Jesus fully God, fully human - Hebrews 1-2

I worked hard on Hebrews 1-2 over last weekend, and was really been struck by just how strongly trinitarian the author is in the way that he (yes, apparently there is a masculine verb in 11:32 - there go my hopes for a New Testament book written by a woman!) uses the Old Testament.

Take for example this quote from Psalm 45:6-7 which was initially written about God's relationship with the Israelite king. The writer to Hebrews applies it directly to Jesus:

"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy."

God is the one reigning forever, an attribute that is also ascribed to Jesus (Hebrew 13:8). At the same time God sets Jesus above his companions, anointing him as his special king. So Jesus is God, but he's also distinct from God as God's Son.

In another quote from Psalm 102:25-27 the author of Hebrews takes a passage we may think of as referring only to God the Father, and again applies it directly to Jesus:

“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

So Jesus is not just redeemer of the world, he is also creator of the world. As the author of Hebrews is at pains to point out, it matters how we treat Jesus - he isn't just some guy, he's the Lord of all creation.

Jesus is the best, chuck out the rest!

Today I met with some Bible study leaders to take a look at the book of Hebrews from the Bible. I asked them to come up with a summary sentence for the book, and one stand out from many helpful summaries was:

Jesus is the best, chuck out the rest!

I thought it was quite apt, though it's worth noting that the writer to the Hebrews isn't necesssarily saying that everything apart from Jesus is rubbish that should be chucked out, but rather...

Jesus is the best, you don't need the rest, because He is the best.

Angels, Moses, high priests, the tabernacle and the law all had their role to play in the story of God's people, but in the end they can't fully represent God to us, nor can they save us from God's anger over our wrongdoing, like Jesus does.

I'll be writing more about Hebrews in coming days and weeks, so if you're keen to read along with me and give feedback and ideas, I'd love to hear from you. You can find a version online here.

"The Biggest Loser"

The last three evenings I have been feeling bereft: "The Biggest Loser" is no longer on telly! Now, my feelings of loss may come as a surprise to those who know me personally. Usually I'm more of an opera, symphony orchestra, art gallery type, not really one who would addictively watch reality TV. Nonetheless I love TBL. I'm really looking forward to the grand finale tonight.

So, what on earth do I see in it?

Firstly it's fascinating watching people interact in the hothouse environment of "the white house", but the focus of the show means that we are spared much of the minutia and crassness of other reality TV programs. This season I particularly enjoyed seeing how much of a difference it makes when people exercise a reasonable level of maturity, kindness and loyalty. While the red team imploded in a sea of nastiness and back biting, the blue team powered on: the finalists competing tonight are all blue team members.

I also love a good story of transformation, and that's what TBL is all about. Everyone goes in morbidly obese, and most come out the other side looking slim and glamorous. Of course there's an awful lot of hyperbole around this: talk of changing lives forever and people being able to do anything that they want now that they've lost weight.

Losing lots of weight does change a person's health and general outlook massively. I know this from personal experience, having once been a rather hefty penguin who lost over 30 kilos and kept it off. However, the loss hasn't changed my life forever - I will still grow old and eventually die, even if I do keep the weight off. Nor have I found myself able to do anything that I put my mind to as I result of losing weight.

We all need something more than what TBL can offer. Weight loss brings some benefits for a while, but it's only in Christ that we can have life to the fullest, life which goes on beyond death (John 5:24; John 10:10).



PS Who do I think is going to win? I reckon it'll be between Sam and Kirsten, though Sam definitely has the physiological advantage of being young and male.

Who do I want to win? Alison, because she's the dark horse and is just so darn nice.

the moral perfection of Jesus

Yesterday I listened to Peter Singer, a well known ethicist, make some comments about the flaws he perceives in Jesus' morality. He mentioned three difficulties that he has:

1) Jesus curses a fig tree (Mark 11:12-25)

2) Jesus sends evil spirits into a herd of pigs and sends them over the edge of a cliff (Mark 5:1-20)

3) Jesus' ethic of not resisting evil isn't workable in today's society because people will simply take advantage of each other (Matt 5:38-42).

He had misunderstood the import of the first two passages that he used. The cursing of the fig tree was not a childish outburst of anger, but an enacted parable against God's people who were not bearing fruit as they ought. In sending the pigs over the cliff Jesus showed his authority over all creation, including evil spirits and animals that were considered unclean. For the Christian who believes that Jesus is co-author of creation, it is not a huge problem to see that he has absolute authority over all of it, including pigs. The tender-hearted among us may feel temporarily a little sorry for the pigs (after all I am the owner of two fluffy pet rabbits) but I can't see that drowning them is morally wrong. Not to mention that, unlike Singer, I eat bacon!

Finally, upholding an ethical standard that doesn't work because people don't or can't keep it is not a sign of moral imperfection. Just because I can't stick to a particular standard, doesn't mean that the standard is wrong. Also, in telling us to love our enemies, Jesus is not condoning their behaviour. God hates exploitation and demands love for him and for others (Matt 22:36-40, or see the book of Amos for an extended examination of God's views about people exploiting one another).

It's encouraging that Singer, with his formidable intellect, was not able to find flaws in Jesus that I thought had any substance.