Hebrews #1: Jesus much bigger than your imagination.
Hebrews #1 : Jesus much bigger than your imagination.
How to describe Jesus?
Matthew 16:13 : “Who do you say I am? »
Matthew 17: The Transfiguration.
How to describe Jesus?
Difficult
Obviously, it is difficult; however, in my own words, I will paraphrase a Bible co-author:
Jesus inaugurated the second phase of human history.
Jesus is the Son of God, as the only heir.
Moreover, the link is so strong between God and Jesus that if God were the sun, Jesus would be its rays…
There, it is an image in the cosmos, but on earth, one could say that Jesus is like a footprint of God on earth.
Obviously, as Son of God, by the Word,
He is the creator of the cosmos
and in addition, He assures the “SAV” of it in the same way, by His Word.
Jesus received the highest honor ever given for service to mankind.
Indeed, He is the author of the treatment to put an end to the greatest pandemic, that of sin.
In fact, no one comes close to it, not even the superheroes of antiquity, Marvel, Disney or… even angels!
Not everyone plays in the same category as Jesus!
Reading
The same thing – said much better by the Holy Spirit and the unknown author of Hebrews – says this:
Hebrews 1:1-4 / NBS21
1. After having spoken to our ancestors many times and in many ways in the past through the prophets,
As the name given to this epistle indicates, this letter was written to a community with a Jewish majority or in any case inhabited by its history and culture.
Imbued with Jewish identity
Maybe she is in Israel or even in Jerusalem?
This is to try to visualize the depth of their identity as Hebrews at the social, cultural and spiritual levels.
AT Familiar
The recipients of this letter were therefore very familiar with the history of the Hebrew people that we find in what we generally call the Old Testament.
Before 70
If we do not know the author, we can be certain that this epistle was written before the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, in the year 70, which helps us to understand the issues of the moment.
Difficulty and temptation
And two things seem to affect this community.
Persecution
Certainly, persecution because they are disciples of Christ and the epistle tells us about it; the human reflex is to say that it was quieter before, you know like when the Hebrews, after coming out of Egypt, were faced with the reality of the desert. They had begun to regret the life before, in Egypt.
Exodus 16. 1-3
“when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate our fill of bread”
And there, they seem to be tempted to return to Judaism.
Persecution, nobody likes and it is quite understandable.
” Postpartum Depression “
And another hypothesis would be “Postpartum depression”; indeed, at Pentecost, the Church takes off in a dazzling and exhilarating way.
Since the recurrence of the spectacular has decreased, conversions are no longer made by the thousands, pressure and repression cause flight.
As a result, the community is less fun… So why go through all this?
Clinging to Jesus
And the author of the epistle, encourages them to stand firm in Jesus
by showing them that there is no photo, that there is no match, it is not the same category between Jesus and all the rest of humanity.
Hebrews Proud Angels
Very proud of their identities. Look, you’re super proud that your national creed was given by angels. Indeed, the law of God was given to Moses through angels ( Deuteronomy 33.2 , Acts 7.37 & 53, Galatians 3.19 ).
But, even the angels do not support the comparative.
Importance of angels among the Jews
In addition, in part of the Jewish tradition (low Judaism), great importance was given to angels to the point that there were abundant categories of angels and this reappears from time to time in the writings of the Bible.
jesus is superior
However, Jesus is superior.
A superior name.
God’s declarations of the filial bond between Him and Jesus.
Difference of functions:
the angels are in service;
Jesus is God and reigns perfectly, He is Lord, Eternal.
Temporal difference:
Jesus is eternal;
at a minimum, angels had a beginning, they were created.
Different protocol (compared to the court of Charles III):
angels stand before God;
Jesus is seated at His right hand.
From where He is, Jesus exercises as sovereign His Lordship over all occult opposition; on the other hand, the angels move in particular to help in the pilgrimage of the believer.
Hebrews 1:4-14 / NJEB21
Incidentally, this last verse tells us of the help of angels in our journey as disciples of Jesus. Sometimes one of us most certainly assumes it to be plausible …)
but it is probable that most often when they act, we do not realize it.
God truly above
But you see how God, through this text, shows us the incomparable position of Jesus, even if the angels have an important position.
And for us
How can all of this reach us in our actuality?
We are not in the same culture and not necessarily obsessed with angels.
angel fan
Although, maybe around us, we have fans of this aspect there and they would attach a lot of importance to it?
It can be exhilarating, however, let’s give it only measured importance! What is important and much more useful is to know the much greater One, Jesus.
bigger than you think
In fact, as far as our imagination can take us to imagine Jesus, He is much more than that!
fallen angels
Some angels are fallen and they are not there to help those who will inherit salvation . They have great abilities, but vastly inferior to Christ. Even the enemy, satan, has no common measure with the greatness of Jesus.
Omnipotence and Displacement
Just as we just saw in verses 13 and 14,
Jesus is sovereign from his throne;
the angels are obliged to move in order to act.
It is the same for the enemy of God, he is not omnipresent, he moves, he can attack our health and our lives, lay traps for us, but he is incapable of knowing what is has in our thoughts and hearts.
Job
With Job, he made a bet with God, lost in advance.
God knew what was in Job’s heart and if satan had known, he never would have done it.
Jesus
Likewise, if satan had known what was in Jesus’ heart, he would not have tempted him and would have gone directly to the next step, at a favorable moment.
The enemy is far below Jesus, he has an undeniable power but he cannot pierce the safe of our heart.
Do not get attached to the delivery man
The Jews of the time placed great importance on angels because they were the foundation of their beliefs.
But the most important thing was not them, but the Eternal.
It’s interesting because we, too, could sometimes confuse the “deliverer” or the package with the person who sends it to bring us a treasure.
Difficult to have a precise example.
Let’s try to think of it as a laudable, serious, biblically correct interference to which we give importance which masks or attenuates Jesus, which places Jesus on our level, so that He becomes the guardian angel (in service and not as sovereign ) from what I scald from my thoughts.
To finish,
John 6 / NJV21 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me and I will not put out whoever comes to me.