Hebrews - an introduction
Over the next few months, our morning gatherings will be working through the book of Hebrews, and our evening gatherings through the book of Daniel.
Readings for this week April 24 – 28.
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings.
Day 1 – The Book of Hebrews
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Hebrews 1:1
This term we are starting a series based around the New Testament book of Hebrews, a book that is often described as the New Testament’s ‘masterpiece.’ Very heavily focused on the person and role of Jesus Christ, and in particular his role as the mediator between humanity and God, the book is well known for being a deeply theological exploration of the meaning of Jesus. It is a very ‘literary’ work, in that its language is very polished and very precise; it has a very definite argument it wishes to make about Jesus, and it lays it out very thoughtfully and precisely. Though it is not a hastily composed document but a carefully structured text, it is nevertheless still written to address a particular time and place, and a particular people facing persecution.
Yet there is much we don’t know. We don’t know who wrote it. (In many ways the language sounds like Paul, so he was a prime candidate for a while.) We don’t know exactly which community it was written to; some people believe a group of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, but we can’t be sure. And is it even a letter? It is often called “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” as if all doubt was erased, but it reads a bit more like a sermon than an epistle – perhaps it was a sermon adapted and circulated like the early Apostolic epistles were. (For ease, we’ll keep calling it a letter.) But the key purpose seems clear: an exhortation and encouragement to followers of Jesus to persevere in times of struggle and persecution.
Questions to Consider
What do you know of the message of Hebrews? Why might the message – and person – of Jesus need ‘interpretation’?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, speak to me through your word. Open my mind and heart to what you want to say to me and to my community to make us better disciples of your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Acknowledging the Foundation
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 1:67-79
In many ways, we will see that the book of Hebrews is a crash course in reading and understanding the entire sweep of the Hebrew bible, our Old Testament. The book is full of numerous quotations from the Hebrew bible and references numerous stories and figures that Jews would have been particularly familiar with from their scriptures (hence why many believe it to have been to a community of primarily Jewish Christians, who would have been more familiar with this Jewish background). It presupposes knowledge of Israel’s scriptures and history. This is because the book of Hebrews is the most powerful and sustained New Testament attempt to read and interpret the Hebrew scriptures from a particular point of view: that of Jesus as the fulfilment of Jewish hope, the incarnation of God, the promised redeemer and Messiah.
Every text requires interpretation. Every scriptural text also requires interpretation; Hebrews especially is a sustained interpretation of what the Hebrew scriptures and the psalmist and prophets and wisdom writers were pointing to all along. As such, some of the daily readings will, at the appropriate juncture, head back to the ‘text behind the text,’ back to some of the Old Testament passages quoted and referred to in the book of Hebrews, so that we can gain a deeper understanding of what the author is saying, and so that we can see the traces of the ‘New Testament in the Old’, and see the grand sweep of God’s redemptive movement towards us, a movement that culminates in the coming of the incarnate Son.
Question to Consider
Why is the Hebrew bible so important in understanding the full significance of Jesus and of God’s love for us? What is the Hebrew bible for you?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you that you have always spoken, always loved and always reached out to your people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – The Messiah First
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Psalm 2:7
Next week we will dive fully into the text of Hebrews, beginning (surprise, surprise) with chapter 1. And one of the key things we will note very early on is, as mentioned yesterday, the writer’s love of quoting passages from the Hebrew bible in order to undergird his argument and drive home his point about both the grand sweep of God’s plan for his creation and his people, and especially the centrality of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah, in what God has done – and was in fact pointing to all along – and is still doing now. Only five verses into the letter, the writer is already quoting both Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14, verses that speak of the ultimate son of David, the Messiah as God’s own son.
In high school, we’re taught that when writing an essay, state exactly what you are going say right at the start. That’s exactly what the writer of Hebrews does here. Everything – not just this letter – starts with Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah, Israel’s (and the world’s) true king. This fact informs, underlines and accounts for everything that follows from this. Much of the letter will be taken up with a carefully considered argument for this point, with lots of backing from Israel’s scriptures. But the key point is that everything stems from Jesus; therefore, the life of anyone who has committed themselves to the Messiah will be completely reconfigured around this fact – around him. Hence the writer’s insistence on reminding his audience – an audience in the midst of persecution – of the power of Jesus, the importance of Jesus, and the ultimate triumph of Jesus. He is central; he is alive; he reigns.
Question to Consider
What does this tell us about the relation between the Father and the Son?
Prayer
Gracious God, show me new ways in which I need to make Jesus the focus of all I do. Make Jesus more central in my life. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Not Written to Us
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – 2 Peter 3:15-16
One of the things that it is helpful for us to remember is that the Bible is God’s word for us, but not to us. As Peter understands in today’s passage, as important and edifying as scripture is, it can still contain things difficult to understand, things that can be distorted by the ignorant, or by a careless reading – and this is Peter talking about an author he has actually met living in his own time and place! How much more so for us, inhabitants of 21st century New Zealand, not 1st century Middle East. When we read any scripture (like the book of Hebrews), we need to remember that it was not written to us. It was written to a community of followers of Jesus who lived two thousand years ago, in a cultural time and place markedly different from our own. We are not the intended audience. And yet it is still God’s word for us, for his people, today.
Understanding what an ancient text was actually saying to the people it was originally written to is a vitally important task. So is the succeeding task of applying that meaning to our own time and place, our own setting. Transferring meaning that is embedded and transmitted in one particular cultural matrix to another, different cultural setting is a task that must be done carefully – and prayerfully. Much of the book of Hebrews will appear strange to us, steeped as it is in the history of the Hebrew bible and written to a people of a different time and place. But the inspired community of God’s people, empowered together and guided by the Holy Spirit, can be confident in hearing God’s voice through the words we read.
Question to Consider
How do we make sure we hear God’s intended meaning in scripture?
Prayer
Sovereign Lord, help me read not with my own eyes, and not with my own prejudices, but truly, sensitively, ready to face up to the strangeness, discomfort and challenge that your word brings. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – The Covenant
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The writer’s conviction about Jesus thus led to a distinctive reading of the Scriptures. Yet, Hebrews is not an attack on Judaism. The pejorative statements about the resources and supports of those who rely upon the provisions of the first covenant for access to God must be read within the context of the entire sermon of Hebrews. […]
“The readers of Hebrews are warned not to follow the pattern of the faithless wilderness generation. A distinction is made between the speaking of God to “the ancestors” by the prophets and the speaking “to us” by a Son. Because of the anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish potential of Hebrew’s treatment of the spiritual forebears of Christianity, Christians must be careful not to identify Christianity as over and against Judaism. To be sure, the New Testament writings took shape in the context of tensions between Jews and Christians, and Christian writers sought to present the Christian movement as a proper response to contemporary developments such as the destruction of the temple in AD 70. In this presentation there was an implicit and even explicit disapproval of approaches that were not in agreement with the Christian faith… Christians today must be careful (1) to understand what it means to confess Jesus Christ as Lord in terms of thought and practice and (2) to appreciate the thought and practice of those who do not share that confession. A stance of witness and dialogue but not triumphalism is appropriate.”
–Hebrews-James, Edgar McKnight & Christopher Church, pp.21-22.
Questions to Consider
What is the relationship between Judaism and Christianity? What does this mean for our reading of Hebrews?
Prayer
Loving Lord, give me wisdom and compassion to faithfully live out your call to be your transformative people in your world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)