Hebrews 3

Hebrews 3 is interesting because in Hebrews 1, the author seems to be laying out the facts of what God thinks of Jesus. Then in Hebrews 2, the author is laying out the facts of what Jesus has done. In Hebrews 3, the author cuts to the chase of why he is writing to the Hebrews: "Don't miss this chance to follow Jesus and see the promises of God fulfilled."

Before Jesus, the Jews were God's people. They were the circumcised. They were the ones trying to follow God. They were the ones who could be made righteous. To simplify things, "They were on the right side of the line."

But then Jesus is born, lives, heals people, prays, builds community, starts his church, dies, is resurrected, and ascends to heaven -- and now the Jews (who thought they were on standing on one side of a line with God beside them and on the other side are the sinners, pagans, etc.) find themselves on the opposite side of God standing next to the pagans, sinners, etc.

And they probably stood next to each other and were just perplexed.

"Did you eat pork?"

"No. Did you?"

"No. Of course not. Are you circumcised?"

"Yeah. Twice."

It's not like the Hebrews changed anything theologically to end up on the wrong side. It's not like they posted God's job on Monster.com and were reading over resumes from other gods. God just said, "Look, everything since the beginning of time has been building towards the moment of Jesus. You didn't see it, but that's what I was doing. The whole thing was about Jesus. Your faith was a precursor to Jesus. Accept Jesus and join his church or keep living on obsolete software. You're running Windows 97, Jesus is a Mac. Sorry."

Now, I wonder, if at the time Hebrews was written, how many Hebrews liked the idea of Jesus, couldn't find anything wrong with him, but couldn't bring themselves to abandon tradition?

How many Jews were thinking, "I'm Jewish because I've always been Jewish. My parents were Jewish. My grandparents were Jewish. My great, great, great, great, great, great uncle was Moses' cousin Dennis. This is the way we've always done things. It was right. These christians must just be radical left-wing liberals with bad theology. They aren't reading their pentatuach right -- they probably got an NLV or Message translation of the Pentateuch. This Jesus thing is a fad. I'm sticking with what's tried and true."

How many Hebrews are eternally outside of God's rest not because they didn't like Jesus, not because they didn't turn some of the agreeable things he said into bumper stickers, not because they were that committed to Judaism, but are left out of God's rest because they just couldn't abandon tradition?

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After reading Hebrews 3, I got to thinking: What am I refusing to abandon for Jesus?

Maybe I'm refusing to abandon keeping the peace with friends in favor of speaking truth?

Maybe I'm refusing to abandon how I speak to each of you individually (superficially) in favor of speaking to each of you in a way that acknowledges that you each have your own journeys with Jesus that you are on? Am I relating to each of you in a way that addresses your individual needs and my place in your life so that I can help you address sins, temptations, blessings and graces in your unique lives?

Am I refusing to disagree and question how we do church and community in favor seeing how God would use our time together (whether that's 5 minutes or 5 hours) to sharpen us, mold us, and mature us?

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I feel like the whole of our lives is a series of Jesus saying, "This is the way you used to do things, now do it my way."

This is the way your marriage used to work, now do it my way.

This is the way you used to think about this person, now do it my way.

This is the way you used to earn a living, now do it my way.

This is the way you used to spend your money, now do it my way.

This is the way you used to talk about people, now do it my way.

This is the way you used to find your value and worth, now do it my way.