The Ascension of Christ: Weakness in Strength

Frederick Farrar, in examining paintings depicting scenes from the life of Christ, first suggests that the ascension would be better left unpainted. But pondering why artistic renderings of the ascension fail adequately to represent the event leads Farrar to the heart of the matter. He concludes that the main thought in the ascension ‘is that Christ has forever taken into the Godhead the form of the Manhood’. This thought so thrills Farrar that he appends to his commentary this enigmatic but triumphant fragment of a poem:

Tis the weakness in strength that I cry for! my flesh that I seek

In the Godhead! I seek and I find it! Oh Saul, it shall be

A Face like my face that receives thee; a Man like to me

Thou shalt love, and be loved by for ever; a Hand like this hand

Shall throw open the gate of new Life to thee! See the Christ stand!