Hebrews: The Daily Discipline of a Devoted LifeSample

I remember visiting the British Houses of Parliament a few years ago. They allowed me to sit in an upstairs gallery and view a debate in progress. I had been used to seeing on the television Prime Minister’s Questions, when the atmosphere was electric, and every seat was taken. But on this quiet Wednesday afternoon there were about six MPs, who were almost lost in the giant halls, and were debating something about electricity prices. I enjoyed the visit, but this small group of MPs were a sideshow. The Prime Minister was the main event. 

Hebrews opens with a bang as the writer tells his Jewish readers that their Old Testament heroes, the prophets, were actually a sideshow to the main event. They were important, but their value was in pointing beyond their own times to the coming of God’s Messiah. And the decisive moment of God’s salvation plan had now come. 

Jesus of Nazareth was not just another prophet; he was and is God’s Son, the ‘exact representation of [God’s] being’ (v. 3). Like the image of the emperor stamped on Roman coins, God’s character was so stamped on Jesus that to see him was really to see the Father – the God of Israel who appeared to Moses from a burning bush. 

This Jesus is not just another Hebrew prophet. He is the one to whom all the prophets were pointing. He is the creator of the universe, and humanity’s saviour. He came to shed his blood and provide purification for sin. Today he sits in heaven (v. 3), the act of sitting showing that he has completed the work of redemption. 

‘Take the world, but give me Jesus’ is how the hymn writer Fanny Crosby put it. All God’s plans for the whole of creation revolve around Jesus. He is worth every sacrifice it takes to follow him. Everything else in life is sinking sand compared to what Paul called ‘the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ’ (Phil. 3:8). 

Reflection

Is there anything that matters more to you than Jesus? What other ‘treasures’ do you need to let go of to ‘gain Christ’?