Daily Liturgy and Scripture

What has come before in Hebrews leads to this: who Jesus is, what he did, and who he continues to be is the culmination of our high priest. Seated at the right hand of the Father, God made man, who knows our struggle because it has been his own.

It seems that the writer of Hebrews wishes to fully remove the way of Jesus from the way of the Law, so there are some pretty serious Old Testament throwbacks here: not only pointing out that Jesus was from a family that was outside the traditional Jewish priestly race, but calling Jesus a priest of the order before a priestly race even existed. Pretty strong case. Of course, Jesus is also the Son of God, a part of the Trinity, our Lord.

We are not brought into the Kingdom of Jesus to continue conducting business as we did before. With the Spirit as our guide, we are changed. Otherwise, we are "land producing thorns and thistles" and the Kingdom cannot grow.

Both high priest and sacrifice: that is Jesus's unique idendity. What he did, nobody else could do. What he continues to do, only God can do. As we remember the way in which he died today, let us also remember that it was God's plan, playing out in exactly the way God ordained it.

Interesting that, right after a section on Jesus, the writer of Hebrews turns to talk about Sabbath rest. (Spoiler: the next passage goes BACK to talking about Jesus!) Since the writer has also been comparing and contrasting the law and the new covenant, could be be that Jesus is our rest, that through the Spirit we are seen fully, more than keeping the Law could ever expose? It's not about avoiding work, it's about resting in the completed work of our Lord.

The writer of Hebrews, addressing a mostly Jewish audience, has talked about who Jesus is. Now the message shifts to what Jesus is doing: as a high priest, he supercedes Moses and the law. The house that God started building with Moses, Jesus is now Lord over. This is where we live as believers, and the Spirit is among us to continue the work in and with us.

The writer of Hebrews continues fleshing out our Christology: now we establish that Jesus became like us, but was not always like us. This makes Jesus both our high priest and the highest offering. In fitting with God's plan of redemption, this is important: it was always God doing the work.

Jesus was not an angel, he was God. He was God become man, but he was still God. An angel would not have been the proper way to God, only God is the way to God. To see Jesus is to see God, and he remains God today. He always has been. This is a heavy helping of Christology, but what we believe about Jesus matters: if Jesus was not God, then all his teaching and sacrifice is in vain.

The discipline of submitting to one another goes beyond husbands and wives, as we read yesterday. It also goes among children and parents, slaves to masters, and masters to slaves. This new way of thinking that Paul rolls out, inspired by the Spirit, is a radical step backward for those who want to follow Jesus.

Much has been made about the submitting Paul is discussing, and trying to figure out who should submit to whom is the wrong approach. If wives submit to husbands but husbands take their cues from Christ himself, then Christ models going first and submitting himself. Laying aside his crown, walking among us, and walking the road to the cross is some pretty heavy submission.