When
we think of the book of Hebrews, some of the words that come to mind are things
like better, more, supreme, and superior.
This book was written to an audience primary made up of Jews who had
converted to Christianity and were in danger of falling back into their Jewish
tradition after seeing that the Christian faith isn't all sunshine and
rainbows. After seeing just how truly
difficult living the Christian faith can be, especially during a time of
rampant and continuous persecution, these Judeo-Christians began to long for
the comfort of their lives prior to conversion.
The writer of Hebrews, (who in my humble opinion is the Apostle Paul,
although that is the subject of much debate) offers encouragement to these Judeo-Christians
and urges them to continue on to spiritual maturity. He encourages them to not give up on the
process, but to continue to look to Christ daily. He does so by pointing to the supremacy of
Christ above all others, mainly the angels, Old Testament prophets, and even
Moses himself. It is in the midst of his
words about the superiority of Christ over the angels that we find ourselves
today; a very fitting place seeing as how we began our service today with the
lighting of the angel’s candle.
Our
text for today begins with the words, “Since
therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of
the same things.” Now, the first
thing that we have to do is to kind of wade our way through the Bible-speak here
and decipher exactly what this verse is telling us. What this verse (or half of a verse) is
telling us is that God became man. He
didn't just seem to be a man, but he became actual flesh and blood. He was faced with the same infirmities that
plague you and me. And this is
mind-blowing, especially given what we just said about this coming in the
context of stating that Christ is superior to the angels. Jesus is superior to the angels, but he is
like us in every way. God knows what
it’s like to live in our skin or walk in our shoes, and he knows what that’s
like beyond even what we can imagine.
There are perhaps no greater and more powerful words in the English
language than the consoling phrase, “me too.”
When we hear these words, we are immediately comforted by their sympathy
and empathy. We know that the person
saying them can relate to what it is we’re going through. Well, in essence, God is saying “me too” when
it comes to our dealing with temptation and suffering. He can understand what it’s like because He
too has experienced it, and experienced it in an ever greater manner than we
ever could imagine.
In
fact, we catch a glimpse of that aforementioned temptation in the second half
of this verse and into the next one: “that through death he might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who
through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” In other words, in order for Jesus to fulfill
his mission and pay the price for our sins and see his life all the way to the
cross, he had to overcome temptation. He
had to resist temptation his entire life, and not just a few weeks in the
wilderness in a face-to-face confrontation with Satan. Ultimately, as a result of this resistance
and the completion of his mission, he has conquered death, the greatest tool
used by the enemy for twisting us and turning us away from God and placing us
in, as the author of Hebrews says, “lifelong
slavery” to sin.
Later
on in verse 17 we find these words, “Therefore
he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a
merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation
for the sins of the people.” In
other words, he became like us so he could deliver us. He became like us so that he could be the
merciful and sympathetic mediator that is needed to stand between us and
God. He became like us so that he could
offer up the perfect sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God that burned because
of our sin and our turning away from our Creator. Friends, there was no other way and no other
person capable of paying this debt. Paul
David Tripp, a wonderful pastor, teacher, and Christian counselor says of
Christ’s birth, “That
baby was more than a baby. He was God
come in the flesh. Why? Because what was necessary for redemption
could be done by no other.” God
himself paid a debt that was owed to God.
I can’t even begin to put into words the thankfulness and adoration that
we ought to have for God based on that fact alone, much less all of the other
ways in which he provides for us daily.
Then
there are the words of verse 18, the final verse of our text: “For
because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are
being tempted.” Christ can help us
in our suffering and temptation because he knows all about it; he knows what
it’s like to be tempted. He’s felt it
and tasted it and had to battle it himself.
His helping us get through our struggles isn't done from theoretical or
academic knowledge, but from actual battlefield or in-game experience. It’s like this, would you rather have someone
working on your home who graduated at the top of his class in engineering, or
would you rather have the guy who has being doing it for the last 20 years with
a flawless reputation. When someone you
know is struggling with pain of addiction, would you rather have a guy who has
read all the books on addiction, or the guy who has been out there working with
recovering addicts for his entire life, or even the one who has “recovered”
from addiction himself? Well, when it
comes to Christ, we have both. Yes,
Christ knows what must be done in order for us to overcome sin in our
lives. After all, he did have a hand in
our creation. However, he also knows
what it feels like to go through the process because he’s been there. He has experienced all the things that we go
through in this life.
I’ll
be brutally honest with all of you here today.
You have absolutely no clue as to everything that is going on in my life
and I have no clue as to everything that is going on in yours. Sure, we know bits-and-pieces and a few
details about each other’s struggles right now, but not everything in its
entirety. Not even my wife knows
everything that is going on in my life and everything that is on my mind at any
given moment (and that’s probably a good thing). I lean upon her far more than I ought to and
she helps me work through many areas of my life where I greatly need it. She knows more than anyone else, but not
everything. However, she does have her
limits, but God does not. Not only does
God know everything about me, and even things that I don’t know about myself,
but God understands what it’s like to go through those things. He understands on an experiential level and
not just an academic one. Friends, one
of the distinctives of the Christian faith is fact that our God was willing to
lower himself to us for us to have a relationship with him. The onus wasn't on man to raise himself to
God’s level (because he can’t), but God humbled himself to our level. If Jesus were not the Son of God, God
incarnate, then this would not be the case.
If God had not humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, then we
would not really know who he is. Sure we
would have the words of the Old Testament, but we would have a relationship
with God like we do. Not only that, but
we would not have the wonderful blessing of knowing that God has actual
knowledge of what it is we go through as human beings. We should all rejoice at the fact that the
child, the birth, which we celebrate this season, was the Son of God. This is the moment in time when God humbled
himself and came to our level to save us, and so that we could have a more
intimate knowledge of him that anyone could have ever imagined. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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