I wonder how many of you watched the documentary on the 2004 Tsunami on Wednesday night. If you did, you were probably blown away once again by the sheer power of the sea as it rolled in with such relentless force. What struck me was the sense of unbelief on the part of the westerners in particular that buildings that seemed so strong and safe weren’t going to protect them. It seemed all wrong that human engineering couldn’t hold back the forces of nature.
It’s something like that that makes the writer to the Hebrews think about Jesus. He knows Psalm 8 well; he’s read these words: "6You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet," but he realises that there’s an incongruity between these words and everyday human experience. The human lot is one of frustration and fear in the face of the forces of nature. Humanity is meant to hold the creation in subjection but it’s clear that it’s actually us who are subject to the forces of nature.
We know that well here in Australia don’t we, where just 25 years after the Thomson Dam was built, as the dam that would make Melbourne drought-proof, we’ve got strict water restrictions to make sure it doesn’t run out. Far from dominating the creation we struggle to keep it under control.
But the joyful news of the incarnation is that God has come to take on our full humanity and transform it.
Now there’s one human being who hasn’t had these problems. The writer says "we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death." The first thing he wants us to see is that Jesus came to share our humanity. No, more than that, to reclaim our humanity, to transform it. And how did he go about this task? Well, he says, he did it by suffering. He took on our frail human life and suffered even to the point of death. And that death he died he died on our behalf: "9so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."
One of the things about Jesus been born as a little baby in Bethlehem is that he had to grow up just like everyone of us. As he grew he experienced all the sorts of things that we experience. No doubt there were other kids who played tricks on him. He probably grazed his knees playing the sorts of games that boys play. He no doubt banged his thumb with a hammer when he was first learning how to drive home nails or whatever they used to fasten furniture in those days. And as he got older we have recorded for us his experience of all the intensity of Satan’s temptations; far more intense than anything we experience, yet without failing, the way we do. One of the things you discover as you read through the gospels is that Jesus experienced many of the things we experience day by day. Do you remember the incident when he stilled the storm. Do you remember what he was doing when the storm blew up? He was asleep in the back of the boat, wasn’t he? He’d been teaching the crowds all day and he was so tired he fell asleep on a hard bench at the back of the boat. Well, after last weekend I know just how he felt.
And do you remember the way he occasionally expressed his frustration at the thick-headed responses of his disciples? Like when they’d just come down from the mountain of transfiguration and there’s a boy who his disciples can’t heal and what does he say? "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me." You can here the frustration in his voice can’t you? He knew what it was like to be frustrated with the people he’d chosen to follow him.
So does this matter? Did he need to experience all this in order to bring us back to God? Well that’s what the writer here thinks: "10It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
It’s as though Jesus is taking us full circle. Humanity started out in glory, living in the Garden of Eden, perfectly in tune with God, communicating with him face to face. But then they rebelled against God’s rule and the whole fabric of creation was shattered. Creation now is like one of those ceramic plates where the glaze wasn’t made quite right and now it’s got a crazed pattern all over it. And humanity has been pulled down into that cracked and broken world. In fact that’s what Psalm 8 says isn’t it? "You have made them for a little while lower than the angels." God subjected us and creation to frustration for a time but his plan was always to restore the creation to what it was meant to be. It was always God’s plan to restore humanity to our original place as his sons and daughters.
Jesus came to bring us back to the way we were at the beginning.
So how was this to take place? How was Jesus going to do it? Well, in Jesus we see everything that God planned brought to fulfilment. He’s "crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death", v9. Not in death, though that’s the means by which he comes to glory, but through his resurrection and his ascension to God’s right hand. Jesus is raised to God’s right hand, not just as the son of God but also as the perfect human being. Hebrews 1 speaks of the name he has inherited as being more excellent than the angels’. Then it reminds us that God says, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you"? Now this is a fairly complex idea so let me explain it as clearly as I can. Jesus the Son of God has always been called God’s Son. But the writer to the Hebrews is talking about Jesus the son of Mary, the human being, who has died and risen again and has now been given the name "Son of God." Yes, they’re the same person, but the writer here is interested in the human side of Jesus’ identity because it’s that human nature that he’s come to restore. It’s the human Jesus who’s tasted death for everyone. It’s the human Jesus who has restored humanity to the status of God’s sons and daughters.
Notice the title he’s given here, in v10. He’s the pioneer of our salvation. Later on, in ch12, he’ll refer to him as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Jesus is the one who goes before us to show the way. He’s the one who blazes the trail, who clears away the obstacles so we can follow in his footsteps.
And he does it as one of us. He can bring us to perfection because he is one of us. And so he brings us to God as his brothers and sisters, children of the same flesh and the same heavenly father.
Notice that Jesus is made perfect through suffering. Of course we know that Jesus was always perfect. He was without sin. But the idea here is that as a human being perfection was only made complete at his death. Until the moment he died he still had the capacity to sin. When Satan came to tempt him it wasn’t a futile effort on Satan’s part. He applied the full force of his power to turn Jesus away from faithfulness to God because he knew that at every moment during that temptation Jesus could have been persuaded. His human nature meant that he had free will just as Adam and Eve had. So those temptations were real temptations. And do you remember how at the end of that time in the wilderness Luke tells us that Satan left him until an opportune time. I guess one of those opportune times was in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus prayed that this cup be taken away from him. It would have been so much easier for Jesus at that moment to throw it all in. And then on the cross do you remember the thief saying to him, "why don’t you save yourself if you’re the Son of God". Again, Jesus was being tempted to depart from God’s plan. He could have done exactly what the thief was suggesting. But again he resisted that temptation. And so it’s through the suffering of death that he finally proves himself to be the perfect human being that we needed.
Here we find one of the major themes of this book. He says: "Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people." Jesus is the perfect human being, who has suffered everything we suffer, is tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. And he offers his own body as a sacrifice for our sins, for our salvation.
And so we too are brought full circle provided we accept him for who he is. But notice the warning in v3: "how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" There is only one way to recover the glory we had at the beginning and that’s through faith in Jesus Christ.
But that statement has two sides to it doesn’t it? The warning is that to neglect this great salvation leaves you with no escape, but the positive side is that if we accept this great salvation our liberation is accomplished. The war is won, even if there are still some skirmishes going on in our battle with our fallen human nature. We’re still being tested but Jesus is able to help us overcome those tests. He comes to us in the person of his Holy Spirit to give us strength to resist the temptations of Satan and to help us remain faithful to God just as he was faithful. And in the end when we stand before God in heaven it’s Jesus death on the cross that allows us to claim the perfect righteousness that he alone can give.
I don’t know about you but I find this reminder by the writer of this book very encouraging. First because I need to be reminded that I’m not alone, that Jesus knows what I’m going through, but secondly because I know that even where I fail, Jesus succeeded and his success is passed on to me in the form of justification, righteousness. And because he’s overcome death I no longer need to fear death myself.
Yes we still live in a fallen world. We’re far from God’s intention of us ruling over the creation, but the joyful news of the incarnation is that God has come to take on our full humanity and transform it. We have a brother who’s fulfilled God’s plan already and who’s paved the way for us, so that we too can be made perfect and in the end can be brought through death to resurrection and to life eternal.
For more sermons from this source go to http://www.stthomasburwoood.org.au
