Burn Your White Flags (Hebrews)Sýnishorn

I love action and suspense movies. 

One of my favourite scenes of all times comes from Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War, where most of the Avengers are on earth fighting against an army of seemingly endless monsters called “Outriders.” 

The battle is ensuing on the plains of Wakanda and the tide is turning against our heroes and they begin to enter into a precarious situation. When all of sudden … (!!!!) Thor, the strongest Avenger, teleports in and turns the fight back their way. There is a technical term for events like this—deus ex machina—a function in a plot where a hero is revealed at the eleventh hour to save the day. 

Our text today begins with somewhat of a deus ex machina. The situation in our previous text ends with a major problem: the exclusivity of the Holy of Holies and our inability to make the cut to get in to rest in the presence of God. “But when Christ appeared … ” (9:11).  This is our Thor moment!

“He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). 

We cannot overstate this: 

that because Jesus took on our humanity, 

that because Jesus entered into the holy places, 

that because Jesus shed his own blood, 

that because Jesus offered himself up to God for us, 

that because Jesus cleanses our conscience, 

that because Jesus bore the sins of many, 

that because Jesus appeared once to die for sin, 

we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when all seems lost, hopeless and helpless both in our lives and in our world, he will appear again “to save those who eagerly wait for him” (9:28).