Preaching Hebrews

David Fleer, Dave Bland

• Verlag: Abilene Christian University Press
• Jahr: 2003
• ISBN:
  9780891128793
• Thema: Théologie et religion
• Thema: Religion

The Rochester College Sermon Seminar and the series of books it has inspired have been built on the conviction that Christian preaching today needs revision. Such reforming begins with a close and faithful reading of Scripture, an engagement so serious that the world of Scripture ultimately sets agendas and invents expectations for meaningful life...In this present volume, too, we wish to grant the book of Hebrews the opportunity to pull all of us into the world it envisions, allowing it the power to judge, convict, and form us into a community God desires. This is not an easy task for several reasons, most notably the fact that the world of Hebrews is quite alien from our own...Like previous volumes in the Rochester Lectures on Preaching, the current work is divided into two parts. The first is a collection of four related essays meant to orient the reader to the world clearly conceived in Hebrews. The second half appropriates this orientation with sermons for particular Christian congregations.- Excerpts from David Fleer's Introduction

Part 1:


Essays on Preaching Hebrews

1
Hebrews’ Challenge to Christians:

Christology and Discipleship

Luke Timothy Johnson

The Letter to the Hebrews is one of the few theological masterpieces in the New Testament canon. For depth of perception and strength of argumentation, it finds a match only in Paul; for power of imagination and breadth of vision, only John’s Gospel is its equal. Hebrews may owe its place in the New Testament canon, indeed, to the impressive character of its thought and expression. Lacking the sponsorship of any definite author or location—although it traveled for a time as part of the Pauline corpus—Hebrews was nevertheless quickly and unanimously regarded as an “apostolic” voice. It is thoroughly appropriated by Clement in his letter to the Corinthian church (ca. 95), and is vigorously exploited by patristic interpreters, who found in Hebrews a critical resource especially for thinking through Trinitarian and Christological issues.

Hebrews does not enjoy equivalent favor among contemporary Christians. Some reasons are obvious. Hebrews makes its impact by means of a single sustained argument and does not yield easily divided and digestible portions for edification of readers. Hebrews carries out its argument by means of frequent and lengthy biblical citations and allusions rather than by responding to specific problems among the readers. Readers of today, who can think their way into First Corinthians because the issues in that church resemble those found among all communities, find little in Hebrews with which they can identify. And with the decline in biblical literacy, the full impact—or even the point—of Hebrews’ careful scriptural argument is not easily available. Finally, Hebrews is manifestly alien to the world of contemporary readers, especially in its Platonic world-view, and in its attention to the sacrificial cult. People today don’t have much philosophy generally, but if they have some, it is certainly not a form of Platonism. What Hebrews assumes to be true about reality—that the spiritual is superior to the material, for example—is by no means self-evident to present-day readers. As for the language of sacrifice, a long tradition of anti-sacrificial rhetoric among Christians, sharpened today by perceptions that “self-sacrifice” is bad for women and other oppressed peoples, makes Hebrews’ symbolism of choice less than attractive. This “otherness” is certainly present in other New Testament writings as well. When Paul casually mentions baptizing people for the dead, or the need to veil women’s heads because of the angels, he refers to things and ideas not in the repertoire of present-day readers. But constant reading of Paul, like the constant reinterpretation of the Gospels, tends to soften the material’s alien character, so that contemporary readers can imagine themselves living in the same world. Hebrews is so clearly and defiantly alien that it resists our easy assimilation.

These are the very reasons, in contrast, that make Hebrews a favorite New Testament composition among scholars. Precisely the ways in which Hebrews is different make it fascinating and worth studying. Such scholarship is concerned, however, not with living within the world constructed by Hebrews, but only with understanding the world that produced Hebrews. The letter is interpreted by being explained in terms of the world out of which it emerged. Thus, the Platonism that is so remote from ordinary readers is familiar to the student of antiquity, who can trace the ways in which Hebrews both continues and deviates from the patterns of Greek thought. Christians who simply want to know what Hebrews meant are magnificently assisted by an abundance of genuinely fine scholarship devoted to disentangling such issues. But what of the Christian who asks what the world of Hebrews has to do with Christians today? Is its world one so removed from our own that all we can do is explain it as an interesting artifact from the past? Does Hebrews make any present claim on us as Christians?

The real test case is Hebrews’ understanding of Christ and of Christian discipleship. These are the subjects, after all, to which all Hebrews’ scriptural interpretation, Platonic world-view, use of sacrificial imagery, and rhetorical argument, are dedicated. Is the Jesus of Hebrews also alien? Is its understanding of Christian discipleship removed from our own? These are the issues that should concern us, for no amount of explaining will help, when it comes to the center of our existence and the pattern of our lives as Christians. In this essay, I argue that although the Christology of Hebrews and its understanding of discipleship may seem strange in some ways to contemporary readers, this is as much because of the condition of Christology and discipleship today as it is because of Hebrews. In fact, I propose that one of the most valuable contributions Hebrews can make today is to challenge present-day convictions and practices on these two deeply interrelated topics.

Christology in Hebrews

We can approach the Christology of Hebrews by noting its unusually rich display of titles for Jesus. Some of them are common in the earliest Christian literature. The letter uses the simple name “Jesus” frequently, corresponding to its interest in his humanity (2:9; 3:1; 4:14; 6:20; 7:22; 10:19; 12:24; 13:12, 20). Almost as frequently it uses the title “Christ” (3:6, 14; 5:5; 6:1; 9:11, 14, 24, 28). The combination “Jesus Christ” occurs only three times (10:10; 13:8, 21). Hebrews speaks often of the Son (1:2, 5, 8; 3:6; 5:5, 8; 7:28) as well as “Son of God” (4:14; 6:6; 7:3; 10:29) and “Lord” (1:10; 2:3; 7:14; 13:20). By implication, Hebrews ascribes the designation “Son of Man” to Jesus (2:6; see Psalm 8:4), and its use of Psalm 45:6-7 in 1:8 implies that Jesus is properly designated by the title “God” (theos). Other titles for Jesus are either unique in the New Testament or are rare. Jesus is referred to as “heir” (1:2), “the first-born” (1:6), “the great shepherd of the sheep” (13:20), “the pioneer” (2:10; 12:2), and the “perfector” (12:2). He is the “sanctifier” (2:11), the “apostle” (3:1), and the “builder of God’s house” (3:3). He is the “cause of salvation” (5:9), the “forerunner” (6:20), the “guarantor” (7:22), the “minister” (8:2), and the “mediator” (8:6; 9:15; 12:24). These special titles can be viewed synoptically to reveal the two main emphases of Christology in Hebrews. Jesus is the one who brings salvation from God to humanity (apostle, cause, sanctifier, shepherd, minister, builder, guarantor). He is also a human being who reaches first what all seek (heir, first-born, pioneer, forerunner, perfector). As the one who accomplishes both, he is supremely the mediator.

These two aspects come together in the titles that Hebrews alone ascribes to Jesus, drawn from the language of Jewish sacrificial cult. Hebrews is not alone in picturing Jesus’ death and resurrection in terms of sacrifice. Paul says that “Christ our Pasch (lamb) has been sacrificed” (1 Cor 5:7) and speaks of Jesus’ death in terms of the sprinkling of blood on the mercy-seat on the day of atonement (Rom 3:25). Peter speaks of the precious blood of Christ that is like that of a lamb (1 Pet 1:21). John says that the blood of Jesus cleanses us all from sin (1 John 1:7), and Revelation portrays Jesus as the Lamb who was slain (Rev 5:12). The Synoptic accounts of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, furthermore, speak of the cup as the blood of the covenant poured out for many (Matt 26:27). Hebrews is alone, however, in explicitly designating Jesus as a priest (10:21), high priest (3:1; 4:14; 5:5, 10; 6:20; 7:26; 8:1; 9:11), and a “merciful and faithful High Priest” (2:17). The priestly title is throughout the letter associated with royal imagery, drawn from the combination of terms in Ps 110:1-4. Jesus is priest as the Lord who has taken his seat at the right hand of God. He is priest-king (see 1:3, 8, 13; 2:5, 7, 9; 4:16; 7:1, 2; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2, 28).

This array of titles for Jesus reveals how Hebrews escapes the easy categorizations so often applied to Christology. Here, the contrast between high and low Christology (or “Christology from above” and “Christology from below”) is as inapplicable as that between “early” and “late” or between “simple” and “complex.” Hebrews is possibly among our earliest Christian writings. Yet, as in Paul, we see an astonishingly complex apprehension of the figure of Jesus, one that emphasizes at the same time his divine status and his human work. Indeed, that bifocal perception of Jesus is critical to the argument concerning him and his work that Hebrews seeks to make. I do not suggest that Chalcedon can be read off the pages of Hebrews, but I do suggest that Chalcedon can be found in the pages of Hebrews. As uncomfortable with metaphysics as some of us are these days, it nevertheless makes sense to appreciate the ontological dimensions of Hebrews’ language concerning Jesus.

On one side, then, Hebrews emphasizes that Jesus Christ is divine. The point is made most emphatically by the letter’s opening words. God spoke in partial and multiple ways to the ancestors in the past through the prophets, but now speaks through a Son (1:1-2). The author immediately makes clear in 1:1-3 that “Son of God” here means much more than the sort of metaphor that was routinely applied to the kings of antiquity. This Son is the heir of all things, is the one through whom God created the world, and upholds the universe by his word of power. These three expressions place the Son at the origin of all things with God, sustaining all things, and at the end, receiving all things. Between these “functional” statements, the author applies to the Son two characterizations that echo the Book of Wisdom 7:25-26, and that can only be taken as statements about “being”: “He is the reflection of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s very being.” It is noteworthy that in these opening statements, Hebrews makes no real distinction between the various stages of Christ’s existence. The statements concerning his “being” seem to apply whether we think of his role in creation, or his making purification for sins, or his taking his place at the right hand of the majesty on high (1:1-3).

The stress on the divine character of Christ is scarcely confined to the prologue. Creation is once more directly attributed to him in 1:10 through the citation of Psalm 102:25-27: “Thou, Lord, didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.” The world that he created is also subject to him (2:5-8). That the Son is greater than the angels is the burden of all the citations in 1:5-14; unlike the angels, he is to be worshipped (1:6). And who can be worshipped but God? The title theos is ordinarily reserved for the Father in the New Testament. Every application to Christ either carries an etiolated sense or is disputed (see John 1:1, 18; Rom 9:5; Tit 2:13). But the designation appears to be intended to be taken with full weight in 1:8, where Psalm 45:6-7 is applied to Jesus: “When he brings the first-born into the world, he says, ‘Your throne O God is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.” The fact that the Psalm citation continues, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God your God has anointed you,” (1:9) does not seem to bother the author at all. Indeed, the same tension is found in John 1:18, where the “only begotten God” (according to the best manuscripts) reveals the God “whom no one has ever seen.” Out of such stretching of language to express the mystery of what was experienced in Jesus Christ arose the need for the more precise diction of philosophy that eventually found its permanent home in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

When Hebrews calls Jesus “Son,” therefore, it means this in the fullest possible sense: Jesus is and does what God is and does. It is because he is divine that he can be “cause of eternal salvation” to those who believe in him (5:9), and can come again “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (9:28). Although he was made “for a little while lower than the angels,” he has been crowned with glory and honor (2:9), and “he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (7:25). This last passage continues, “It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens…the word of oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever… we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (7:26-8:1).

Just as emphatically, Hebrews insists on the full humanity of the Son. The one made “lower than the angels” is the “Son of Man” of Psalm 8:4, to whom God subjects the world to come (Heb 2:1-8). The common nature of Jesus and “his brothers” is elaborated in 2:10-18, which rhetorically answers the emphasis on his divinity in chapter one. The one who sanctifies (Christ) and the ones who are sanctified, Hebrews declares, “are all from one,” meaning that they share the same ancestry or origin, and therefore have a common identity (2:10). It is appropriate therefore, to follow Scripture in calling humans his “brothers” and also “his children” (2:12-13), since these children share flesh and blood and “he himself shares in them as well” (2:14). Like all other humans, Christ tastes death (2:14). And like all humans, he belongs to a very specific human lineage: he belongs to the family of Abraham (2:16). He is like his brothers in every respect (kata panta homoiothenai, 2:17), including the experiencing of temptation (or testing, peirazein, 2:18). This last quality is repeated and qualified in 4:15, which says of Jesus that he was “tested as we are yet without sin.” Because Jesus shares so fully in the common condition of humanity, he is able to experience the emotions humans feel with regard to their fellows. He can be a “merciful and faithful” high priest because he has experienced the trials that others have (2:17-18). He can “deal gently with those who are ignorant and erring since he himself is beset by weakness” (5:2).

These human characteristics are all on display in Hebrews’ description of Jesus “in the days of his flesh,” making prayers and petitions to God. He prayed with “loud cries and tears” and he was heard because of his pious submission to God (5:7). I will return to the remainder of this remarkable passage shortly. But for now, we can note the steady emphasis on Jesus’ full humanity. It is not certain that the author of Hebrews had in mind a specific incident of Jesus’ life, although the resemblance to Jesus’ prayer before his death has frequently been noted (see Matt 26:38-46//; John 12:27). Are we to read into this short description the additional nuance that Jesus not only experienced death but also the “terror of death” by which all humans are held captive (2:15)? We cannot be sure. But that Jesus had to approach God in the same way as other humans, that he expressed profound and negative human feelings through “loud cries and tears,” and that he had the human religious disposition of pious submission (eulabeia), all of this is clear enough. Also clear and striking is the allusion to the manner of Jesus’ human death, which was the most shameful imaginable in the Greco-Roman world, crucifixion (6:6). He “suffered outside the gate” and bore “his reviling outside the camp” (13:12-13). But he “despised the shame of the cross” because of the joy that was set before him (12:2).

Hebrews develops its portrayal of Jesus as High Priest precisely on the basis of this gritty and shameful human experience. Unlike other priests, as we have seen, Jesus is God’s own Son. But like other priests, he is “taken from among humans for the sake of humans” (5:1). In its dramatic appropriation (and adaptation) of LXX Psalm 39:7-9 in 10:5-8, Hebrews makes clear that it is Christ’s body and will that are the instruments of his priestly activity. The Psalm is made to say, “sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body (soma) you have prepared for me,” which replaces the “ears” (ota) of the Septuagint passage being quoted. The citation from the Psalm concludes with “See I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written concerning me) to do your will, O God” (10:7). This willingness of Jesus to do God’s will is singled out by Hebrews as the effective replacement of the sacrifices of old that God no longer seeks (10:9), and it concludes, “it is by that will that we have been sanctified by the offering once for all of the body of Jesus Christ” (10:10). Jesus has entered into the true holy place, which is the presence of the eternal God, with his own blood (9:12-14), which he offered for the sins of many (9:28). His flesh is the curtain through which he has entered into God’s presence, thereby opening up a “new and more perfect way” of access to God for other humans (10:19). He is therefore the forerunner (6:20), the pioneer who goes ahead of others (12:2). And he is so because he is the one who is the finisher or perfector of faith (12:2). This last aspect of Jesus’ humanity draws us into the deepest dimension of the Christology of Hebrews, and the dimension most difficult to explore, which is the role of Christ’s suffering.

This theme is announced in 2:10, “It was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” There are four discrete aspects of the statement worth isolating. First, we notice how Jesus is to be first among others. He is the pioneer among “many sons” whom God is bringing to glory. We can infer, then, that what happens to him is available also to his brothers. Second, Jesus as human undergoes a process of perfection. It is when he has “been made perfect” (teleiotheis, 5:9) that he can be a cause of salvation to those who obey him.

The cognates of teleioun (“to bring to perfection”) run throughout Hebrews. The term has obvious religious and moral associations in antiquity. One who is teleios has finished a course of initiations, is more mature, is further along, is better, than one who is not. The notions of comparison and of progress are ingredients to such language. Thus, the tent in which Jesus offers himself is “more perfect” than that in the wilderness (9:11), and the Levitical priesthood could not bring “perfection” to worshippers (7:11; 9:9; 10:1), just as the Law could “perfect” no one (7:19). In contrast, the sacrifice of Jesus has brought to perfection those it sanctifies forever (10:14). Those who had faith in earlier generations were not perfected apart from the present generation (11:40), but the readers of Hebrews approach the place where reside the spirits of the righteous who have been brought to perfection (12:23). These readers must turn from milk to the solid food that is appropriate to the perfect (mature, 5:14) and the author’s discourse will lead them toward such considerations of perfection (6:1).

Third, we see that suffering is the means by which Jesus reaches the perfection that enables him to save his brethren (2:10). Finally, Hebrews declares as appropriate this path toward perfection which Jesus has pioneered and which others are to follow (“it is fitting,” 2:10). In order to understand this appropriateness, we must consider first what Hebrews might mean by “suffering,” and then how it can play a role in moral transformation.

Hebrews itself points the way to this consideration by the second passage in which “perfection” and “suffering” occur together. We have already looked at 5:7-9 as a passage in which the humanity of Jesus was expressed with particular vividness. But we did not observe the key clause in 5:8-9: “although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered, and having been perfected, he became the cause of salvation to all those who obey him.” What is suffering? And what suffering is being referre...