Christmas According to the Book of Hebrews
Hebrews 1:1-14
Another Christmas is about to arrive. People are busy making their preparations. There is special singing. There are Christmas Eve services. There are even services on Christmas Day, although people are usually to involved with their family to come. So as I was looking through the Lectionary Christmas text, I saw an interesting selection – the first chapter of Hebrews. What can we learn about Christmas from this text? It is easy to relate to the Christmas story in Luke. We can imagine the awful trip Mary and Joseph took to Bethlehem to register to pay taxes to Rome. We feel the anguish of their being told that there was no room in the inn. We can also smell the stable Jesus was born in. On the other side, we hear the song of the angels. (If you want to read a sermon on this Christmas story, see “No Room in the Inn” in this sermon archive.) Matthew gives additional information about Joseph and his dream to go and take Mary as his wife but just glosses over the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod. (The sermon here is “No Shame”.) Matthew adds the story of the coming of the Magi. (“Were the Wise Men Really So Wise?”) It is easier to relate to stories and with humanity. But God also gave us the Gospel of John with its beautiful words about the incarnation. “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here the pre-existent Word of God, who is declared to be the Son and equal to the Father becomes a human being. Trying to grasp one who is fully God and fully human is hard, but it touches our emotions in that God was willing to do this. This is truly inspiring.
When we look at the Book of Hebrews, we see the Divine Son presented in all His majesty at the beginning of the Book. Even though it is written in a much more complex matter than the beginning of John, it is very similar in what it teaches about Jesus. The technical term for this is “High Christology.” Paul also has a High Christology in Colossians 1 and Philippians 2, for example. So there was agreement in the early church about the divinity of Jesus. The child born in a stable in Bethlehem and laid in a manger was no ordinary human being. But He was fully human as we are. So is there a statement about Jesus’ humanity in this passage(Hebrews 1)? Some might see verse six as talking about the birth of Jesus. Those who understand it this way translate the verse: “Again I say, whenever he brings the Firstborn into the world he says: ‘Let all the angels worship Him.” This translation would harmonize well with the angels singing the birth announcement to the shepherds in the field.
However, there are problems with this translation. “Whenever” begins this Greek sentence and not “again.” This seems to indicate that the event Hebrews is addressing is in the future. In other words, it is talking about the return of Jesus Christ, His second coming, when all the angels (and all creation) shall bow before Him in worship. The use of the Greek aorist subjunctive (He will bring) is usually translated with the English future. However, this is translated, this does not diminish the worship the angels gave at Jesus’ birth. But if we are looking for the Christmas message in Hebrews, we might want to look elsewhere.
The next place we should look in this passage for the humanity of Jesus is in the phrase “having made cleansing for our sin” in verse 3. Even here, the reference is indirect. It is a participial phase and not the main point of the sentence which is that He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. As the Book of Hebrews will clearly teach is that it was necessary for the Son to participate in humanity in order to accomplish this. This was not just the appearance of humanity. Jesus was tempted to the greatest degree any human could be. Yet He did not yield to sin. The true humanity of Jesus is told us starting in Hebrews 2:10. So even though we might be pressed hard to find Christmas in the first chapter of Hebrews, the first chapter clearly sets the stage for it. It tells us exactly about the One who became flesh.
Both the prologue of John as well as Hebrews here make many important points about the person of Jesus, each in their own language and style. Both present the Son as eternally existing. John says “In the beginning was the Word.” Hebrews is less explicit, but does state that the Son was the agent of the creation of the ages (world) which says that He existed before all creation. John says everything was made by Him, every single thing, without exception. Both present the pre-existent Christ as being fully equal to the Father. Matthew 28 also explicitly confirms this as well as the full equality of the Holy Spirit as well. It is this tri-equal Son who became flesh.
The Book of Hebrews adds the idea of Jesus being our Great High Priest who is able to empathize with our weakness because he shared in the weakness of our nature. He experienced hunger, temptation, rejection, pain and the general experiences of mortal human life. He was able to taste the pain of death. The Book of Hebrews is then all about the Incarnation, of the Word becoming flesh. He who sustains the universe by His powerful Word was sustained by the very world he had created.
We are amazed that God would become flesh at all. The Greeks could not fathom such an idea. Their concept of salvation was being freed from the flesh and their souls re-united with God. Why would God participate in humanity? “What foolishness” they exclaimed! They could not imagine that God could come into any relationship with creation. He certainly could not speak, and if He could, no one would be allowed to hear. This is because the Greeks held to the absolute unchangeableness of God. To even speak is to enter into a relationship with another. And this relationship means that God would change in the process. God must remain totally aloof from the world, eternally silent. The Jews, on the other hand, thought it scandalous that their Messiah should die on a cross. Hebrews affirms that God did precisely what was thought to be utterly impossible, foolish, and scandalous. Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us as much. Hebrews does tell us about the unchanging nature of God and also that Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, today and forever.”
So God is not an impassive brick wall that philosophers can bounce their ideas off. God did not speak by them. Rather He spoke by the prophets at various times and by various means. The philosophers could only project a god. But this was not the personal God who speaks, the God of the Bible. This same God later spoke by His Son who is the appointed heir of all. God can speak and remain the same. The Son can still be divine as well as human. God can do all things, even that which is inconceivable by human thought. This we must accept by faith.
God has spoken in His Son. We can think about Jesus teaching the people along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Of course, He had already spoken in what we call the Old Testament by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews teaches this. The Old Testament is in no way inferior to the new. Christ is proclaimed there, even if in type and shadows. Truly is is the LORD who spoke. When Jesus came, He taught and spoke the Word of God as the prophets had done. He showed that the Scriptures ointed to Him as the fulfillment of thse prophecies. Bud God also spoke in a unique way in Jesus. Jesus was not just the messenger but the message as well. The prophets did not speak about themselves but God. But Jesus could rightly speak about Himself.
The prophets of old spoke words. To some extent, they also spoke by their actions. Some of these actions seem quite bizarre to us. But actions do speak as well. When Jesus came to earth, the very act of the Word becoming flesh was acted out. The miracles, signs and wonders He performed speak to us.The picture of Jesus hanging on the cross for our sins speak alongside the words of Scripture which describe the event. The very God, the Son, who spoke creation into existence, now speaks to our hearts. When the Word is believed, we become a new creation. What is old is passed away. We become new.
So at this Christmas day, God is seeking to be heard above the mirth of Christmas. He wants to be seen over the tinsel and lights. He wants us to taste and see that the Lord is better food than can be had in the world. The God who came down to earth to participate in our human weakness now calls us to share His inheritance which the Father gave Him. This is why Jesus came. This is why we see Him in the manger. This is why we see Him in His earthly ministry. We see children coming to Him. We see His rejection. He came unto His own creation, John says, and yet His very own people rejected Him. O the pain! No one has ever been jilted lie He was. He as LORD and creator deserves our obedience, praise and thanksgiving. Instead He was insulted. He hung on a cross. The Great High Priest also became the offering of atonement for our sin. See Him speak: “Father, forgive them!” Hear Him say: “It is finished.” See His crucified body racked in pain and the agony in which He had to speak His last few words on earth.
Hebrews reminds us that this was not the end of the story. Jesus was raised and not sits at the Father’s right hand. When all things become His footstool, He will again enter into this world to receive the worship of men and angels alike. The Christmas story is so much more than is celebrated. We dumb down Christmas. By doing so, we make God dumb, that is, unable to speak to us. Soften your hearts. We are in such danger of slipping away from the truth. The writer of Hebrews warns us of this as he did for those to whom he directly wrote. Let us take time to reverently consider all that Christmas means. It is the story of God who joins our human story that we might be redeemed and made eternal participants in His story.
