"Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways through the prophets, but in these days God has spoken to us by a Son whom He appointed heir of all things."
Hebrews
Most times when I read from the letter to the Hebrews, I ask myself; what is this all about? It is hard to understand because of its many references to the heroes of the Old Testament with their many rites and worship practices. The above is the brief introduction from that letter.
This introduction acknowledges a transition of God's revelation from Old Testament prophets to Jesus, the new high Priest and primary focus of the New Testament. In view of the author's stress on the Old Testament, especially as it relates to its priesthood and practices of sacrifice, the letter is probably written to Jewish converts to Christianity. Biblical scholars have determined that it was probably written after the time of the persecution of the early Church but before seventy AD, which would place it before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. Because of the on-going persecution of the early church during this period, it appears many of the original Jewish Christians had fallen away from the faith. The author is writing to encourage them to remain faithful to Christ, their new Great High Priest.
Hebrews was written to encourage this group whose faith in Christ was faltering They may well have been tempted to return to Judaism. The author (and nobody knows who it is) is reminding these early Jewish converts that the old covenant has given way to the new; that Christ is the new great High Priest who can bring believers to God. This is something that the old order of Priests could never do despite all their sacrifices.
The overall effect of Chapter two of Hebrews is to present a different image of God than that portrayed in the Old Testament.
The Israelites would have been accustomed to seeing God as a somewhat harsh feudal overlord who required obedience and submission out of fear and obedience to a rigid discipline of rules and laws.
"Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by His death. By embracing death, taking it into Himself, He destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. It’s obvious, of course, that He didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why He had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when He came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, He would have already experienced it all Himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed."
Hebrews Chapter 2
God is now portrayed as One of immense compassion for all people to the point where He would lower Himself to be one of us, through Christ. And further still, Christ becomes the greatest expression of our humanity, pointing the way to the "New Life" that we are called to ourselves. Christ becomes the means of bringing wholeness and salvation to all people through the sacrifice of atonement in His own person.
Through Jesus' own fidelity and faithfulness to the Father, we are empowered to live with that same fidelity and faithfulness because the fear of death as an obstacle to New Life has been removed.
The letter to the Hebrews points out that Christianity, if taken seriously, creates an evolution in our understanding of God, an understanding that enables us to live out our New Covenant relationship. Fear is no longer the motivator for obedience. It is an experiential love, found in Christ, that holds us firm in our resolve and commitment to faith.
Jesus Himself never writes or speaks about this. He merely lives the truth of this new revelation, and that's what He calls each of us to do as well.
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