Hebrews 1:1-4
Introduction
Despite being raised in the church, I became an atheist during my teen years. It was during my time in university that I returned to faith. But faith in what? I would love to say that I awoke one day to the emptiness of my atheism and embraced Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. But that was not what happened. Early during my time in university, I realized that I did not have enough faith to be an atheist. I accepted that there was some kind of God out there even if I did not know who or what that God was. I did not feel drawn toward any particular religion and so I was what could be called a generic theist. Some God existed.
It was a couple of years before I actually became a Christian. It was during the summer before my last year of university that I decided that I wanted to be a follower of Jesus.
What I want to ask is what difference did it make for me to go from just believing in God to believing in Jesus? Of course there were plenty of differences. I could read the Bible in a much different way and I could participate in Christian worship in a more authentic manner. But there was even more to it than that. Believing in Jesus made me see God in a much different way. Christians believe that Jesus was not just a religious teacher or even a prophet but as God incarnate. We have God the Father but we also have God the Son. Not two different Gods but two different, and with the Holy Spirit, three different persons within the one God.
Christians cannot look at God without looking at Jesus. We read in John:
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? (John 14:8-10)
Going back to my story, while I find the existence of God fairly easy to believe now, I do find understanding God much more challenging. For me, being able to look at Jesus and understanding God through that lens is of great benefit.
But this is not about me. This is about God revealing himself to humanity and choosing to do that through the Son, through Jesus Christ. This is the message of the book of Hebrews. We are going to look at what the author said about Jesus. What I want you to know from the outset is that the author wrote this not as an abstract theological treatise but as a letter to real Christians, Christians who were discouraged and considering giving up.
Communication
The author begins by reminding us that God has communicated with humanity over the generations. This has generally been through the prophets. What we need to hear clearly is that God wants to communicate with us. It would be easy to believe that there is some impersonal God out there who started the universe but who is completely oblivious to any other life in the universe, including us. But God actually does want to communicate with us. I want you to imagine that you were not sent a hand written note by King Charles III. Not a form letter sent through his office stamped with his signature but an actual personal letter directly from the King. That would be exciting whether or not you are a royalist. God is a much greater King and God has been continually communicating with us.
This communication has been taken to the ultimate level by the sending of the Son. The prophets were good and we still benefit from those prophets. But the sending of the Son really is something much greater. While not an exact parallel, let’s go back to that letter from King Charles III. What if instead of being deliver by the King’s staff, it was instead hand delivered by William, Prince of Wales. That would feel very special. And yet God sending his Son is on a whole other level from that.
The Son
Back in the ancient world, it was not unusual for a god to have a child, especially a son. If the child was conceived by a god or a goddess, the son might also become a god. If the child was conceived by a god and a mortal woman, the son might become a hero who would achieve great feats.
That is not what the Son of God that we follow is like at all. Yes, Jesus was conceived within the Virgin Mary two thousand years ago. But the was not the beginning of God the Son, only the beginning of the human being that we call Jesus. God the Son has been around from the beginning, actually from before the beginning. We are told here and elsewhere that the Son was involved in creation. In comparison, Zeus or Jupiter, the high god of the Greeks and Romans was not involved in creation at all, being born after the creation of the world. We are told: “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” That is the Son that God sent to reveal himself to us. While the Son can tell us things about God, the Son also reveals God in just being present. This is a great mystery and theologians spill gallons of ink unpacking this. We may not fully understand this, but we are meant to be in awe of it. The sending of the Son is literally an awesome event.
The Son Acts
We are told that the Son was involved in creation and the Son sustains creation. We obviously benefit from this. But there is more, much more. We are told that the Son made purification for our sins. That may sound odd to us. That is not the type of language that we use. We might prefer language such as dying on a cross. Hebrews was written for people who were very familiar with Jewish rituals and if you continue to read Hebrews, you will find a lengthy treatment of how Jesus fulfills that which was prefigured in the Old Testament. Purification for sins is a Jewish way of describing what we mean when Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
The author of Hebrews only makes a brief comment on something he will unpack later. But the contrast between the way the Son is described and what will happen to the Son is shocking. This actually reminds me of a parable of Jesus:
‘Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watch-tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. (Matthew 21:33-39)
What we need to remember that the death of Jesus was not a disruption in the communication but an intensifying of it. What is it that God wanted to communicate to us? We might have all kinds of things that we think are important but the primary thing that God communicated was love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” Nothing shows love like self-sacrifice. Jesus’ death on the cross was God demonstrating love beyond our imagination. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)
Conclusion
If all we knew about God was what we knew about God the Father, we would know a lot but we would not know enough. It is vital for us to know God the Son. If you have ever had the chance to write some fiction, you may have had a friendly critic recognize that there is not enough character development and that the character needs to be fleshed out. Jesus for us is God fleshed out. Literally. Not only is Jesus God with skin, Jesus is also a fuller revelation of who God is. God the Son is the clearest communication of what God wants to express to us. Thankfully for us, that message is love. God loves us and that is expressed in Jesus. My hope for you is that you will dig deeper to know this Jesus more and more.
