Text: Hebrews 2:9-11
Date: June 13, 2021
Event: The Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year B (Non-Lectionary)
Hebrews 2:9–11 (EHV)
But we look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death.
Certainly it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. For he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Us!
Shame can be a powerful force. Wanting to avoid shame can lead us to be cowardly or curb our impulses to be better in line with socially acceptable behavior. Maybe the thought of feeling shame over answering a question wrong in class leads you to not even raise your hand. Perhaps the idea of feeling shame over disgraceful words or actions leads you to avoid drinking too much alcohol. On a more lighthearted side, perhaps children are worried that Mom or Dad might say something embarrassing in public or with their friends, or parents might be concerned about shame resulting from a young child who just speaks his or her mind—or repeats what they’ve heard at home.
We don’t want people to be ashamed of us. We want people to think well of us. And that’s pretty universal, whether we consider our family, our fellow members at church, our coworkers, or even perfect strangers. We don’t want anyone to be ashamed to be near us or be associated with us. And perhaps much of our outward behavior is driven to trying to avoid letting this happening.
But what about God? Do we think about what God thinks of us? Do we think about him being ashamed of us or proud of us? Surely, if we’re concerned about what the stranger at the restaurant might think about us if we slip and fall on a patch of wet tile, then we should care what the Almighty thinks about us, right?
Except we don’t want to think about that. Because we know what God thinks. And shame doesn’t even begin to describe it. He’s so massively disappointed, frustrated, and angry with us. But why? Because he had expectations and goals for us. And we’ve missed all of them, completely. Never has a parent been disappointed by their children nor a child disappointed by their parents in the same way that we have let down God.
He created us to be perfect, to have this flawless harmony with him. Our sin destroyed that. Instead of being united with God, we are separated from him. Instead of having harmony with God, we’re fighting against him. As we think of God’s feelings toward us, it’s pretty hard to feel that he has anything but what he felt just before the flood where Moses records, “The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow” (Genesis 6:6). Regret, sorrow, and we might rightly assume shame at having any connection to us. This is not the kind of relationship we wanted with God.
Of course, it’s not the relationship that he wanted with us, either. But to change it was going to be difficult; it was going to be costly. But God also did not shy away from that effort and cost. Because while his shame, disappointment, and anger over sin were all real, so was his love for you. The shame he felt over us because of our sins did not mean total abandonment. It meant he was that much more invested in changing our sinful status.
The writer to the Hebrews is writing to Christians in crisis. His original audience was Jewish converts to Christianity. He’s writing amid a great persecution that has broken out against Christians around the Roman Empire. In some places, it meant death. In other places, it meant challenging times in life and commerce. The author’s audience was tempted to turn away from their Christian faith and return to their former life in Judaism. There would be no persecution there; Judaism wasn’t an illegal religion in the empire, so it would have been really appealing.
But to do so would mean abandoning Jesus and everything that he had done for them. The author lays out a detailed reminder of who this Jesus is. In Chapter 1, before our lesson, he spends a great deal of time reminding his readers of Jesus’ divinity, that he is God, higher than all things, greater than anything that has been made—even the angels!
But what did this great Son of God do with that power? Come to destroy the insolent sinners? Terrify them with his wrath? No. We look to Jesus (the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone), now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death. The Creator became a lowly part of his creation. Jesus humbled himself to take on our human nature and live as one of us. God inserted himself in time and in flesh to save us, becoming a bit lower than even the angels.
Any of our catechism students or recent confirmands can tell you that our Savior had to be God to keep God’s law perfectly in our place. But God is enteral; he cannot die. So he had to be a man to be able to die because that death was necessary to pay for sins. Every animal sacrifice offered on Israel’s altar pointed ahead to that one great sacrifice that was coming and has in fact come as the writer to the Hebrews reminds all of us!
But our Savior also had to be God for the reason the writer makes explicit here: the one who was made lower than the angels for a little while, so that by God’s grace he might taste death for everyone. Jesus had to be God for the universal application of his death. It was once for all. No more sacrifices are necessary. Jesus, true God and true man, finished the work. It is over and done. Our sins are forgiven.
The writer continues: Certainly it was fitting for God (the one for whom and through whom everything exists), in leading many sons to glory, to bring the author of their salvation to his goal through sufferings. Jesus is indeed the author of our salvation. He is the one where our salvation finds its beginning and its completion. And what is the result of that? We are led to glory. We are sanctified, made holy, set apart for the special calling as God’s children. And that glory that we are led to is the same glory with which Jesus has been crowned.
We have this beautiful unity with our conquering Savior! The writer to the Hebrews says, “For he who sanctifies (that is, Jesus) and those who are being sanctified (that is, you and me) all have one Father. For that reason, he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” We are connected to our Savior; we are members of the same family. This is what Jesus said in our gospel: “He looked at those who sat around him in a circle and he said, ‘Look, my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:34-35). What is the will of God? To believe in the Savior he sent and to live our lives in thankful gratitude to him.
Jesus’ work means that our sins are gone. That means all the reasons we had for shame before God or for God to be ashamed of us are also gone. Jesus doesn’t begrudgingly call us his siblings; he boasts in it! He rejoices in it! This was the whole reason he came, to conquer sin, Satan, and death and to bring us to be with him, to bring us where we belong.
It is easy for this to become same-old, same-old for us. We’ve heard this message how many times in our lives? Hundreds? Thousands? But don’t let it become dull and blasé. Let these truths, solidified by your baptism, be of prime importance and the reason for your rejoicing. Let your actions, your words, even the tone of your words be motivated by your membership in God’s household, your siblinghood with Jesus. Let us not be ashamed of our Savior, who is not ashamed of us. Let us live our lives as beacons of his light in this dark world, drawing all people to the love God has shown in our Savior.
Jesus’ forgiveness leads us to glory in his house forever. He is not ashamed of us! Rejoice in that truth today and always! Amen.
