Reasons for ‘why?’…

Sermon planned for Sunday, December 26th, 2010
Text: Hebrews 2:10-18

Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas celebrations were joyful and that you were able to spend some time with family. This morning’s scripture passage has a lot to do with Christmas. If the story of Christmas is about what happened over two thousand years ago; then our passage from Hebrews helps us to understand why it happened in the first place. So, just to refresh our memories, WHAT happened just over two-thousand years ago (someone under 10, shout out the answer)? That’s right! Jesus was born just over two-thousand years ago.

Let’s turn to the epistle to the Hebrews. This letter was written just over thirty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus’ disciples were spreading the news about Jesus all around and many people decided to be baptized and follow Jesus. The Church was growing really fast, and many people wanted to know more and more about Jesus, and about why he had to die: what did this all mean?

The letter to the Hebrews is a very deep book. It’s often ignored because it can be difficult to understand what the author was trying to say. At the same time, it’s well worth the effort to try and understand. Among other things, Hebrews is a letter that tries to make sense of how the God’s chosen Messiah was for both Jews and non-Jews – that Jesus was the Savior for all.

In our passage this morning, the author of Hebrews was explaining how it was necessary that God not only came to us as a baby boy, but that he would also have to suffer. The people understood the details about Jesus’ birth – they knew the Christmas story well – but some were confused about why Jesus had to be born, and why this baby would grow up to be a man who suffered, was crucified and buried. Like the child who always asks “Why?”, Christians want to know more detail – we’re hungry for knowledge about God. Hebrews is an answer to the ‘why’ question of Jesus’ birth and of his suffering.

Let’s go over what we heard earlier in this passage. I invite you to turn, with me, in your bibles to Hebrews, chapter two, beginning at verse ten. We read: “It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” This is the author’s quick answer to the question: Why did our Almighty God choose suffering servanthood in Jesus? Why the cross? Isn’t this foolishness? Isn’t the cross of Christ a symbol of defeat and weakness? Why? The quick answer is: “because… it is fitting… that’s how God get’s the job done… that’s how God brings his children to glory.”

Imagine a child asking the typical ‘why’ question here. “Dad, why can’t I have that water gun” (I remember that question well). “Because… Marco! Just Because!” That wasn’t good enough for me. “Why dad? All my other friends have one, why can’t I?” (It’s like the debate is still right there, fresh in my mind) “Well, Marco, you’re not just like your friends. You’re a Christian, and Christians don’t go around pointing guns at people.” The simple answer was never good enough; I needed to know why.

Like me, the early Christians weren’t happy with simple answers either. Just imagine the conversation between student and apostle: “teacher, why did Jesus come? Why did he suffer and die?” “Because!” “Why?” “Because it was fitting?” “What do you mean? Why was it ‘fitting’?” “Because it was fitting for him to suffer in order to bring many children to glory?” Can you imagine the blank faces on the students in class? Well, our passage this morning begins with this simple answer; but as the author continues-on he fills in the rest of the picture. At the most basic level, the answer to the ‘why’ question is: it was appropriate for God to complete salvation by suffering – because that’s how he identified with us, His children.

Like most good teachers, the author of Hebrews then gave some further examples about why this suffering was appropriate for God. For Jews and Greeks, the idea of a suffering God was obscene. For the Jews, God was the Great King and Ruler of all Creation. For the Greeks, God was unchangeable, unmoveable, a fixed principle – suffering, death and resurrection suggests weakness and change in nature. Hebrews begins by insisting that it is appropriate for us to understand God as One who suffers. Then we have the expected “Why” question. Why is it appropriate for God to be One who suffers? The rest of our passage gives two reasons for why it was appropriate for Jesus to suffer. Actually, the two reasons are just two sides of the same coin. The underlying reason for God’s suffering is that this was God’s way of joining himself to us. It was God’s way of showing solidarity with humanity. It was God’s way of being Immanuel – it’s the completion of what began in Bethlehem.

The first reason for Jesus’ suffering is that he was our brother – because of the family connection. Jesus and his followers share the same Father. That’s why he taught us to pray to “Our Father”. And so, because Jesus was fully human, His Father is also our Father. We’re all in the same family. Jesus is God’s Son, in the sense that he is the only-begotten Son of God the Father. We are children of God the Father, because we are all descendants of Adam and Eve, who were created by God, and more importantly, we have been adopted as God’s children by the Holy Spirit. It was appropriate for Jesus to suffer because we are his brothers and sisters. That’s what siblings ought to do for one another. More importantly, by dying for his siblings, in their place, and conquering death in his resurrection, Jesus has also done the same thing for us, his brothers and sisters. Because of our sin, humanity was stuck in the mud. Therefore, it was appropriate that God sent His Son into the mud to lead us out.

When I was seven years old, my family and I went to Paraguay for a six-month vacation. One of the things we loved to do was go to my cousin’s ranch and go fishing in the dug-out. One time my cousins, my older brother, and I decided that we were going to walk across the dug-out – through the water. It was fairly shallow and I could touch the ground for most of it. But that’s the key part to the story. You see, my cousins, who were all older than my brother and I, they didn’t know how to swim. Bruce and I, on the other hand, had taken swimming lessons in Winnipeg – plus, I float like Styrofoam. As we slowly walked across the dug-out in neck-deep water, we made sure to keep our eyes on the alligator that also inhabited the pond. We made sure that we could see its eyes at the other end of the dug-out at all times. (Ya, I know, what were my parents thinking!!!) Anyways, as we got to about the middle of the dug-out, suddenly there was a deep section. We had hit an old well that had been there prior to the dug-out. For me, this wasn’t a problem at all. I began floating around and calmly swimming… that is, until my cousin, eight years older than me, began hanging onto my neck. In their panic, they grabbed the nearest thing they could hold onto – my brother and I became life vests. Of course my cousins’ panic rubbed off on us. We began screaming and paddling hard for the shore. We finally made it to a shallower part, where my brother and I had a good laugh at our older cousins. Our parents, on the other hand, were not amused. Their fishing trip was ruined – we scared off all the fish.

In all of the turmoil, there wasn’t much our parents could do to help my cousins – and so, it was left to us brothers to get them out of that mess. The nature of the situation demanded that there be someone in the water, neck-deep in the danger, to help my cousins to higher ground. This is the kind of analogy that Hebrews is making to explain Jesus’ suffering. Since we humans suffer and die on account of our fallenness and sin, we’re drowning in death so to speak. Therefore, it was quite appropriate… “fitting” that Jesus would be in the thick-of-it with us. We can hold onto his shoulders as he swims us to higher ground. In his death and resurrection he not only joins us in the pits, he also breaks our chains and helps us out of the pit. As our brother, Jesus is in it with us. He’s with us in our pain, in our struggle – and he can help us reach the shore.

Moving on - let’s together read the last part of our passage:
Hebrews 2:16-18 16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

This is the second answer that Hebrews gives to the why question of Jesus’ birth, suffering and death; and it has to do with empathy, mercy and atonement. Atonement is a word that combines the notions of ‘forgiving sins’ and ‘making peace’ – to gather the scattered… to heal the dying… to make new the broken. It’s in this part of Hebrews that we first read about Jesus as a high priest. The rest of the book examines this part of Jesus’ work. Jesus is a high priest for the children of God. As fully divine and fully human, Jesus makes the perfect priest with the perfect atoning sacrifice. When he cleans us, we’re perfectly clean. He can represent God to us – to show us His love, His character and Truth. And Jesus can perfectly present us before God – not as sinners condemned to die, but as His children, cleansed from sin and redeemed by Christ’s pure sacrifice. Jesus is the perfect high-priest. Hebrews makes this argument in a lot of ways, but in our text this morning the author makes the argument in a very interesting way.

Why is Jesus a perfect high-priest for us? Because he knows the depths of human suffering. Jesus knows exactly what you’re going through. He understood suffering completely. If he came to represent angels, he wouldn’t need to suffer, because, from what we know, angels don’t suffer in the same way we do. They don’t nearly drown in dug-outs. But Jesus came to help the children of Abraham and, by God’s mercy, that includes us Gentiles. And since we suffer – since we get ourselves into all kinds of deep water – Jesus joined us here. He can fully present our case before God because he’s been in the deep-end with us. He is fully-human.

The text says that he became like his brothers and sisters in every respect. It’s important for us to emphasize that this doesn’t put a clear equals-sign between Jesus and us. Jesus is like us in every respect, but not in every detail. He was a man, not a woman. But he was like all men and women in that he shared our human nature – he had a gender, just like men and women have gender. He spoke Aramaic, not English or German; but he was like us in that he shared in human culture. Jesus didn’t sin and we often sin; yet he was like us in that he had the freedom to choose obedience, which is precisely what he did… all the time! And so, just to clarify, Jesus was human in every respect, but not in every detail.

Why did God’s Word become flesh? Why become like his brothers and sisters in every respect? Because God’s intention was to provide a perfect high-priest for us: someone who could perfectly bring us before God, and someone who could perfectly show God to us. Another way of saying this is to quote verse seventeen, “so that Jesus might be a merciful and faithful high priest...” The perfect high priest is both merciful and Faithful, both kind and truthful. If Jesus was merciful, but not faithful, he would have been with us, in the deep water, but he wouldn’t have led us to the shore of God’s love. He would have led us to some other shore. On the other hand, if he was faithful, but not merciful, then we would not have been able to follow him to the loving arms of God. We would never be able to hold onto his slippery shoulders if he swam too fast for us, or didn’t patiently wait for us to hold on. Jesus was both merciful, forgiving us our sins, and faithful, leading us into the arms of God and not some other idol.

The great news we hear at Christmas is the news about the Incarnation. In Jesus we meet the one who is fully-human and fully-divine. Since he is fully human, we can grasp onto his shoulders. He’s in the water with us. He has given us teachings to follow. And he modeled a lifestyle of obedience to God that you and I can follow. Because of his humanity, His Way is one that we, as humans, can follow – it’s not impossible for us. We can love our enemies. We can forgive someone who’s wronged us. We can speak the truth. We can cancel someone’s debts to us. These are possibilities because Jesus has given us His Spirit. He doesn’t swim too fast for us. We can hang onto him because he’s in the dug-out with us.

On the other hand, since Jesus is fully-divine, we better hang on to him, because He’s the only One who knows how to find higher ground. Since he is fully divine, he’s the only whose shoulders we want to grab a hold of. He’s the only one in the deep end that knows how to swim. His teachings are truthful because He Himself Is the Truth. Jesus’ humanity makes discipleship possible, and his divinity lends his teachings complete authority.

During Advent and Christmas, we await and proclaim the event of Christ’s coming. This is really good news. But like most of the good news we hear, we want to know more. We’re hungry for a deeper knowledge of God and His kindness to us. Our passage this morning treats us like children with the why question, but in a very good way. For those of us drawn to the love of God, we are like children. We do want more and more about God, about His love for us in Jesus. For God, our ‘why’ questions are enjoyable. He loves inquisitive children. We can ask them all day long and never get to the full bottom of it. Why? Because God’s love for us is infinitely beautiful, unique, and deep.

Our ‘why’ questions will never reach the bottom of God’s mystery and beauty. We can sink deeper and deeper into his loving arms, and grow closer and closer to God’s heart. Why does God do all these great things for us? Why send a perfect high-priest? Why redeem sinful humanity? Why? Because God loves us! Why does God love us? All I can think of is to be thankful that the Lord does love us. This morning, the Word of God draws us into a deeper love for our Savior by knowing why God chose this path: to show family solidarity, and to demonstrate his saving power. This morning I want to encourage you, take time to cultivate a deep hunger for knowing God more and more. Keep asking questions, learn, meditate, study and discuss it with your friends and family. Dig deeper into your relationship with God. Don’t be afraid of sounding like a child with ‘why’ questions… they are a delight to God’s heart.

In our joys and sorrows, in our health and deep brokenness, in our successes and in our failures – know that Jesus has chosen to be our elder brother, sharing our pain and brokenness, and ultimately destroying its power in the resurrection. Jesus is the faithful high-priest, and being like us in every respect he is able to help us all. He is able to usher us into the merciful arms of our Father.

Please join me in closing with the family prayer that our brother and Lord Jesus taught us – the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father…