Hebrews 1 and 2: Understanding the Supremacy of Christ is Pivotal to Holding Firm to Faith

I'm doing a Jen Wilkin study of Hebrews, and wanted to flesh out some thoughts it inspired. This is long because I process through writing, but perhaps you'll be as encouraged by it as I was.

Week One was over chapters 1 and 2. When I first read them, the author seemed all over the place. But through careful study, and help from Jen, some patterns emerged. 

He begins with the question: Who is Jesus Christ? Then he chooses one facet of Jesus to focus on in response to a problem prevalent in the early church of worshiping angels. He spends most of the rest of chapter one explaining why Jesus is better than the angels. And then, in light of the facts about who Jesus is and why he's better than these mysterious beings people are so drawn to, the author gives a warning: Do not drift away. Remember these things that are true about Jesus and hold firm. The fact that he gives this warning during this portion of the book makes me think that understanding the supremacy of Christ is pivotal to holding firm to faith.

And this is where my mind took off . . . 

As a Christian mom, hoping to raise Christian kids who won't abandon their faith like so many of their predecessors have, I'm constantly looking for that secret formula that will guarantee their faith sticks. Is it Christian school? Catechism? Dinnertime devotions? Obviously, I know there's no secret formula, and I cannot be my children's Holy Spirit. Ultimately they will have to make their faith their own. But part of my responsibility as their parent is to shepherd them wisely, giving them every opportunity to recognize that faith in Jesus Christ is worth it - despite what the world will tell them. And isn't that what the author of Hebrews was trying to do as well? 

His audience was first century Jewish Christians. Scholars agree that the book of Hebrews was written merely 30ish years after Jesus died. So these are probably first or second generation Christians. As Jen Wilkin says, "there weren't any mature Christians at this time." And they were hated on all sides. Their Jewish families and communities cut them off, and the Roman government considered them dangerous radicals. They had to be feeling the pressure to go back to what was comfortable, or to abandon their faith in favor of comfort and ease. Which is exactly what my kids will face in 21st century America. Hopefully, my kids won't encounter the physical persecution that first century Christians did, but they will be considered radicals, bigots, closed-minded, and unenlightened. Jesus will call them to die to themselves while all of their unbelieving friends will get to "follow their hearts" and pursue pleasure at any cost. How do you shore them up to handle that kind of disdain and self-sacrifice? How did the author of Hebrews? By showing them that Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer.

The author of Hebrews did that by creating a logical argument that Jesus is better than the Old Testament covenant these new believers likely grew up with. But that's not the battle my kids will face. How can I make real to them the supremacy of Jesus in the 21st century?

I have a friend who grew up a Christian, but sowed her wild oats for a while. She got caught up in the intellectual elite and tiptoed around deconstruction (before it was labeled as such). The Holy Spirit eventually drew her back to church, and now she says one of my favorite lines about her experience: Everyone is so concerned with how the church has hurt them. But I've been hurt by the world. There's this idea in the ex-vangelical movement that the church is dangerous and hurtful. Almost 100% of the time that people believe that, they slide down the slope of eventually believing that Jesus is either fake or a villain. But there's very little attention drawn to the way that the world - for all of its manufactured benevolence - doesn't really care about you . . . especially if you start to disagree with the mainstream line of thinking. So, while I think it's important that my kids don't worship angels, I'd warn them even more strongly in today's culture to remember that Jesus is better than secular humanism.

The problem is that realistically, Jesus is better in the long run. That's not to say that faith doesn't have benefits in the here and now. But faith in him does not always bring immediate satisfaction. That's hard for me as a millennial. It's going to be even harder for the next generations who are growing up with Amazon next day shipping, streaming platforms that enable binge-watching, Google in their pocket to answer every question, and ChatGPT to think for them.  

Perhaps the most famous passage in Hebrews is chapter 11, often called the Hall of Faith. Faith is an enduring theme throughout the book. And what is faith? "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." (Heb. 11:1) Faith is about waiting, about trusting even when you don't get what you want immediately. About persevering even when it's hard.

It is essential, then, that we build on these two Hebraic doctrines as we seek to disciple the next generations:

1. Jesus is better than anything the world has to offer.

2. It won't always feel like it in the moment. 

From chapter one of Hebrews alone, we learn this about Jesus:

• He is greater than all of the prophets 
• He is the heir of all things - everything will one day belong to him (and spoiler alert: we are co-heirs with Christ and will share in that inheritance!) 
• You can have pleasure now in a world broken by sin, or you can have pleasure forevermore in the presence of Jesus Christ and a world that is free from brokenness
• At the creation of the world, all things came through him - he created everything. Do you want a friendship with someone who has that kind of power?!
• He is the exact representation of the glory and nature of God - if you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus
• He upholds the universe. Not only did he create the universe (making him self-existent: uncreated), he sustains it (making him self-sufficient: he doesn't need anything). As Hebrews 2 explains, we are living in the tension of the "already and not yet." Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father - in a position of authority and majesty. He is upholding the universe, and all things are subject to him. But he is biding his time before that subjugation is complete. And when it is, we will want to be on his side - not numbered as one of the enemies under his feet.

On the heels of the author's admonition not to drift away is a reminder that this Jesus, who is supreme over even the heavenly beings, wants to make us his family! He calls us brothers and sisters, children of God. He gave up all that was his in heaven, to be subject to his own creation. Why? Because he loves us that much. In fact he loves us too much to always give us what we want when we want it (as we'll see later in Hebrews). 

He is better than the fickle world and its "people who plot in vain." Trust him. Have faith in his long term plan. He is worth it.