{"id":5300,"date":"2026-03-18T08:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5300"},"modified":"2026-03-18T08:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:41:25","slug":"seated-at-the-right-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/seated-at-the-right-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Seated at the Right Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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\u201cThere\u2019s a new king, and it\u2019s you.\u201d
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That\u2019s the slogan of Burger King\u2019s brand-new marketing campaign which debuted last weekend.
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The fast-food giant, having grown weary of being stuck in McDonald\u2019s shadow, launched a series of ads admitting their food and their service have fallen short of expectations. Consequently, they have reinvested in their restaurants and endeavored to improve their famous Whopper recipe. \u00a0
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Most notably, they dumped their mascot.
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That would be the Creepy King with the smiling, plastic face \u2013 an image that tends to conjure up comparisons to Stephen King\u2019s killer clown Pennywise. In an interview last weekend, even Joel Yashinsky, Burger King\u2019s chief marketing officer, used the word \u201ccreepy\u201d to describe the now-dethroned king.
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The new commercial shows him departing BK\u2019s office complex clutching his personal possessions in a cardboard box.
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He\u2019s been fired. Which means, according to the Burger Powers That Be, there\u2019s a new king. And it\u2019s you<\/em>.
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According to the Powers That Be that actually manage the universe, however, there really is a King who has authority over everything.
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And it\u2019s definitely not you.
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In Ephesians 1:20-21, the apostle Paul writes: \u201c[God] raised Christ from the dead\u00a0and seated him at his right hand\u00a0in the heavenly realms,\u00a0far above all rule and authority, power and dominion,\u00a0and every name\u00a0that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>
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That statement dovetails with the Apostles\u2019 Creed\u2019s declaration that Jesus is currently \u201cseated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.\u201d What does that mean?
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Ancient people had a strong bias toward right-sidedness \u2013 evident in the Latin words for right (dexter<\/em>, as in \u201cdexterity\u201d) and left (sinister<\/em>, as in, \u201cnever trust a left-handed person\u201d).\u00a0The right hand was the symbol of hospitality (\u201cextend the right hand of fellowship\u201d) and strength (God upholds his people with \u201chis righteous right hand,\u201d as in Isaiah 41:10).\u00a0
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With regard to authority, the right side was the side of honor \u2013 an idea that has survived in expressions like, \u201cHe\u2019s my right-hand man.\u201d\u00a0
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After his life, death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven (that is, the realm where God dwells) where he accepted the symbolic place of highest honor.
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Then he sat down<\/em>.
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This is not a random detail.\u00a0The theological term for this event is the \u201csession\u201d of Christ.\u00a0
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Today the word \u201csession\u201d sounds a bit antiquated and is generally used to describe the assembly of those in a courthouse (\u201cthis court is now in session\u201d), the legislature (\u201cthe next session of Congress\u201d), and the pastors and elders of a Presbyterian church (where \u201csession meetings\u201d refer to two or three-hour increments of your life that you ultimately realize you will never be able to get back).\u00a0 \u00a0
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The fact that Jesus sat down is wonderful news for us.\u00a0
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The New Testament book of Hebrews identifies Jesus as our heavenly high priest.\u00a0In the Jewish tabernacle (and then temple), there were no chairs.\u00a0That\u2019s because, symbolically, a priest\u2019s work was never done.\u00a0There was always another prayer to be prayed and another sacrifice to be offered.\u00a0A priest had to remain on his feet.\u00a0
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But according to Hebrews 10:11-12, after Jesus offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, nothing else had to be done to bridge the gap between God and humanity.\u00a0\u201cIt is finished,\u201d he said on the cross.\u00a0
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Therefore, after ascending into heaven, he sat down.
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In just a handful of words, Paul is declaring that there is no one else like Jesus \u2013 because no one else can possibly do for us what Jesus has already accomplished.\u00a0
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The fact that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God may seem at first like a novel and interesting idea. But in much the same way as buying a new car opens our eyes to seeing that make and model everywhere we look, the session of Christ suddenly begins to turn up all over the New Testament.
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For instance, what Old Testament text is quoted in the New Testament more often than any other?
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Followers of Jesus adore Psalm 23. But the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm isn\u2019t quoted even a single time by the New Testament\u2019s authors.
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The actual \u201cwinner\u201d is Psalm 110, which is quoted 20 times in the Gospels and epistles. Here\u2019s one example:
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\u201cWhile the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,\u00a0<\/em>\u2018<\/sup><\/em><\/strong>What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?\u2019 \u2018The son of David,\u2019\u00a0they replied. He said to them,\u00a0\u2018How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him \u201cLord\u201d? For he says, \u201c\u2018The Lord said to my Lord: \u201cSit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.\u201d\u2019 If then David calls him \u2018Lord,\u2019 how can he be his son?\u201d <\/em>(Matthew 22:41-45).
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Jesus quotes Psalm 110, which declares that God\u2019s Son, the Messiah, will take the place of highest authority next to Yahweh.
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This is a good moment to pause and note that Jesus is still a human being in every sense. He ascended into heaven with a human body (although it is clearly a body that was somehow transformed by the resurrection).
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Jesus didn\u2019t shed the physical aspect of his humanity when he entered the throne room of God.
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The true King of the cosmos, reigning over everything God created, is one of us.<\/em>
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Paul goes on to tell us in Colossians 3:1, \u201cSince then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.\u201d The fact that Jesus is seated at God\u2019s right hand should stir in us a deep desire to live lives worthy of being his followers.
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And elsewhere Paul says, \u201cWho, then, is the one who condemns? No one. Christ who died \u2013 more than that, who was raised to life \u2013 is at the right of hand of God and is also interceding for us\u201d (Romans 8:34).
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In his book What Christians Should Believe<\/em> \u2013 his commentary on the Apostles\u2019 Creed \u2013 New Testament scholar Michael Bird notes the popularity of the four letters WWJD.
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They invite us to stop and ask ourselves, \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d if he were in our shoes at any given moment.
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Bird wonders if it might be just as wise to stop on a regular basis and ponder four other letters: WIJD.
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\u201cWhat is Jesus Doing?\u201d
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Right now, Jesus is doing amazing things. He is ruling over the universe. He is superintending human history. He is interceding for us, continually bringing our prayer requests before the Father. \u00a0
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In short, he is being the true King.
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Which means the last thing we would want to try to do today is to \u201chave it our way.\u201d
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Let\u2019s have it His way instead.<\/em>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s a new king, and it\u2019s you.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s the slogan of Burger King\u2019s brand-new marketing campaign which debuted last weekend.\u00a0The fast-food giant, having grown weary… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,1089,1090,655],"class_list":["post-5300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-authority","tag-high-priest","tag-intercession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5302,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5300\/revisions\/5302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}