“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.  And when they saw him, they worshipped him…And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.…and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’ “ (Matthew 28:16-20)

This was the last of Our Lord’s Resurrection appearances before his actual Ascension. The disciples were now in Galilee where they were taking the opportunity to say goodbye to their relations and friends before going out to preach the Gospel and establish the Christian Church among all nations.

But that was not the chief reason which had led them to make this journey from Jerusalem to the north.  For they came to Galilee to receive their authority and commission to continue Our Lord’s own Ministry, and for this no place could be more suitable than that in which he himself had first preached the Gospel three years before.

They had now discovered the secret of Our Lord’s Person – that he was, as St Thomas had acknowledged, their Lord and their God.  And so, as he appeared to them on that lonely hillside in all the splendour of his glorified Body, they bowed themselves in worship before him.  They did exactly the same at the time of his Ascension when we read that,“…they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy…(NRSV, Luke 24:52).