, ... where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.—St. John xx: 11-18.
NOTE BY THE ARTIST
It would appear that Mary Magdalene was one of the little company of faithful women who came very early in the morning to the sepulchre, but that she had hastened back to the city before the angelic revelation to her companions. Once more bending her steps in sorrow to the empty grave, to Mary, loving greatly because greatly forgiven, was vouchsafed the privilege of first beholding her risen Lord and Master—the same, yet wondrously changed, so that now, as on subsequent occasions when Jesus appeared to his disciples and “their eyes were holden that they should not know him,” it was not by outward form and aspect, but by words of love and tenderness such as he alone could utter, that his identity was revealed. Although the external aspect of the sepulchre bears little resemblance to that which it presented in former times, the rock-cut grooves which still remain, render it abundantly evident that the entrance with its rolling stone, and the method by which the latter was “sealed,” were such as have been already described in my Note to the picture “The Resurrection of Lazarus.”