“When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honour at God’s right hand” (Mk 16:19).
I worked for decades in a Chinese owned company and was familiar with Chinese dining etiquette and the seating arrangement around a round table at a dinner. In short, the seat of honour, reserved for the one with the highest status, faced the entrance and each guest was seated thereafter according to their ranking. The next most important guest would sit to the left of the most honoured and the 3rd most important guest sat to the right, the 4th to the left and the 5th to the right and so on until there were no more seats.
In God’s jurisdiction, the most honoured position is to the right of God and Mark singularly recorded that Jesus has been exalted to that position of glorious majesty, sovereign dignity, universal power and unlimited favour. Think about that! Jesus bore our redeemed humanity into the very presence of God, into the highest of heavens, and is seated in a position of the greatest privilege.
There is no way for human nature to enter into that lofty place but Jesus left us with the promise that He was going there to prepare a place for all who love and trust Him (John 14:3). Because Jesus is in God’s holy temple, we will be there, too:
“For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
To my human heart, this all seems so impossible. We don’t conform to His image. We have nothing that would commend us to God let alone to be elevated beside Jesus at His banquet table, yet this is the promise to all who are called by His name:
“Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 16:9).
With Jesus seated at God's right hand, we have an advocate (1 John 2:1), that, even though we deserve death (Rom. 6:23), we have been made righteous because we have trusted in Him as our Saviour (2 Cor. 5:21).
When we are parted from our loved ones, it is not a fearful unknown or inane destiny for them for we know they will eternally be with Christ in heaven, seated beside Him:
“Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne” (Rev. 3:21).
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*All quotes from NLT.
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