The book of Hebrews is not a particularly complicated book, nor is it difficult to interpret. It is, however, a book that we are not used to. While it plays a major role in Christian theology, we don’t study it much. We are not used to the way it thinks. That’s probably going to be our biggest hurdle as we look at it this summer.
Hebrews shows up in the Bible at the end of Paul’s letters and before letters from James, Peter, John, and Jude. While Hebrews does give a mention to Timothy at the very end, it is not a letter. It is a sermon. And what a grand sermon it is! But before we turn to that, we need to remind ourselves about ways to interpret scripture. Or perhaps I should say, different senses of scripture.
For centuries Christians have noted four senses of scripture. Understanding this will help us to understand Hebrews. The four senses of scripture are printed on the last page of the worship bulletin. Let’s look at them briefly.
Four Senses of Scripture:
1. Literal – Critically examining the text, its history, and the culture which created it.
2. Allegorical – Symbolic interpretation of Old Testament texts to refer to Christ or to the church. St. Paul does this in Galatians 4:24 when he says of Abraham’s two heirs that one represents the covenant of Judaism and the other represents Christianity. (This sense was rejected by most Protestant Reformers.)
3. Moral – How one should act. Jesus’ parables are usually interpreted in this sense.
4. Anagogic – Seeking meanings (or hidden meanings) that point to the future. This is not using a book like Revelation to interpret current events. A good example is Jesus talking about the destruction of the temple and his resurrected body being a new temple.
While we easily go with literal and moral senses of scripture, we are not as familiar with the others. We’re going to find that Hebrews uses all four.
The beginning of Hebrews is a grand and sweeping introduction of Jesus. This is all stuff that we know, but Hebrews wants us to dwell in this for a little while. It sets up everything else that follows.
Hebrews wants us to realize that God has been active all throughout history. Prophets, priests, kings, judges, and many people without official positions were God’s mouthpieces. God did not create the world and then sit back and watch it run. God has been active all along.
But Hebrews insists on a distinction. Jesus is not just another person who spoke for God. Jesus is different, while also being in the same line that God has always used. Jesus is the Son, not a prophet. And yet despite being a Son, he is not necessarily a creation of God as Father. Rather, Jesus also existed from all eternity. He is a different expression of God’s personality.
Why does it matter that Jesus is pre-existing the universe, or pre-existing time (if such a statement makes sense)? We could take this into a deep hole of Trinitarian theology. But Hebrews gives a clear and simple answer:
-Jesus pre-exists creation.
-Angels, in whatever way you want to understand them, are part of creation.
-Humans are part of creation.
-If you are part of creation then you are not eternal.
-It is Jesus who bridges the gap between mortality and immortality. No prophet, priest, king, judge, messenger, or anyone could make that bridge.
Jesus, therefore, fully reveals God’s nature in a way that will not be bettered. Jesus’ is God’s ultimate and perfect revelation.
But of course, Jesus did more than just come and preach and teach about God. Jesus’ ultimate and perfect revelation of God included crucifixion and death. Now the whole situation thickens.
Why could Jesus not just come and tell us about God? Why couldn’t Jesus just teach us the right way to live so as to break through the limits of our created nature and enter into eternity? Those are very clean thoughts. They make us think that somehow by our own goodness we can do it. That is not the case.
Jesus’ death like a common mortal, makes purification for our shortcomings and our lack of trust in God. In other words, our sin.
Perhaps this is all too heady… too esoteric. But Hebrews wants us to understand a couple really down-to-earth things. This whole idea that we are part of limited creation but God invites us into immortality by coming and dying for us, is really meant for us to realize how much God loves us. God wants us and desires us. Our salvation was not a burden to God. Even though Jesus’ crucifixion was brutally painful, it was pain God willingly embraced for our sakes.
Perhaps think of it this way. If you look around you at society it is easy to get the impression that everyone is out to get the most for themselves while doing the least amount of work. While there are certainly many people for whom that’s true, I do not believe it fits most people, and not most of us. I believe, although I may be wrong, that while all people want to be well paid, they want to feel like they’ve done good work in order to earn it. Quick easy money may be fun and tempting. But a satisfying life earning comes from feeling like you’ve put value into a company or society in order to deserve it.
I find myself frequently pondering how our society got itself into the social mess that it’s in. Where do these political divides and all this anger and distrust come from? The answers are complex and multifaceted. There are no simple answers and anyone who says otherwise is trying to earn more views for their content.
I believe that within the complexity of it all is the decline of the manufacturing sector in the 80s and 90s. A great number of people had solid stable jobs manufacturing things. The jobs might have been miserable. They might have been boring. They might have been bad for the worker’s health. Working in a factory is seldom fun. But the work has dignity. You may not feel particularly smart or talented, but you are undeniably creating value that will enhance other people’s lives.
There’s no way to replace the dignity of labor with information and service type jobs. And besides, there aren’t enough of those jobs to ever go around anyway.
You want to have a good life, yes. But you want to invest yourself in it in such a way that you feel you deserve it.
I think the same can be said of God and God’s work to shift us from mortality to immortality. God could have certainly created us as immortal beings. God can do anything! But I believe God has put something of God’s own mind within ourselves. Where is the labor and dignity of God if saving us is too cheap? If saving us is cheap for God, then are we cheap for God?
No, we are costly to God – very costly! And so we are also valuable to God. God has invested in us.
Hebrews 1:3 said of Jesus, “When he had made purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Now we’re going to revisit this idea of Jesus sitting in Majesty when we get later into Hebrews. But here at the beginning of the text, Jesus’ actions are the labor of our salvation that has been completed.
I often say that you cannot negotiate with God. I usually say it with some sarcasm because people think they can make deals. But there is also a serious side. God has done the work. It is finished. You are dearly loved by God. God has worked hard for you. God wants you. Period. There’s no room for negotiation in any of that.
That, then, takes us to where we leave off from Hebrews today. Let me reread the first four verses of chapter 2.
Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 2For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, 3how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, 4while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.
What does that mean? It means that even though God loves us and has done the work to save us, we are wrong to exploit it. We cannot neglect that so great a work of salvation has been done for us by God.
That theme will continue in the verses ahead. So I will leave that for next week. We end today with the sense of awe and majesty Hebrews wants us to feel as God’s creatures. We are mortal. This whole creation is limited and will end at some point; perhaps far in the future. But God has moved us from mortality and this temporal creation into the promise of God’s eternity.
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