As dinner time approaches, mom tells her children that they must call an end to their play, come into the house, and clean up for dinner. The children of course balk at the orders, accusing their mom of trying to spoil their fun. If it was up to them, they would skip dinner and play until midnight. Mom knows what’s best for them and sometimes must make decisions that rub against their grain.
Today’s reading from Hebrews talks about God’s glorious plan for our world and tells us about how we fit into it (Hebrews 2:5-12).
“In subjecting all things to him, (God) has left nothing not ‘subject to him.’ Yet at present we do not see ‘all things subject to him.’”
God has a plan for bringing all things under the lordship of Jesus, his Son. When we look at our world, however, it seems he is not doing a very good job at it. In fact things to be getting worse and worse. “At present” things seem to be in a decline.
“…but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, he who for a little while was made lower than the angels, that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
Instead of looking at the discord in the world, we look to Jesus. We remind ourselves that he took death upon himself so we may have eternal life. We remind ourselves that at even at the moment when Jesus seemed defeated by death, God did the impossible—he raised him from the dead, never to die again. Jesus is the first fruits of the new creation. Now through Jesus, the rest of creation is being brought into subjection according to God’s time table.
Where do we fit in to all of this?
“For it was fitting that he, for whom and through who all things exist, in bringing many children to glory should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.”
Back to mom calling in her children from play. God is in the process of “bringing in his children,” not from play but from a world that seems caught up in chaos. His plan is not so much straightening out the world as it is bringing in his children for dinner. Jesus led the way, and the way was through the dark tunnel of suffering into God’s banquet room. Those connected with Jesus follow in his footsteps. Children have to go through the “suffering” of leaving their world of play so they can participate in something much more important—family dinner.
So conformed are the “many children” to Jesus that he calls them “brothers.”
“Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them ‘brothers’ saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers.”
In giving our lives to Jesus we become his sisters and brothers and so inherit his destiny. We become part of that group that God is “bringing to glory,” leading us out as by a new Exodus, from the playground of Egypt into the Promised Land of his glory. Part of that journey is enduring the unpleasant circumstances of the wilderness.
We can become preoccupied with a world that refuses to be in subjection to God and therefore continues to be lost, or we can listen to the voice of our Good Shepherd as he calls us to follow him to the green pastures of his Father’s love. Jesus our hope!
“You have made him little less than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps 8:5).
