The time for reconciliation with others is always now, just as it is with salvation. Tomorrow may be too late. No excuse is valid to allow bitterness, anger, hatred, or any other sin to keep us separated from another person. Jesus illustrates here that we should make good on any debt or settle any grievance before it is too late and we’re imprisoned.
In the Roman Empire, two opponents at law could settle an issue on the way to court, but not after a judge became involved. To avoid judgment and imprisonment, the guilty person had to pay “the last cent,” or everything owed in debt.

Being thrown into prison and not being able to get out until a debt is paid is Jesus’ analogy to the Father’s punishment. We can’t miss the Son’s teaching here: we must make every effort possible, with no delay, to mend any broken relationship with a brother before we can avoid divine chastening and have a right relationship with God.

We know that because of sin, none of us is ever completely at peace or perfectly related to another. And since it’s impossible to have perfectly right attitudes toward others or God, no worship is ever fully acceptable. All of Jesus’ teachings in this passage and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount show us again the utterly perfect standard of God’s righteousness and the absolute impossibility of our meeting that standard on our own.

Ask Yourself
There’s no denying the pain of strained and severed relationships. But there’s nothing like knowing you’ve done everything you can to make it right. Can you live in the Lord’s peace even if nothing changes?

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From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610, http://www.moodypublishers.com.

Finally, our Lord’s ascended work on our behalf isn’t just to help us in the present but also to prepare an eternal home for all His people:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:1–3)

How is Jesus doing that, and what does it look like? Well, we can’t be certain, but we at least know that our Lord is readying more than enough rooms for all His children—and one day soon, He will return to gather us to His heavenly mansion.

When we drag ourselves before the ascended Christ’s throne, embarrassed and bedraggled and feeling weak and inadequate, we discover it to be a throne of grace—a throne at which He gives us far better than we deserve.

With Us Evermore

Yes, Jesus left the earth, but the ascension doesn’t mean that He is absent. Quite the opposite! It actually means that Jesus is present. He’s absent from us physically because He’s seated at the right hand of the Father on high, but through the Holy Spirit He sent after His ascension (John 16:7), He is with us now and forever—“always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

And what’s more, from His place in heaven, “he always lives to make intercession for” us (Heb. 7:25). So when we drag ourselves before the ascended Christ’s throne, embarrassed and bedraggled and feeling weak and inadequate, we discover it to be a throne of grace—a throne at which He gives us far better than we deserve.

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Adapted from “The Ascension — Part One and Part Two” by Alistair Begg

Jesus is also pleading our case. Romans 8:31 asks, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Well, if we’re honest, it seems like plenty can be against us! The devil is against us, and he is the great accuser. Our friends sometimes let us down and accuse us. Even our own hearts accuse us. So what do we do? How can Romans 8:31 carry any weight for the believer? Where do we look?

We look up, because we have an “advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1). We look to Jesus, because He has entered heaven “to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Heb 9:24). He “indeed is interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34), which means that He is intervening in our interest—and He’s doing so in a way that guarantees our welfare by ensuring that what He died to secure for us actually becomes ours.

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Adapted from “The Ascension — Part One and Part Two” by Alistair Begg

Jesus Christ also actively helps the members of the church that He rules. You find this emphasis all the way through the book of Hebrews. (In fact, Hebrews is probably the best sourcebook on the present work of Christ in His ascended role.)

Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” The same truth is applied again in a familiar verse: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Not only is Jesus powerful enough to help us as ruler of all, but He actually loves to bless His children. In fact, Jesus is far more willing to bless us than we are to even take the time to ask Him to bless us. Recall that according to Luke 24:50, Jesus departed from His disciples with His hands raised in blessing upon them. Is that the picture you have of Christ in your life: able, ready, and willing to bless?

It is of tremendous encouragement to be reminded that “there’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one! No, not one!”²Often it takes the times of deep heartache, despair, or difficulty to remind us of just what an important and wonderful reality this is: that Christ is our ultimate help, our perfect guide.

Jesus is far more willing to bless us than we are to even take the time to ask Him to bless us.

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Adapted from “The Ascension — Part One and Part Two” by Alistair Begg