Jesus Made Fully Human
5 It is not to
angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6
But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is
mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man
that you care for him?
7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels;
you crowned
them with glory and honor
8 and put
everything under their feet.”[b][c]
In putting
everything under them,[d] God left nothing that is not subject to them.[e] Yet
at present we do not see everything subject to them.[f] 9 But we do see Jesus,
who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory
and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste
death for everyone.
Dig Deeper
It’s not nearly as common these days, but even when I
was younger I used to hear people speak quite often of someone being the first
in their family to go to college. It
might not seem like such a big deal now but there was a time in our country
when it was. Just a few generations ago
going to college was difficult and expensive and very few people could do
it. Most people had to start working
quite young to help support the family and they simply didn’t have the means
and ways to enable them to go to college.
It was a pretty major event then, if a parent could work hard enough and
save enough money to send one of their children to school. In fact, it would become a much bigger event
for the family than just having one member go to school. The fact that they could send someone on
ahead of the rest into the world of opportunity and education, would become a
source of pride and identity for the whole family. In fact, they would begin to embrace the idea
that sending off a member of the younger generation to college had changed
everything for that family. Not that
much of anything would have seemed to have changed at first glance for the
family as a whole, but it had just the same.
The family had sent a representative ahead of them into the world of
opportunity that they all hoped for one day, and they believed that through
that representative things had changed and a whole new world had been opened
for the entire family.
As an illustration this is, of course, limited but it
does contain some of the heart of what the writer of Hebrews is getting at here
and throughout his letter as one of its primary themes. God’s human creation was stuck in a world of
sin and moral poverty that kept them from realizing the freedom that God
intended, and from experiencing creation in the role for which God had created
them. Because humanity was stuck in a
fallen state do to sin, there needed to be a representative that could go on
ahead and do for all humans what we could not do for ourselves. It is into that role that Jesus stepped, a
role that showed yet another way that Jesus is superior as a mediator for man
and another reason that it would be disastrous for those weakening in their
resolve to abandon Christ and return to their Judaism or any other religion.
The section that begins in verse 5 is the logical
continuation of the argument being made at the end of chapter 1. Being a superb teacher, the author of Hebrews
sprinkles in practical exhortations, though, to his audience throughout the letter
in between the larger flow of his teaching, which is what he did in the first
four verses of chapter 2. In returning
to the superiority of the Son in comparison to the angelic mediators of the
Mosaic Covenant, Hebrews makes a vial point.
The angels may have certain administration and overseeing duties in the
present age, but not in the age to come.
The Old Testament makes clear that angels are somehow involved in the
oversight of the world (Deut. 32:8; Dan. 10:20-21; Eph. 6:12) but they will not
have that role in the age to come.
To understand the line of thinking it is incumbent to
know that the Jewish worldview of the time split the world into the present age
and the age to come. The present age is
characterized by the separation between humans and God where humans live in the
fallen state of sin and rebellion, cut off from God’s heavenly presence. The age to come was the time when God would
return to set things in the world right and would finally rule completely as
King and fully dwell with his people, bringing heaven and earth together as
one. The shocking thing about Jesus’
resurrection, according to the early Christians, was that through the power of
that event, the age to come had begun to break into the present age. Living under the rule of God as King and
being brought into the life of fullness and reconciliation of the age to come
had already begun. Those who chose to
enter into the life of Christ were actually entering into that age to come
right now in the middle of the present age.
If Jesus is King of that future age, and indeed, if that
rule has already begun, then it would not make sense to cling to the constructs
of the present age. To make that point
clear, however, Hebrews must return to purpose of humankind in the present age. So he returns to two of the most popular
Psalms in the early church, Psalm 8 and Psalm 110. Human kind was created in the present age to
have dominion over God’s creation and to rule over it by administering God’s
will into his creation. But that was
quickly thrown away as human beings quickly threw off God’s will that would
have led them into wise stewardship of the creation and caring for one another
rather than their own will characterized by selfish ambition and doing what “I
want to do.” This quickly threw all of
creation into a tailspin as humans spurned God’s mission for us and in so
doing, corrupted the job of exercising dominion over God’s creation.
Commentators are largely split over this section,
arguing whether Hebrews is referring to the role of human beings in making
reference to Psalm 8, or whether he is referring specifically to the
Messiah. I think the solution is to
understand that both are correct. Psalm
8 describes the ideal vocation of human beings.
God created humans in his image to rule over his creation justly and
wisely. God’s intent was always to be
King through human agents. When that
vocation was derailed by human sin it also left human beings unable to fulfill
the image-bearing purpose described in Psalm 8.
Psalm 8, and Hebrews in quoting from it, refer to human beings as they
were created to be not as they are.
But there are many Old Testament passages, particularly
in the Psalms and Isaiah, that point to a Messiah that would come to perfectly
represent Israel by being the one that would be faithful to God’s calling. In Psalm 80, the Psalmist wrote a passage
with clear Messianic overtones: “Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over
this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for
yourself. Your vine is cut down, it is
burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at your right
hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive
us, and we will call on your name” (Ps. 80:14-18). The Messiah was the one that Yahewh himself
would raise up, the son of man that was at his right hand. He was the one who would come and fulfill the
role of humanity as it was meant to be.
He was the one who perfectly did God’s will on earth as it is in heaven
and who perfectly reflected the image of God into the world. And he was the one who had everything
subjected to him, being put under his feet.
He was the ideal of humanity pointed to in Psalm 8.
But that raised a problem that Hebrews deals with
directly at the end of verse 8. If
everything was subjected to Jesus as god’s Son then why did it sure not seem
that way? That wasn’t just a theological
difficulty that some brainy teacher cooked up.
This was a real life concern for the recipients of this letter. If Jesus really was God’s Son and the
enthroned King of the world with all authority invested in him, then why were
his people being so consistently persecuted?
Why were they suffering constantly to the point that many had walked
away and many more were considering it?
The key to all of this is to understand what Jesus meant
in John 11:25 when Jesus declared that he was “the resurrection and the life.” When Jesus resurrected from the dead he went
ahead as the firstfruits into God’s future resurrection age. He really did enter into that age to come
where all things are under his feet and, this part is key, he is “the
life.” He is the means through which we
can begin to taste of that life even while in the present age. This is how Jesus can both be said to be
reigning with all things under his feet and yet it can also be said that this
hasn’t been completed just yet. Jesus
subjected himself to becoming totally human, a little lower than the angels,
for a little while but he is now enjoying the role of glory and honor that God
set out for all humans as our perfect representative. When we enter into his life we enter into his
reign and begin to work out the reality of the age to come one moment at a time
in anticipation of it’s coming fullness one day when he returns. In that sense, Jesus is truly the king of the
world right now, and at the same time, there is more to come as his rule is
fully consummated.
But we should never lose sight through the deep teaching
of Hebrews that this was practical, life and death spiritual situations that
the author was addressing. It’s not just
theological mumbo jumbo intended to make the author look smart. Why all of this information about the
intended purpose and fall of human beings?
Why all the talk of Jesus as the representative of humanity and the one
who currently reigns with glory and honor?
Why all the Old Testament quotations.
It all had a very real purpose which Hebrews will begin to deal with
more fully as we go along, but at which the author begins to hint at in verse
9. Jesus showed himself to be God’s
perfect image bearer and Son (something the angels, prophets, and no other
human being could ever claim) by suffering death. In fact he tasted and defeated death for
everyone. That is how he fulfilled God’s
will and how he came into his glory. In
a world of lack, the only way to bring wholeness is to sacrifice for
others. The only way to bring completeness
to the role set apart for humanity was for Jesus to come and fulfill that role
by suffering and dying as a representative for all. And the only way for his people to begin to
work out the implications of the fact that Christ really had been crowned and
was ruling through his people was for them to do for others what Christ had
done for them. Not, of course, in the
sense of dying as a representative for others but in the sense of sacrificing
and suffering for the benefit of others.
And that’s where things really would have hit home for
the original audience of Hebrews. Their
suffering was not a sign that Jesus was a failed Messiah, that they were a
failed people, or that Christianity was a bankrupt way of life. Their suffering was, in a strange way, that
he has not yet fully explained, a sign that Jesus was indeed the rightful King
of the world, ruling from heaven at the right hand of the Father.
Devotional Thought
How does it change your perspective and your actions to
realize that your trials, sacrifices, and sufferings for the kingdom of God are
actually signs of Jesus’ rule rather than weakness? They are often very means through which
Jesus’ reign will break into the lives of others. Spend some time contemplating that today and
what it means for you in practical terms.
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