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| Strength for the Journey #2 Fascinated by Angels? |
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Fascinated by Angels?
Reading: Hebrews 1:5-2:18
Introduction: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (Hebrews 1:1-4).
Last week we talked about all that we don’t know about the author of Hebrews and his audience. We don’t know who wrote this sermon. We don’t know who his audience is. We don’t know exactly what circumstances produced this sermon. We do know that the author knows Scripture very well, and that he believes Scripture is the living word of God. We know that he perceives in his audience a tendency to lose sight of what God has done in Christ to bring about their salvation Social pressures, sometimes to the point of persecution and suffering, have them confused. Some already have lost faith, or at least lost interest in the community of faith. Others don’t seem to remember why this salvation of theirs is that important. It is not that these people do not have spiritual interests. Apparently they have quite an interest in life outside the human realm. The author doesn’t question their belief in angels, for example. He embraces that belief, and that connection is his starting point. After his attention grabbing opening sentence, he strings a series of quotations from Scripture designed to make a point about the superiority of the Son to angels.
As I read through this text this week, I realized how foreign this opening chapter is to my own world. Yes, I know we now live in a time in which our culture in general has taken a great interest in angels. You can buy them anytime of the year, now, not just at Christmas. I know about all of the television shows spawned by “Touched by An Angel.” While I’ve enjoyed a variety of movie portrayals of angels through the years, those portrayals made them more unreal than real. Angels, as one recent commentator put it, “have always lain at the edge of Christian faith, and not at its center” (Craddock, “The Interpreter’s Bible,” 1998. p. 31). What I know about angels can be summed up in less than a paragraph. Angels are messengers from God, occasionally sent by God for the protection of his creation. Some are described as guardians or protectors of us humans. But if they show up at your door, watch out! If it’s Gabriel, you don’t want to hear what he has to say. If it’s Michael, hell is breaking loose and the war already has begun.
But as I said, our author and his audience take angels very seriously. They understand that God’s heavenly messengers have been sent in the past for the protection of humans. They understand that in the past God even delivered his Law through angels. They understand that in the scheme of created order, there is God, then angels, then humans. Near the end of his appeal, the author reminds his audience to show hospitality to strangers, for in so doing some have entertained angels with out knowing it (13:2). Our author believes that humans need to pay attention to the superior beings in creation, and angels are, by nature, closer to God than we are. He also believes his audience may be too interested in those intermediaries. More importantly he believes that in these last days, God has broken through that creation order. God has made himself, for a little while, lower than the angels. God has provided for humans in a new way that angels could not. He has provided a new protection that angels cannot provide. So he begins by affirming the wonder of God’s messengers in order to affirm an even greater truth about God’s latest activity in the Son. Notice as we read through this section the way in which he understands Scripture as present tense, as a current word from God.
“For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’? Or again, ‘I will be his Father, and he will be my Son’? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’ Of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire.’ But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.’ And, ‘In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like clothing; like a cloak you will roll them up, and like clothing they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end.’ But to which of the angels has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (1:5-14)
In the space of 9 verses by our count, the writer quotes nine different Old Testament texts, six of which come from the Psalms. It is God who speaks, not the individual Psalmist. And there is a single theme that is voiced: It is more valuable to pay attention to what God has done in these last days through a son than to get too carried away with an interest in angels. Not that angels are bad—they are part of God’s heavenly entourage. They are indeed messengers sent forth to serve. But the Son is served by the angels. In fact the Son is seen to be part of God himself in verses 8 and 9, participating in the creation of earth and heavens. In verses 11 and 12, the Son remains the same when all else in creation changes.
“Therefore,” chapter two begins, “We must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will” (2:1-4).
Our author—I keep saying that—he really is a preacher. The preacher looks back with his audience on the days in which this great salvation was proclaimed first through the Lord himself, then through those who heard him. They can remember the days of signs and wonders and gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will. All of those signs announced a salvation that has come and is yet to come. There is a not-yet side to this salvation that the preacher holds out in front of his audience. It is the “world to come,” he says in verse 5. More is at stake than protection from angels in this life. More is at stake than the present age. So he continues in the next section by telling the rest of the story about God the son, the first-born of all creation who himself was involved in the creation of all else in the universe. Being superior to angels, “for a little while” he took on the status of us humans.
“Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, ‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them. You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.’ Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (2:5-9).
It is this last point (in verse nine) that for our preacher is the ultimate news of salvation. God has acted in the son to become human and then be crowned once more with glory and honor “because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” As he goes on to explain, the salvation that has come means ultimate victory over the great enemy of human existence, death itself. Angels can bring messages from God to humans, they can fight heavenly battles for humans, they can protect human life from death at times, but they can’t overcome death. That is what God has now accomplished by becoming human with us. He is the pioneer, the champion of our salvation, the preacher says, and he was made perfect through suffering. He became just the right fit for our need, the writer says by sharing in our flesh and blood. He became like us “in every respect” so that he might become the ultimate intermediary between us and God, able to make us holy when we are not, able to help us times of trial. Listen to this last section of chapter two from Eugene Peterson’s translation in the Message:
“Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death. It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It is for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed” (2:14-18).
“Therefore, we must pay attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” The author of Hebrews probably would not know what to think about life in Nashville, TN in the 2002. He would not know what to think about our infatuation with football, or major league baseball. No doubt he would be amazed at the various means of transportation available to us. Doubtless he would be amazed by the creature comforts that seem to be givens in our time: light and heat and air conditioning and water heated or chilled to our liking. He probably would be amazed at how neatly we have compartmentalized our lives in to secular and sacred, my time and God’s time, my stuff and God’s stuff. He would know about cosmetic efforts to fix our appearance, but probably be surprised at the ingenuity and economic status of our efforts to maintain appearance and youthfulness. He would doubtless be amazed at the technology and skill and medical understanding that makes it possible to push back sickness and death and dying, to beat disease, to hold onto human existence like we do. But after taking all of that in, would he not look at us all and say, “Yes, but there is still death itself; still that which is more inevitable than taxes.” He would still remind us that as no matter what comfort we might find in our belief in angels sent from God to comfort and protect us, angels cannot conquer the ultimate enemy of human existence. Only the Son has done that. Only the Son has championed our cause and led the way through human existence and suffering death. Only the Son has returned to glory and promised to bring us to glory with him. Only the Son knows what it is like, in every respect, to be human and therefore come to our aid in every circumstance.
“Therefore we must pay closer attention lest we drift away from so great a salvation.” How distracted have we become?
Delivered at Woodmont Hills, September 1, 2002.
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