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A Study in Hebrews New Covenant Text: Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:27-34 ● “After 9-11” or “post- 9-11” : It’s amazing how often we hear that used as a point of reference; a specific spot on a continuum of time (i.e. airport security, access in D.C., travel, etc.) In a sense, it has become for our culture a ‘defining moment’. Defining moments are relatively rare and often come in the context of the ordinary. It’s also interesting to note how dramatic those changes seemed initially and how they are somewhat ‘woven’ into our routines (i.e. no one would have imagined that nail-clippers and hand lotions could be ‘weapons of violence’). Defining moments interrupt what we would call the ‘normal course’ of life; they challenge our current position and often call into question the paradigms (way of seeing, understanding our world) we have established. They make us aware that what’s real may not always be what’s visible; what’s present to the eye. The moments make us aware that something has changed; that there has been a dramatic shift. ● Defining moments have a way of ‘placing’ us; locating us in the context of history. ‘Place’ makes us aware of where we are and with whom we share that place. ‘Place’ is the context of the Kingdom (“your will be done on earth…”) ● They make us stop and ask, “What’s real? What can I count on?” Sometimes it’s good to ask those questions, but we realize that paradigms are not easily relinquished. [nothing short of this is what’s required of us in order to follow Jesus; radical ‘re-thinking’ and ‘re-ordering of life’]. Paradigms are not just ‘adopted’, they are ‘formed’. ● As we attempt to formulate the answers to such questions, we begin to realize that often what appears to be real is only a ‘shadow’ of a reality- not the thing itself. [shadows make us aware of a reality, but they are not to be understood as the reality itself]. Actually, shadows ‘distort’ the reality itself. ● The author of Hebrews seems to be attempting to guide his readers through such a dramatic moment; a defining moment. In fact, so disruptive this moment that he would even reference this movement as a ‘shaking’- not for the purpose of instability, but of proving/testing the validity of our foundation (‘… so that what cannot be shaken will remain.’ 12:27). ● Imagine, as a Jew, functioning your entire life under a system such as outlined in Leviticus: laws that governed how, when and who was to approach God; perpetual sacrifices and prescriptions for life with God and each other, to have someone now suggest that you were ‘living in the shadows’. I certainly can’t get in their minds, but I would assume that although the Law was celebrated as ‘good’ and as a means of helping to establish them as the unique people of God, it had to continue to make (2) things glaringly clear: 1) God is holy, 2) you’re not. ● I remember looking through old photo albums and attempting to determine your connectedness with those in the photographs. The pictures themselves are fuzzy and unclear; they were obviously taken some time ago. I remember thinking that the people in the pictures are obviously from another time; they looked weird and dressed funny. It’s just hard to grasp the association. Someone had to explain to me who they were, why they were doing what they were doing and why that should matter to me. Sometimes it’s like that as we read the story of the Israelites. But, you can’t be ‘relevant’ without ‘historical context’. ● At the very center of the Jewish story is the conviction that the one true God- YHWH, had created the entire world but had invited Abram and his family to belong to him in a special way: through ‘covenant’ (that through Abram God was going to address the failure of Adam). The covenant would create hope concerning the nature of God and his dealings with his creation: that he would be faithful to his promises, made historically to Abraham, but anticipated throughout the generations. ● The arrangements for this relationship were outlined in a special type of agreement that a king would make with a people who were now going to be subject to him (Lord-Vassal Treaty), or sometimes, that agreement would be likened to the marriage bond between a husband and a wife. This special agreement was regularly referred to as a ‘covenant’ or ‘testament’ and even sometimes as a ‘will’. These ancient covenants were typically inaugurated with blood (sacrifice) to demonstrate the weightiness/gravity of the commitment. ● His readers would have been familiar with animal sacrifices as a common element of worship. ~ Sacrifice always seemed to involve the sense that humans were offering something of value to God, not just to appease him or coerce him to respond (as others with their deities), but out of gratitude for his loving-commitment to them [although admittedly, after a time, the lines might blur a bit; it might start to feel that way]. ~ In the sacrifice, there was also the sense of substitution/identification; that somehow what was happening in the process to this seemingly innocent animal was a dramatic portrayal of their our own sin and guilt, but also of the hope of forgiveness because of a life being offered in-place-of theirs. ~ Finally, there was a sense that because of the sacrifice, you were somehow forgiven; you were no longer identified by your sin (it would not be held against you). At the heart of the sacrificial system was the reality of the self-giving love of God. It wasn’t just something they did for God, but a picture of something God would do for them. ● The word ‘better’ occurs more times in Hebrews than in the rest of the NT combined. It tells us how the writer is thinking: he is not contrasting something ‘good’ with something ‘bad’, but something ‘good’ with something ‘better’. He’s not saying that the old covenant ‘sounded like a good idea at first’, but he didn’t see this coming! ►Out of our desire for the ‘something better’ also came the realization that it was not to be found within us. Hebrews 8:7, 13 “If the first covenant had been faultless,… there wouldn’t have been any reason to look for a second one. When it speaks of a new covenant, it puts the first one out of date. And when something is out of date, and growing old, it is about to disappear.” ● Here are the issues with the Law: - the people couldn’t keep it (they knew it and God knew it); even though they promised to adhere to everything God had commanded through Moses, they were unfaithful to the covenant. ►It’s hard to keep the law when you’re trying to keep the law. Christian living never begins with ‘a set of rules’, although it includes them as a way to order my life which prioritizes my relationship with God. To actually succeed in keeping the law, we must be aiming at something higher: becoming the kind of people from whom the right kind of behavior naturally flows. The Law could not sufficiently motivate them to obedience; it made them aware of the expectations, but couldn’t lift a finger to help. But, when I’m motivated by ‘love’, I find that my actions actually fulfill the purposes of the rules; the rules are always measured not in terms of ‘conformity’, but by how they contribute to the health of the relationship. I’m not conscious of the rules but of the relationship. ►Our hearts are ‘un-rulely’. We don’t respond well to rules. We naturally (by nature) resist rules because no matter how often they are offered as ‘for our good’, they appear restrictive; like there’s something out there for us to experience that is being held from us. Laws are good because they define appropriate and safe behavior, but they cannot inspire it; they can outline consequences for disobedience (curse), but they cannot ensure our observance. ● In fact, laws don’t prevent wrong behavior, they almost seem to ‘arouse’ it (i.e. ‘do not touch’, ‘no exit’, ‘wet paint’, etc.) Just as animals have an absolute genius for and propensity toward finding holes in the fence, we have a tendency to find the loopholes which are meant to serve and protect us. ● Laws are ‘signposts’ (i.e. traffic laws: ways of conducting ourselves ‘together’ which allow us to enjoy the freedoms of travel, yet experience the safety and guidance offered by the laws.
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The whole letter is being
written in order to announce that the something better has now arrived in Jesus;
a ‘dramatic shift’, out of which God’s new world had arrived! |
