Farwell Blessing

Hey! God bless you! Are you wondering if someone sneezed? Sometimes, in our culture, maybe in every culture, a “God bless you” is thrown out there with no conviction of God actually blessing anyone. It’s just what you say when someone sneezes, or when you are trying to get those crazy Christians to vote for you. In the Old Testament the priests were commanded by God to bless the people. In Numbers 6:24-26 God even gives them a specific blessing: “Yahweh bless you, and keep you; Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up his countenance on you, and give you peace.” Now that is a good word of blessing. There is also the idea of a farewell blessing in the Old Testament. In Genesis 49:28 Jacob blesses his sons “with the blessing appropriate to him.” And in Deuteronomy 33 Moses blessed the sons of Israel before his death. Some will try to distinguish which kind of blessing Jesus said over his disciples before his ascension: priestly or farewell. Why not both?

We have come to the end of the Gospel of Luke. I hope it has been a good walk. It seems appropriate to end with a blessing. The word “bless” (eulogeo) literally means “speak well.” The noun form of the word is where we get the English word “eulogy.” For the Greeks the word meant either to speak well, as in eloquently, or to speak well of a person. For the followers of God in the Old and New Testaments, it meant to call down God’s blessing – goodness, well-being, favor. The opposite of this was to call down God’s curse – punishment, calamity, disfavor. A blessing was very important and should be for us as well. That’s why Esau cried with “an exceedingly great and bitter cry” when Jacob stole his blessing (Genesis 27:34). To know that your father and/or mother or anyone else for that matter is calling upon God to bless you; to lift his countenance on you; to give you peace; well, that should have a weight to it.

In Luke 24:5-53, Jesus leads his disciples near to Bethany, which was on the southeastern slopes of the Mount of Olives. And then he lifted his hands and blessed them. Did he use the blessing of Numbers 6:24-26? We don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. Jesus is preparing to leave and he is calling down blessings from God upon his followers. This was no trite “God bless you.” There is a similar scene in the Apocrypha book Ben Sirach 50:20-22. The blessing over the people by the high priest Simon has a concluding function for the book. The only Old Testament passage where a person lifts their hands to bless is in Leviticus 9:22 where Aaron lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them. One source emphasized both the Ben Sirach and the Leviticus connection and then de-emphasized the high priest connection, stating that Jesus’ blessing is a farewell blessing. But do we have to decide between the two? I’m not sure why you would connect the blessing of Jesus with Ben Sirach and Aaron and then say, “But really this is not about Jesus being the high priest. Nope! This is more about Jesus giving a word of blessing before he departs.” I am convinced that it is both. But what is more important is that Jesus blessed his followers. He desired that his Father – Yahweh – would favor them. And that is huge! I kind of believe that Jesus is still blessing his followers today.

While he was blessing them, he moved away from them and then was taken up to heaven. “Taken up” is used in Hellenistic stories of journeys to heaven. Acts 1:9-11 gives little more information. Even though this is a brief account, this is what the story of Jesus has been moving toward. And just as Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them and then entered into the presence of God, Jesus is now at the right hand of God, serving as high priest. Having received the blessing and witnessing Jesus’ ascension, the disciples fall prostrate and worship Jesus. And then they return to Jerusalem where Jesus told them to wait for the power of God. And as they wait, they go every day to the temple and praise God. And what is interesting is that the word “praise” is actually “bless.” But can we bless God? When this word is describing humans addressing God it is usually translated “praise.” But that often misses the symmetry of the passage. Jesus blessed them and they blessed God. Filled with blessing they bless. And maybe, just maybe, it is a blessing to God to have his followers filled with a desire to wish him goodness and favor.

Yahweh bless you, and keep you; Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up his countenance on you, and give you peace. May you be blessed and may you spend every day blessing God.