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"It was imperative that he should be made like his brothers in nature, if he were to become a High Priest both compassionate and faithful in the things of God, and at the same time able to make atonement for the sins of the people. For by virtue of his own suffering under temptation he is able to help those who are exposed to temptation." Hebrews 2:17,18
This workweek, as you live and work and think and take meetings and go about your daily life, I want you to see Jesus as He really is. He is, right now, and in every single moment of every single one of your days, seated upon the Throne of Heaven, as a man, watching you, loving you. Can you see Him as He sits there: unshakable, unchanging? He looks upon your days with an infinite heart of compassion and steadfast faithfulness; His eyes are alight with joy that you are His. You are one that He has atoned for, personally, in His own blood. He thought of you then, and He thinks of you now. When you struggle and are tempted, He leans forward, far forward to the edge of His throne, and looks you full in the face and says, "I can relate to that. I felt that too." That is the High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven, and also its perfect atoning sacrifice. That is the High Priest of our days, of our lifetimes, of this very moment. You can trust Him with every ounce of your heart today. You can trust Him with this week. We often say or hear that the highest love of Jesus is in His "meeting us where we are."
It's not. His highest love is, having met us where we once were, that He now is daily calling us up to where He is. "We ought, therefore, to pay the greatest attention to the truth that we have heard and not allow ourselves to drift away from it. For if the message given through angels proved authentic, so that defiance of it and disobedience to it received appropriate retribution, how shall we escape if we refuse to pay proper attention to the salvation that is offered us today?" Hebrews 2:1-3a
To me, the logic that the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across to us in these first 2.5 verses could be described as the "law of diminishing spiritual returns," ie. if the inputs to our hearts and minds increase and yet we are unmoved and unchanged today by these truths, by this salvation, then, in either the long or short term - probably both - our personal spiritual output will almost certainly diminish. This is perhaps the greatest, most dangerous pitfall of our Western mentality around "discipleship" - we tend to think it's more and more information and knowledge that necessarily equates to spiritual maturity. It can... But not always necessarily... What if the only measure for "how I'm doing with Jesus" is actually how you're doing with Jesus today? What if all of our knowledge-accrual pales in comparison to how we truly access the presence of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit right now? That's why I love the imagery implied by verse 1. The idea of "drifting away" also serves to tell us that the "truth" is like a mooring, an anchoring, a solid rock tucked into a tranquil cove, that allows us to stay tethered to our Savior. Can you picture that? Can you imagine yourself moored to the truest true thing you now know - really KNOW - of Jesus today? What is that truest true thing for you on this particular day? |
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Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A.
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