Theme:
The
incarnation
The interior of
This is how the great master
craftsman designed this colossal window, nearly 8 centuries ago............
the
angels, the gospel writers, and Christ at the centre -
that
unknown master craftsman’s great statement is this:
Christ at the
centre...........
There were many different
Christian communities spread out across the Mediterranean world in the early
days of the Church. Some were Greeks, either in Greece itself or the Greek
cities across the middle east, some were Syrians in Antioch or Damascus, who some
were Nabateans, who built the great and mysterious city of Petra. But the
community the writer to the Hebrews was writing to were
Jews, just like the mother Church back in
There had been a very difficult time of persecution.
And it seems the congregation had been scattered, at least for a time. During
this time, faith had ebbed to an all time low for some. Others had gone back to
worshipping angels, a thing quite common in those days. So, things were
slipping, men and women were losing their way.
What does the writer to the Hebrews write to them ?
What does the writer to the Hebrews do ?
Well, like the master craftsman in
He shows them Christ at the centre,
where their gaze had drifted
off to angels, and their vision was slipping
the master craftsman in
Hebrews
shows them Christ at the
centre,
How
does he do this ?
First,
he lifts their vision to the highest things, to the Eternal Son, the Son of
God......
in the past, he says, God
spoke to our ancestors through the prophets in many different ways and at different times - but in these
last days, he has spoken to us by His Son, says the writer to the Hebrews. He
is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen
to possess all things at the end He reflects the brightness of God’s glory and
is the exact likeness of God’s own being, sustaining the universe with His
powerful word. He is far above the angels.........
Charles
Spurgeon, one of the great preachers of the 19th. century,
used to take regular trips to the Swiss Alps. He once wrote:
‘From far off, in the
The community the writer to
the Hebrews was writing to had been through, real, difficult and hard times,
and yes, things were beginning to slip. The things they were going through, the
shifting cares and worries of each day had become for them the most important
reality. Yet, these things, the writer to the Hebrews declares, are moving and
drifting, not permanent,
above
and beyond these changes and chances are the great mountain heights of God’s
purposes, through His Son - these stand fast, permanent forever.
These are high, heavenly things aren’t they ?
But now the writer brings us and his readers to
this earth itself,
our
own earth, this world. And declares this wonder: that the Son has come among us !
come
close to us !
His
name is Jesus, and this is who Jesus is, He is the Son who has come among us.
He
has lived among us, and so, says the writer to the Hebrews, He knows human
life, this life of ours, through personal experience, He understands our own
lives
As
the woman He
spoke to at a well in
this is a man, who told me everything I ever did.........
Jesus
was able to do so, because as John says: He can see what is in the human heart,
and
because He understood her........
In
Jesus, we have one who understands us......
for
He knows what it is to live human life, He knows what it is to live human life
seeking God, depending on God, trusting God. Later in the letter to the Hebrews
the writer will tell us that throughout His life Jesus offered up prayers and
requests with loud cries and tears to God who could save Him and because He was
humble and devoted God heard Him.
So
Jesus knows what it is to call upon the living God in the midst of life’s hard
places,
He
knows, what it is to wait on God...............
he
knows what it is to walk in darkness, to have no one at the last, but God
Himself,
he
knows what it is to leave everything entirely in God’s hands
and
that is why He understands us,
and
we can trust Him to the utmost
Or,
to put this in other words,
to
put this mystery in other words
God
and man are one in Jesus
the
Son, the Son of God, the Eternal Son in all His power,
has
come among us in Jesus
we
look at Jesus of Nazareth, and we see in Him the glory of the Eternal Son
Let’s think about that for a
moment.
One of the great engineering
challenges of the late 1950s and early 1960s was how to bridge the huge span of
the Firth of Forth at Queensferry, such deep waters, such huge, colossal
currents, such powerful often gale force winds, and such a span would have to
be exceptionally strong to tie the North Fife side to the south Midlothian
shore. To bridge that gulf...........
So,
looking back, we can see that the building of the
Bridging the gap, uniting the two distant shores.
That
is what God has done - He has bridged the gap between heaven and this stricken
earth, in Jesus.........
The
gospels declare to us that earth and heaven are brought together in that stable
in
are
brought together, in Jesus
in
Jesus human life and the life of God
are
brought together in One
and
that is why,
as the master craftsman of
old in Chartres Cathedral shows in his stained glass window,
and as the writer to the
Hebrews declares
Jesus Christ is at the centre,
at the centre of all things