Our Lord's going away from that little group was a journey in two
stages. Calvary was the first; Olivet was the second. He means by the
phrase the whole continuous process which begins with His death and
ends in His ascension. Both are embraced in His words, and each
co-operates to the attainment of the great purpose.
He prepares a place for us by His death. The High Priest, in the
ancient ritual, once a year was privileged to lift the heavy veil and
pass into the darkened chamber, where only the light between the
cherubim was visible, because he bore in his hand the blood of the
sacrifice. But in our New Testament system the path into 'the holiest
of all,' the realisation of the most intimate fellowship with heavenly
things and communion with God Himself, are made possible, and the way
patent for every foot, because Jesus has died. And as the communion
upon earth, so the perfecting of the communion in the heavens. Who of
us could step within those awful sanctities, or stand serene amidst the
region of eternal light and stainless purity, unless, in His death, He
had borne the sins of the world, and, having 'overcome' its 'sharpness'
by enduring its blow, had 'opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all
believers'?
Old legends tell us of magic gates that resisted all attempts to force
them, but upon which, if one drop of a certain blood fell, they flew
open. And so, by His death, Christ has opened the gates and made the
heaven of perfect purity a dwelling-place for sinful men.
But the second stage of His departure is that which more eminently is
in Christ's mind here. He prepares a place for us by His entrance into
and His dwelling in the heavenly places. The words are obscure because
we have but few others with which to compare them, and no experience by
which to interpret them. We know so little about the matter that it is
not wise to say much; but though there be vast tracts of darkness round
the little spot of light, this should only make the spot of light more
vivid and more precious. We know little, but we know enough for mind
and heart to rest upon. Our ignorance of the ways in which Christ by
His ascension prepares a heaven for His followers should neither breed
doubt nor disregard of His assurance that He does.
If Christ had not ascended, would there have been 'a place' at all? He
has gone with a human body, which, glorified as it is, still has
relations to space, and must be somewhere. And we may even say that His
ascending up on high has made a place where His servants are. But apart
from that suggestion, which, perhaps, is going beyond our limits, we
may see that Christ's presence in heaven is needful to make it a heaven
for poor human souls. There, as here (Scripture assures us), and
throughout eternity as to-day, Jesus Christ is the Mediator of all
human knowledge and possession of God. It is from Him and through Him
that there come to men, whether they be men on earth or men in the
heavens, all that they know, all that they hope, all that they enjoy,
of the wisdom, love, beauty, peace, power, which flow from God. Take
away from the heaven of the Christian expectation that which comes to
the spirit through Jesus Christ, and you have nothing left. He and His
mediation and ministration alone make the brightness and the
blessedness of that high state. The very glories of all that lies
beyond the veil would have an aspect appalling and bewildering to us,
unless our Brother were there. Like some poor savages brought into a
great city, or rustics into the presence of a king and his court, we
should be ill at ease amidst the glories and solemnities of that future
life unless we saw standing there our Kinsman, to whom we can turn, and
who makes it possible for us to feel that it is home. Christ's presence
makes heaven the home of our hearts.
Not only did He go to prepare a place, but He is continuously preparing
it for us all through the ages. We have to think of a double form of
the work of Christ, His past work in His earthly life, and His present
in His exaltation. We have to think of a double form of His present
activity—His work with and in us here on earth, and His work for us
there in the heavens. We have to think of a double form of His work in
the heavens—that which the Scripture represents in a metaphor, the full
comprehension of which surpasses our present powers and experiences, as
being His priestly intercession; and that which my text represents in a
metaphor, perhaps a little more level to our apprehension, as being His
preparing a place for us. Behind the veil there is a working Christ,
who, in the heavens, is preparing a place for all that love Him.