If you’ve been playing some energetic sport like football or netball you may feel quite tired when you get home, and you’re glad to sit down and have a rest.  Of course, people don’t just sit down to rest, often people sit down to work.  In fact, you can tell the kind of work people do by where they sit.  For example, someone who sits at a supermarket checkout is a shop assistant; someone who sits on a tractor is a farm worker; and someone who sits on a throne is a king or a queen.

Sitteth on the right hand

So when we say in the Creed that Jesus ”sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty” in Heaven, we mean that he is King of Heaven.

If you read in a history book that Edward II sat on the throne of England for 20 years, you know that it means, not that he was sitting down all the time, but that he reigned for 20 years.  In the same way, when we say that Jesus sits at God’s right hand, we mean that he is reigning in Heaven as King.

Why at the right hand?  Because we think of that as the most important place.  The right hand is the important one; we shake hands with it and salute with it.  That is why at a public meeting or dinner the most important visitor or guest always sits at the right hand of the chairperson or whoever is in charge.  So to say that Jesus is at God’s right hand means that he has the most important or highest place: as we sing in the Ascension hymn (1):

“The highest place that heaven affords
is his, is his by right,
the King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Reverence to the King

This is a very good thing for us to remember.  We sometimes think of Jesus as just our Friend and no more.  Of course, he is our Friend but we must never forget that he is also King of kings and Lord of lords.

If he were only your Friend, you might behave to him as you do to your other friends.  You look on them as your equals and that is why you sometimes treat them in a disrespectful way.  So, looking on Jesus as just one of yourselves might make you disrespectful to him, that is, irreverent.  But because he is our God and King we have a tremendous respect for him and show it by our reverence.  That is why, when we come to church to worship him, we behave better than at any other time or place, and we are careful always to speak reverently of him.

Jesus our Intercessor

In Heaven, then, we have Jesus as our King and our Friend, and it is as our Friend that he speaks for us to God our Father.

When we think of the nasty way in which we sometimes behave I don’t know how we could ever dare ask God for anything unless we had Jesus to ask it for us, and that is what he does.

When we pray to God we have Jesus to speak for us.  When we pray to God for something Jesus takes our prayer and asks it for us.  So although we address our prayers directly to God, you will often hear these words at the end of prayers: “through Jesus Christ Our Lord”. 

This ought to make us very careful what we pray for, because Jesus asks only for things which are good and right.  When we say, “through Jesus Christ Our Lord” it means that we must try to ask for the kind of things which God would want us to have.  Our prayers must be the sort of prayers which Jesus himself can take and pray himself.

Sometimes you will hear prayers ending with the words’ “We ask this in Jesus’ name’, which is another way of saying that we want our prayer to be in accordance with God’s will – “Thy will be done”.

So Jesus not only reigns in Heaven but he also ‘intercedes’ for us, that is, ‘comes between’ us and God and prays to God for what we need (Hebrews 7:25).

SUMMARY

1. ‘Sitteth’ means ‘reigns as King’.  The ‘right hand’ means the most important place.

2. We show our respect to Christ our King by being reverent.

3. Christ is also our Friend in Heaven and, when we pray, he takes our prayers and speaks them for us to God the Father.  That is why we end with the words, “through Jesus Christ Our Lord”.

Reference

1. Kelly, T. (1769-1855) The head that once was crowned with thorns. Available from: http://www.latinisedhymns.org.uk/hymn/249  (Accessed 17 November 2010) (Internet).