Like Us
The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of the Lord – 2/2/2025
Hebrews 2:14-18
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our Epistle lesson from the Epistle to the Hebrews in the second chapter with special emphasis on verses seventeen and eighteen which read as follows:
“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”[1]
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
One of the more difficult things for us human beings to contemplate is that our God, specifically the Son, is a man named Jesus Christ. This is hard thing for us to understand for a few reasons. There is the simple fact that fitting God into a man is a difficult proposition. After all, how does any human being have the capacity to contain the Almighty God? Besides this, there is an assumption that this material world is too base, dirty, unclean, even gross for the pure and holy God. After all, sin and death lurk here, and God wants nothing to do with these things.
While you Christians have heard this truth, that God has become a man, often enough to have become habituated to it, this proposition often shocks, confuses, and upsets those who are outside of the Christian faith. More to the point, there is something of an instinctual revulsion, a deep-seated nervousness around this idea.
Why is this the case? Why do we human beings have this strong dislike of the idea that God would become a man? Besides the intellectual difficulty, the greatest reason is simple: we are sinners. More to the point, we sinners do not want God to be close to us, to know us, to be a part of our present world. If God is close to us, we assume, then He will see us fully as we are. He will know our sin, our shortcomings, our lack of faith. In brief, the idea of God being that close to us rightly freaks us out a little. And it should, Scripture makes the point again and again that God does not like sin, false religion, faithlessness, or anything like these. And these, of course, unfortunately, characterize the condition of our life in this sinful world.
So what then should we say about these things? Concerning the first discomfort, that God cannot become a man due to the limitations of us human beings, we must remember that God is, indeed, the Almighty. That is to say, He alone possesses all power and authority and, as such, there is nothing that is beyond Him or His ability.[2] Or, as St. Paul puts it in Colossians 2:9, “ For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”[3] That is to say, even though it is beyond our mortal minds and our feeble attempts to understand it, the great mystery of God becoming man is true. Jesus is God and fully so. He is not some partial God nor is He some simple vessel for God’s finger. No, this is the central truth of our Christian religion: Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, is God Himself, the God who became man.
Which brings us to the second objection to the doctrine of the incarnation: we should not fear God being man. Instead, we should rejoice! The Scriptures bear witness that Christ, our God, is a man not to condemn or terrify with wrath deserved under the Law, but to be merciful to us and save us in His grace. Jesus makes this point plainly as Hs is recorded speaking in John 3:16-17 makes this point plainly: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”[4] St. Paul also testifies to this in 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”[5]
Our readings today also bear witness to this central truth, that God became a man to save and heal us and all the nations, not to condemn us or bring wrath upon us. We are sinners, yes, and we deserve nothing good for our sin. But despite this, God has delivered Himself to us, to take on our sins and to earn for us salvation. Our reading from Hebrews goes on to note that Jesus, having been made a man, like us human beings in every respect enables Him to be a merciful and perfect High Priest in the eternal Temple of heaven. That is to say, Jesus fully and completely is a human being, He is not half a man or lacking in anything proper to our human nature. Though we must confess, with the Scriptures, that Jesus is perfect and sinless, this does not make Him something other than human.[6]
As an aside, one of the great errors of theology is to equate humanity and human nature with sin. Yes, we must confess that sin is our state and that all human beings are sinners, but we must also confess that God did not make human nature to be sin and that it is not sin in itself. Sin is a corruption or ruining of the human nature that God made, not an essential part of what it is to be human. Jesus is a human man and not a sinner. You will be sinless in heaven and the resurrection to come and yet will remain human. And while this state of perfection is foreign to us presently, it is the end state of us a redeemed humanity, united to Christ, who are recipients of His forgiveness and salvation.
So this Jesus, perfect though He is, is also to sympathize with us. He has tasted sin, both by taking sin on Himself to put it to death on the cross, but also during His time in Galilee, having seen the damage of sin firsthand in His own life and the people around Him. This is all to say that Jesus knows what it means to suffer under sin. He knows your pain, your suffering, your hardship. And now, enthroned in heaven, He ministers at the great, perfect, and everlasting Temple in paradise on your behalf, constantly offering the perfect sacrifice of His own self to constantly immerse us in the fruit of His sacrificial death, that is, to give us forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and eternal salvation. He makes propitiation, that is, offers the sacrifice of Himself as our atonement, which pleases God the Father and removes the penalty and guilt of our sins. This is the central thing of the service and ministry of Christ: to not only earn for us forgiveness and all that goes with that, but to constantly intercede for us, for our benefit, for our salvation.
Besides all this, He knows the allure of temptation, having been tempted Himself by the Devil in the wilderness.[7] And, as one having been tempted, though without sin, He is able to help us when we cry out to Him in the midst of our temptation.
To put all of this together, we should not fear the incarnate Lord. He did not become a man, uniting Himself to our race, that is, humanity, in order to condemn and destroy us. Instead, He, who is really and truly God, became a man to suffer and die, and thereby earn for us life and salvation.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Hebrews 2:14-18 English Standard Version (ESV). All Scripture quotations are ESV unless otherwise indicated.
[2] Jeremiah 32:17
[3] Colossians 2:9
[4] John 3:16-17
[5] 1 Timothy 1:15
[6] 1 Peter 2:22, 2 Corinthians 5:21
[7] Matthew 4:1ff
Comments