At His Right Hand

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

AT THE RIGHT HAND

Luke 22:63-71

63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and demanded, "Prophesy! Who hit you?" 65 And they said many other insulting things to him. 66 At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67 "If you are the Christ," they said, "tell us." Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer.   69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."  70 They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am."  71 Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."

NIV

Luke does not give us the gory details of all the suffering Jesus had to endure at the hands of the Roman soldiers. We know more details from another gospel, and we will not recount all of those because Luke does not, but gives us something else we can focus on. This conversation with Jesus with the Chief priests and the teachers of the law makes it clear that Jesus admitted he was the Son of God, and although they were going to get their way and have him crucified, that had not been fulfilled yet, he was not going to remain in the tomb but would be resurrected and ascend back to heaven to side at the right hand of the mighty God. They could not deal with that truth, other than to think it was blasphemous, and enough evidence to hand him over for due punishment, because they were not authorized to punish a man for a crime, as they were subject to Roman law. However, Jesus is confessing to them and to us that he is the Son of God and that He is, at this very moment, seated at the right hand of the Father, and just as he promised he is always there making intercession for us. This may seem a little different than thinking Jesus is always praying to the Father for us so that the Father would forgive our sins. However, we wonder if the simple fact that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, thus being in the presence of the Father, in fact, being one with the Father, is sufficient for all our sins to be constantly forgiven. In other words, we are in a continual state of forgiveness. Yet, we also have this fact that we are to ask for the forgiveness of sins as we forgive others of their sins against us. We also know that if we do not forgive others for their sins against us, the Father will not forgive us our sins against him. That is tough teaching to live with. Therefore, the truth is that we would be living in a constant state of forgiveness toward anyone or everyone who offends us or sins against us. That means we cannot harbor hurt or ill feelings toward that person who hurt our feelings for a nano-second, which is one billionth of a second. God does not even take that long to forgive us because constant is the same as instant, which does not relate to time whatsoever. Because Jesus, our Salvation, our Redeemer, our Savior, He took all our sins with him and they are always in him being one with God, so instantaneously forgiveness exists and we cannot even ask fast enough, for it has happened before beginning to pray, Father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us because Jesus is at His right hand.