by Russell Rathbun
Epistle Reading: Hebrews 2:10-18
For Sunday, December 29, 2013—Year A: Christmas 1
Going head-to-head with la sacra famiglia escaping to Egypt at the behest of an angel? This intense shot of systematic theology doesn’t stand a chance of making it center stage in many sermons for the first Sunday of Christmas. Personally, I can’t imagine preaching on it ever if I had another choice.
OK, Here Goes…
While there are a few good catch phrases here, like the pioneer of our salvation and freeing all those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.
I was attracted to the first one for it’s campy quality, I was going see if I could use “Pioneer Jesus” in the prayers of the community and see how many people I could get to laugh—then I thought, maybe that is not the best place for trying out new material.
The second one grabbed me because I really want to be freed from being held in slavery by the fear of death, but something about the argument behind the freeing doesn’t work for me.
In Good Company
The book of Hebrews has a number of arguments that don’t quite work for me, but it is not just me, Hebrews was one of Luther’s four antilegomena, along with James, Jude and Revelation, but I am not going to advocate messing with the canon. It has been around a long time, but on the other hand I don’t feel obligated to give James or Hebrews equal time with Romans or one of the Corinthians. I could preach on Revelation for a couple of months of Sundays, though.
Where is the Grace?
I don’t know if it is the pioneer of our salvation line that got me thinking of Sunday School or simplistic apologetics, but I have never really been moved by the argument that Jesus can only save us, because Jesus was exactly like us—Jesus was tempted in every way we could ever be tempted—but unlike us, he resisted. His purity enables him to purify us?
Where is the grace in that? Sure, we are not saved by our good works, but Jesus’ best behavior saves us.
The Hardest Question
The point is always stressed that, Jesus didn’t pretend he was suffering, he really, really was in pain, Jesus was really, actually tempted. Why is that important? Does a doctor need to have had cancer to cure it?
Or better yet—Does a pioneer need to have been lost to show other the way?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question. Russell's picking up where The Hardest Question is about to leave off with all the zesty, gospely, goodness he's known for at www.questionthetext.org
