Epiphany XVIII: Cleopas — the Ascension and the Second Coming

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women came to the tomb…They found the stone rolled away, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were puzzling over this, suddenly two men in radiant apparel stood beside them. As the women bowed their faces to the ground in terror, the two men asked them,

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?…He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you while He was still in Galilee:

The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ ”

And so it was that:

Simon found the cloth that had been around Jesus’ head rolled up, lying separate from the linen cloths. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in. And he saw and believed. For they still did not understand that — from the Scripture — Jesus had to rise from the dead.

That same day, two who had been at the tomb were discussing this.

As they were walking along, Jesus came along beside them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.

One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, 

“Are You the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in recent days?”

“What things?” He asked. 

“The events involving Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.

“This man was a prophet, powerful in speech and action before God and all the people. Our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to the sentence of death, and they crucified Him. 

But we were hoping He was the One who would redeem Israel.

And besides all this, it is the third day since these things took place.”

Then Jesus said to them,

“O foolish ones, how slow are your hearts to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was written in all the Scriptures about Himself.

For when Moses asked to see God’s Glory, God replied:

“When My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. 

Then I will take My hand away, and you will see My back: but My face must not be seen.”

For before Moses set out to answer God’s call to bring victory to the people in bondage in Egypt,

The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.

Later when Moses was building the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, the Lord said to Moses:

“You are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals…

There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms on the first branch, each with buds and petals, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches that extend from the lampstand….See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.…

And in the days of the Prophet Isaiah the Lord said in Isaiah 11:1

Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch a [netzer] from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.

And in Isaiah 40:3

“Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.”

And Jeremiah 1:11

And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an [amygdala] an almond tree,” I replied.

And in Solomon’s Song of Songs the Bride says:

But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

And the Bridegroom says;

You who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice. Let me hear it!

The Bride says:

Come away, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountain of spices.

And so it was

While He was reclining at the table with them, He took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus

— and He

disappeared from their sight.

And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.

There they found the Eleven and those with them, gathered together

 and saying,

“The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon!”

— the two told what had happened on the road —how they had recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

While they were describing these events —Jesus Himself stood among them

and said, “Peace be with you.” 

But they were startled and frightened, thinking they had seen a spirit.

“Why are you troubled,” Jesus asked, “and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Look at My hands and My feet.

It is I Myself. Touch Me and see —

for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” 

And after eating a piece of broiled fish,

Jesus said to them, 

“These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” 

Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

How in the beginning it was Ruah, the feminine word for Spirit who hovered over the deep waters…and God who spoke with thunder, saying let there be light and there was.

And how on the Third Day God spoke giving life and order to the dry ground, seas, plants, and trees.

And in the wilderness with Moses as their Teacher, God was going to speak with his followers in a thick cloud on the third day — after Moses consecrated them — by commanding them to wash their clothes and to abstain from sexual relations for two days.

On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain…Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

And as the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.…The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,

And Jesus told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer — and rise from the dead on the third day.

For when Job suffered —  as did Simon when God gave Satan permission to sift all of him like wheat — Job said.

“Who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the Thunder roars from His pavilion?

See how He scatters His Lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea.

For by these He judges the nations and provides food in abundance.”

And Jesus said:

In HIS name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you.

For before the Cross, Jesus referred to the Father as a husbandman, a gardener of the Bride’s vineyard — and said:

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.

When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven.

They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into 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.”

And again — the One called Cleopas will ask:

“Are You the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in recent days?”

And you will hear the Word of Isaiah:

Arise, shine, for your light has come —

the glory of the Father rises upon you.

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This is the eighteenth in a series of Epiphany reflections paving the way for the Cross and the Easter season.

The next reflection turns to Pentecost—known in Hebrew as Shavuot — the feast that remembers the giving of the Law, with lightning and thunder on the mountain when Moses ascended and tongues like fire descended on those gathered.

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