THE COLLECT for Easter.
Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life: We humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen
Jesus has opened unto us the gate of everlasting life. This brings to mind the words of the great ascension Psalm, Psalm 24. This is the Psalm of Jesus' ascent into the hill of the Lord, into the true Mt. Zion ... into heaven itself. Jesus ascends the hill of the Lord, for Jesus alone has clean hands and a pure heart; Jesus alone has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Jesus is the King of glory to whom the gates of heaven, the everlasting doors are opened.
24 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Seals.
Psalm 24 and the Church Fathers
Justin to Trypho: Moreover, some of you venture to expound the prophecy which runs, 'Lift up your gates, you rulers; and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, that the King of glory may enter,' as if this referred likewise to Hezekiah, and others of you [expound it] of Solomon; but neither to the latter nor to the former, nor, in short, to any of your kings, can it be proved to have reference, but to this our Christ alone, who appeared without comeliness, and inglorious, as Isaiah and David and all the Scriptures said; who is the Lord of hosts, by the will of the Father who conferred on Him [the dignity]; who also rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven, as the Psalm and the other Scriptures manifested when they announced Him to be Lord of hosts.
Justin notes Jesus experienced resistance before the gates of heaven, "who is this King of glory?," because the gatekeepers did not recognize Jesus, who arose not in His pre-incarnate glory as the second person of the Holy Trinity, but in His glory in the from of the suffering servant (cf. Isaiah 53).
For Irenaeus, Jesus is not recognized because he was “in the flesh.” He also interprets the dialogue between gate keeper and those requesting access as being between angels of the lower realms and angels of the upper realms.
Origin provides an eschatological interpretation to Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. Psalm 24 is understood as Jesus' entrance into the “true” Jerusalem. The angelic hosts are astounded at Jesus' entrance into heaven in His incarnate form, and ask, “Who is this?”
Jesus opened the gate of everlasting life unto us in His Death, Resurrection and Ascension. At Jesus' death, the Temple curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies is rent from top to bottom signifying that in Jesus we now have access to God's holy presence in heaven. In His resurrection, we are raised up with Him (in Holy Baptism, Romans 6) to live unto God as citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20; Col 2:9ff, 3:1-3). At Jesus' Ascension in our human nature, we discover, to our great benefit, that in Him our flesh and blood has now inherited the Kingdom of God. As members incorporate in Jesus Christ's mystical body, we have ascended where He has gone as forerunner for us. in Him, we have entered through the everlasting doors into life everlasting: Hebrew 12: 22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
JSH+