Psalms 46, 47
OT Reading: Joshua 3.1-8, 14-17
NT Reading: Hebrews 1.1-12
Text: [Jesus] the exact imprint of God’s very being (Hebrews 1.3)
Nobody knows who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews. It used to be attributed to St Paul, but this seems to have been a stratagem adopted many centuries ago in order to ensure that it would find and keep its place in the Bible. There was no serious evidence to support Paul’s authorship, and it doesn’t now need his name. Dating from the latter half of the first century, or perhaps the early second century, it stands on its own two feet as a brilliant exposition of the continuity with the Old Testament of our understanding of God’s self-revelation, as well as the life-changing difference which God in Jesus made. We celebrate Epiphany as the showing forth of Christ to the Gentiles, symbolized for us by the visit of the Three Kings to Bethlehem, but it may equally be seen as one more giant step along the path of revelation and discovery which the Jewish people had been following for many centuries, and this wonderful book encapsulates that journey of faith. The author refers to his book as a word of exhortation (Hebrews 13.22), a phrase also used by Luke to describe one of Paul’s synagogue sermons (Acts 13.15).
So what we have before us is the keynote of a sermon. The point which he wants us to grasp from the very outset concerns the role of Jesus as our pathway into the very heart of God. As God’s Son and his partner in the work of creation, Jesus – the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being (v3) – stands above all the heroes and prophets of the Old Testament .
Jesus is also greater than any among the hosts of angels, both those around God’s throne in heaven and those carrying God’s messages to his faithful people on earth. Interestingly, the language the author uses reflects the apocryphal books of wisdom in which the personification of Wisdom is female. Here are a couple of examples from the Wisdom of Solomon:
For she (that is to say, Wisdom) is a breath of the power of God, … a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty, a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God and an image of his goodness (Wisdom 7.25-26)
With you (God of my ancestors and Lord of mercy) with you is wisdom, she who knows your works and was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your sight and what is right according to your commandments (Wisdom 9.9)
I don’t know whether you believe in angels. There is no mention of angels in the creeds which we recite, so we are under no obligation to believe in their existence, but something or someone may occasionally put good ideas into our heads, and it’s tempting to give angelic form to the bearers of such messages. Influenced as we are by the rational culture of the Enlightenment, many of us would be skeptical about angels with diaphanous wings planting thoughts in our hearts, but angels were taken pretty much for granted in first century Judaism, and that culture is reflected in the letter to the Hebrews.
There was even some risk at that time that angels close to the throne of God might be thought superior to any human being, including Jesus in his mumanity, so our author takes care to cite texts from the Hebrew Scriptures – our Old Testament – which make it clear that Jesus, as God’s only-begotten Son is closer to God than any angel could ever be. That perception would later blossom into the doctrine of the Trinity, which acknowledges One God, and only one God, albeit revealed to us in three forms or persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The point our author is concerned to make is simply that Jesus as Son of God, is superior to all the prophets and all the angels.
What about humanity? Where do we stand in this hierarchy? In his second chapter the author of Hebrews draws on the poetic vision of the psalms (Psalm 8) to assert that we humans, including Jesus in his humanity, have been made for a little while lower than the angels, but with the promise that we shall be crowned with glory and honor, with all things subjected under our feet. He goes on to admit is not yet the case, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, and we see that this come about through his suffering and death (Heb 2.9,10).
I have strayed into the second chapter of this ‘word of exhortation’ because it is such an important message for to-day. As one of Donald Trump’s inner circle of advisers declared recently: ‘We live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.’ Despite all such assertions, we believe that the true honor and glory of men and women made in the image of God is to be found not in the brutal exercise of overwhelming force, but in the gentle and steadfast exercise of uncalculating, sacrificial love, even when the immediate consequence, in human eyes, may be suffering and even death. If that is indeed to be the destiny of his readers, as it was the destiny of Jesus himself, we shall become his brothers and sisters. It is in that spirit that we are urged to draw near in full assurance of faith (10.22)
The letter goes on to explore the role of Jesus as our High Priest, opening access to the Godhead by his love. It includes the great rollcall of faith – Abel, Abraham, Moses, all the heroes of Jewish myth and history, together with all those who continue to put their trust in God without regard for the consequences (chap 11). They are pictured as a great cloud of witnesses, a stadium full of supporters cheering us on as we run our race (12.1). Whilst the whole letter is an inspiring call to courage and endurance in the face of adversity, it concludes with an appeal for mutual love to continue (13.1) in the confidence that God who has led his people through so many trials in the past will not now abandon us, but ‘make us complete in everything good so that we may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever.’ (Heb 13.21). Amen