Friday, January 24<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 10:32-39: In a sense this section of Hebrews is a synopsis of the whole, or at least a summary of its thesis. That is to say, it is an exhortation to patience.<\/p>\n
An initial motive for patience, says our author, is the active recollection of those things endured immediately after conversion and baptism (verse 32). This is not simply a remembrance, but an intentional recollection: anamimneskesthe<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In those earlier days, he goes on, his readers experienced an \u00e1thlesis<\/i>. This noun, obviously the root of the English \u201cathletics,\u201d is perhaps best translated as \u201cstruggle.\u201d The present text is the only place where this word appears in the New Testament, though St. Paul uses similar metaphors drawn from sporting competition. Athlesis<\/i> suggests that the Christian life carries within itself the character of contention, in the sense that either victory or defeat is still possible.<\/p>\n
That struggle, says Hebrews, came in the aftermath of baptism: photisthentes<\/i>—\u201cyou were enlightened<\/i>.\u201d We recall the same metaphor for baptism was used in 6:4.<\/p>\n
It is important to recognize the relationship between baptism and struggle, such as we see here. Indeed, the three accounts of our Lord\u2019s contention with the demon all come right after the story of His baptism.<\/p>\n
In what was were these Christians tried after their baptism? They \u201cwere made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations,\u201d and they joined themselves to those \u201cwho were so treated\u201d (verse 33). They suffered both psychologically and financially (verse 34), and they endured each thing in view of the greater treasure awaiting them in heaven.<\/p>\n
The remembrance of these things—the active recollection of the many sufferings they had already endured—would strengthen the readers to brace themselves for whatever lay ahead. The message is clear: \u201cDon\u2019t give up now<\/i>! Don\u2019t waste the great investment already made.\u201d<\/p>\n
This passage is concerned with what I have called an \u201caftermath,\u201d a term that literally means \u201cwhat is learned (mathein<\/i>) afterwards.\u201d This word testifies that education is existential. In the present context it refers to the period after<\/i> baptism. One does not learn to be a Christian until one has already become a Christian. The real study of the Christian life is post-baptismal. The life in Christ does not commence until a person is in<\/i> Christ. Baptism is called \u201cillumination,\u201d because it is the introductory step. Only then can there be an \u201cafter<\/i>math.<\/p>\n
And this, says our author, is learned through patience, which is an exercise of faith. It is at this point that he quotes that famous line from Habakkuk, so dear to Paul: \u201cThe just shall live by faith\u201d (verse 38; Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11). This prophetic citation about faith lays the basis for the long account of the heroes of faith in the following chapter.<\/p>\n
Saturday, January 25<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 11:1-7: Prior to the calling of Abraham, God provided the human race with certain introductory instruction through the deep perceptions of three patriarchs: Abel, Enoch, and Noah. In what Holy Scripture says of these men, we discern the initial steps of human education.<\/p>\n
First, Abel examined the structure of the world around him and reached the conclusion \u201cthat things which are seen were not made by things which do appear.\u201d The \u201cthing-ness\u201d of the world, that is to say, was not self-explanatory. The world was not its own cause. On the contrary, it gave \u201cevidence of things not seen.\u201d Abel\u2019s probing mind, gazing at this visible world, became aware of certain invisible truths.<\/p>\n
Chief among these, I suppose, were the simplest rational principles (such as causality and non-contradiction) and the basic axioms and elementary theorems of the mathematical order. These interests emerged from the intellect\u2019s encounter with empirical data. Abel\u2019s mind perceived in matter an explanatory reference, and this perception laid the foundation for logical analysis and, in due course, metaphysics.<\/p>\n
In the first generation that followed man\u2019s alienation from God, then, Abel took the first human step back in the direction of Eden. In the world of things seen, he perceived God\u2019s most basic self-testimony. This spiritual perception was an act of faith, in which Abel understood that \u201cthe worlds were framed by the word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abel\u2019s thought was followed by that of Enoch, who discerned the moral structure of existence. It was clear to Enoch, not only that God is, but also that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.\u201d To the deductions of mathematics, therefore, and the insights of metaphysics, Enoch added the requirements of the moral order. He perceived that whatever separated true from false also separated good from evil.<\/p>\n
In the transition from Abel to Enoch we trace the noetic step from \u201cthe invisible things clearly seen\u201d to \u201cthe law written in the heart\u201d\u2014man\u2019s conscience bearing witness to his responsibility. Just as Abel discerned the human mind as the locus where the universe learned the truth about itself, Enoch perceived in the human conscience the classroom where the universe was instructed about right and wrong.<\/p>\n
Living longer than Abel and Enoch, Noah carried their teachings to his consideration of culture and human affairs. If Abel was a metaphysician and Enoch a moralist, Noah was a prophet.<\/p>\n
Tutored by the patriarchal tradition, which affirmed that God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, the logical and observant Noah became certain that \u201cthe wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.\u201d Metaphysics and the moral order drove his mind to the necessity of the retributive eschata<\/i>. Evil was unnatural; it could not go on indefinitely. Driven by the fear such a perception engendered in his soul, Noah got busy and \u201cprepared an ark to the saving of his house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, in the three major patriarchs who followed the Fall, the human mind was enabled to grasp the true structure and significance of the world, to lay hold on the moral foundations of reality, and to act on a correct understanding of human events.<\/p>\n
Sunday, January 26<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 11:8-16: A characteristic of all the godly Old Testament figures is that they \u201cdied in faith.\u201d In the argument advanced in this chapter, dying in faith has a particular and contextual meaning: those ancients died without having seen the fulfillment of God\u2019s promises. Thus, Abraham and Sarah died without laying eyes on the numerous offspring promised to them, \u201cas the stars of the sky in multitude\u2014innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore\u201d (verse 12). Joseph died in Egypt; his bones would not be carried to the Holy Land until generations later. Moses, who died in Moab, did not cross over the Jordan. To the very end of his life, he was a stranger in a strange land.<\/p>\n
All of us must die in faith, of course, in the sense that each of us commits his personal destiny to a loving Father and merciful Savior. This is the faith in which we trust to take our places amid \u201cthe spirits of just men made perfect\u201d (12:23). It is the faith that carries us over from history to eternity.<\/p>\n
Here in Hebrews, however, dying in faith means something more: It signifies taking leave of an ongoing story. Each of us appears in the middle of the same lengthy saga; we are active for a chapter or two, as it were—just long enough to figure out what the story is about—and then we take our leave, when the narrative is not yet over. During the course of our lives we learn to appreciate the earlier chapters of the book in a vision called faith. More than that, we learn to cherish our contemporaries in the account, with a sentiment and resolve called charity. All along, however, we know that a future lies ahead in the story, and we regard that future with an attitude called hope.<\/p>\n
Then, after just a few years—seventy if we are fortunate, eighty if we are strong—just when we feel we have attained some sense of the story\u2019s meaning and plot, it is time for us to depart from the scene. We are obliged to resign our place in the narrative. It will go on without us, and, on the whole, this world will not miss us for very long.<\/p>\n
Dying in faith, in this understanding of death, means leaving everything in God\u2019s hands, trusting the rest of history to Him, the Lord who fulfills His promises. All of us are like Abraham in this respect, who went out not knowing where he went (verse 8). All of us resemble Moses, \u201cstrangers and pilgrims on the earth\u201d (verse 13).<\/p>\n
When Hebrews speaks of another \u201chomeland\u201d to which we are summoned, a \u201cbetter and heavenly country,\u201d another city which is prepared for us—such language does not imply a contempt for the earth on which we spend our pilgrimage. It signifies, rather, the closing chapters of the long story, the record book in which each of our lives is being inscribed.<\/p>\n
Monday, January 27<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 11:17-29: Abraham reasoned that God\u2019s power had already overcome the forces of death in the very circumstances of Isaac\u2019s conception. And if God had overcome death once, He was always able. Thus, with regard to Isaac, says Hebrews, Abraham \u201cconsidered that God is able [dynatos<\/i>] to raise from the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Sadducees challenged Jesus about the resurrection from the dead, He likewise appealed to the power of God. \u201cAre you not therefore mistaken,\u201d He asked, \u201cbecause you do not know the Scriptures nor the power [dynamis<\/i>] of God?\u201d (Mark 12:24) And it is passing curious that Jesus spoke of both Abraham and Isaac in that context of the resurrection: \u201cI am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.\u201d By way of explaining the reference, Jesus concluded, \u201cHe is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living\u201d (12:26-27).<\/p>\n
For the author of Hebrews, the mind of ancient Abraham raced ahead in prophecy to the doctrine of the resurrection\u2014it was an experienced inference from what he already knew of God. From the very temptation he endured, Abraham arrived at a new understanding of God\u2014namely, that He is powerful to raise the dead to life. This was a true prophetic revelation granted to the struggling mind of His servant.<\/p>\n
St. Augustine was much impressed by this story. \u201cThe pious father,\u201d he wrote, \u201cfaithfully clinging to this promise\u2014because it had to be fulfilled by the one whom God commanded him to kill\u2014did not doubt that this son, whom he had had no hope of being given to him, could be restored to him after his immolation [sibi reddi poterat immolatus<\/i>].\u201d<\/p>\n
For the author of Hebrews, the restoration of Isaac was enacted \u201cin parable\u201d (en parabole<\/i>—Hebrews 11:19). St. Augustine, translating \u201cparable\u201d as similitudo<\/i>, correctly understood it to refer to the Resurrection of Christ, when God\u2019s Son was restored to Him after His immolation on the Cross. There was a \u201clikeness\u201d—similitude<\/i>—between God and Abraham, revealed in the mystery of the Resurrection (The City of God<\/i> 16.32).<\/p>\n
Why did God test Abraham? In order to reveal an essential aspect of Himself: His power over death. Abraham arrived at this truth through the furnace of his mind, as he struggled to reconcile God\u2019s promise with His command. God\u2019s power over death was not an abstract truth of theology, available to abstract thought; it was learned on the pounding pulse of an ancient Mesopotamian, as he assumed a personal likeness to the very God who put him to the trial.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, January 28<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 11:30-40: The summary of the \u201cgreat cloud of witnesses\u201d may be described as centered on the author\u2019s reference to what he calls \u201ca better resurrection.\u201d In the context, the comparative adjective, \u201cbetter,\u201d distinguishes this resurrection from the dead from earlier biblical stories in which, as he says, \u201cwomen received their dead raised to life again.\u201d Those earlier stories include those accounts in which Elijah and Elisha raised to life the deceased sons of the widow of Zarephath and the Shunammite woman.<\/p>\n
These true resurrections from the dead may be compared with Jesus\u2019 resurrections of Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, and the daughter of Jairus. These were true resurrections, genuine victories of life over death, and Holy Scripture uses the same word—anastasis<\/i>—to describe them.<\/p>\n
For all that, however, those resurrections were not complete, because those who were raised were still obliged to face death once again. When our author speaks, therefore, of a \u201cbetter resurrection,\u201d he has in mind that definitive victory over death, which was Israel\u2019s most precious hope. \u201cOthers were tortured,\u201d he tells us, \u201cnot accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was this hope of the final resurrection that sustained the people of the Old Covenant in their hour of peril, during the persecution by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It was of those Israelites that the author of Hebrews wrote: \u201cAnd these all, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.\u201d This \u201csomething better\u201d is what our author calls a \u201cbetter resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Paul made this claim before the Sanhedrin itself: \u201cI worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection\u201d (Acts 24:14-15). Paul finished his defense by declaring, \u201cConcerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged by you this day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Resurrection is the core substance of the “good news.” It is not just one of the things<\/i> that Christians believe, but the heart and kernel of the evangelion<\/i>. For this reason the earliest, shortest version of the Creed asserted simply, “Jesus is Lord,” an assertion explained in the first apostolic sermon: “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:32,36). Peter preached this message to the Jews<\/i>, because it addressed a specifically Jewish hope. \u201cLet the whole house of Israel<\/i> know,\u201d he said. What God accomplished in the resurrection of Jesus was the fulfillment of a specifically Jewish<\/i> hope.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, January 29<\/><\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 12:1-11: Even in advance of the darkness of the Passion, the celebration of Palm Sunday gives Christians a vision of the glory that will follow the Cross. They are not expected to step into the dark corridor without knowing where that corridor will lead.<\/p>\n
Jesus Himself knew exactly where He was going when He began Holy Week and the Way of the Cross. Indeed, it was his vision that strengthened Him to walk that path. He, \u201cfor the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.\u201d He did not suffer the Cross for the sake of the Cross, but because of that final joy.<\/p>\n
Christians, likewise, are not called to endure for the sake of endurance, but for the sake of glory. In this, they are to be modeled on Jesus: \u201clet us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.\u201d Several translations (Phillips, NIV, NEB, NAB) render this last expression as \u201cour eyes fixed on Jesus,\u201d which perhaps better catches the sense of aphorontes<\/i>. We are, in fact, dealing with a fixation.<\/p>\n
In the Christian life, very much depends of where we look, where we direct our attention. Recall Peter\u2019s attempt to walk on water: \u201cAnd when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid\u201d (Matthew 14:29-30).<\/p>\n
This fixation is a function of concentration: \u201cConsider<\/i> Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.\u201d The opening verb here (the only place in the New Testament) is the imperative form of analogizomai<\/i>, which refers to critical, discursive thought—the labor of the mind.<\/p>\n
In fact, one sees in this verb the same root found in the English \u201canalogy.\u201d This is all the more curious inasmuch as our author proceeds immediately to provide an analogy: \u201cIt is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not discipline?\u201d<\/p>\n
These reflections touch the very purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews: to encourage Christians who had become despondent because of the difficulties attendant on the life of faith. The author endeavors to fix their attention on those considerations that provide strength for the struggle. His model, in this respect, is Jesus Himself, who \u201cendured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday, January 30<\/b><\/p>\n
Matthew 9:1-8 : Matthew, omitting the colorful detail about the removal of the roof, has simplified a story for purposes of concentrating the attention on the person-to-person encounter between Jesus and the paralytic.<\/p>\n
Matthew\u2019s version is further distinguished by the reference to Lord\u2019s sharing of His exsousia<\/i>, or authority (specifically the authority to forgive sins), with \u201cmen\u201d (8:8); that is, the Church. Indeed, the Church\u2019s authority to forgive sins is very much spelled out later in Matthew 18:18, just as the entire ministry and mission of the Church is rooted in Christ\u2019s reception of \u201call authority in heaven and on earth\u201d (28: 18f).<\/p>\n
Hebrews 12:12-17: This text contains the New Testament\u2019s only criticism of Esau, who is described here as a “profane person . . . who for one morsel of food sold his birthright” (Hebrews 12:16).<\/p>\n
Esau is introduced in Hebrews, I believe, because he represents the danger that the author most fears—namely, apostasy, or the abandonment of the inheritance of the saints. Esau was a man who forsook his inheritance and, as Hebrews insists, was unable to get it back: \u201cFor you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance [metanoia<\/i>], though he sought it diligently with tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
This inability of Esau to repent follows the thought of our author in chapter 6, where he says that for those Christians who apostatize \u201cit is impossible . . . to renew them again to repentance [metanoia<\/i>].\u201d These are the only two chapters in which Hebrews uses the word metanoia<\/i>, in both cases to insist on the difficulty of repenting after apostasy.<\/p>\n
In fact, Esau\u2019s inability to repent is one of the more notable features about the man. Esau had no real sense of the relative worth of things. He could not repent, because he did not truly grasp the value of what he had abandoned. Because he had cheaply sold something material, he assumed that he could just as cheaply purchase something spiritual. Embracing the principle that man lives by bread alone, he nonetheless fancied that a higher benediction was still available to him, pretty much at the same price. Having lost his birthright for a bowl of soup, he planned to gain his blessing with a plate of venison.<\/p>\n
Esau is described as bebelos<\/i>, translated traditionally as \u201cprofane\u201d (KJV) or \u201cirreligious\u201d(RSV). He never developed the habit of reflecting on the moral nature of what he was doing. Esau, as we see in the instance of the bowl of soup, thought only of the present moment. Obeying the impulse of the moment, he neglected both the past and the future.<\/p>\n
Hence, Esau was slow to learn that the future is very much tied to the past. Some blessings—and among them the very best—are inseparable from birthrights, so that the reckless squandering of the one renders unlikely the acquisition of the other. Those, therefore, who contemn the past, have little chance for a future. Esau stepped outside of salvation history, and he had only himself to blame.<\/p>\n
Friday, January 31<\/b><\/p>\n
Hebrews 12:18-29: The author of Hebrews outlines a contrast between two mountains: Sinai and Zion—the mountain of the Law and the mountain of the Temple, or the covenant with Moses and the covenant with David.<\/p>\n
A similar contrast between these two mountains—Sinai and Zion—was made by St. Paul, much to the same effect: \u201cFor these are two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar\u2014for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children\u2014but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all\u201d (Galatians 4:24-26).<\/p>\n
In both texts—Galatians and Hebrews—there is a contrast between the bondage of the Law and the boldness of the Christian. With respect to this contrast, St. Paul writes, \u201cyou are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God\u201d (Galatians 4:7). In both cases, we observe, Mount Zion is called the heavenly Jerusalem: According to Galatians, \u201cthe Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.\u201d According to Hebrews, \u201cyou have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n
One suspects that this contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion may have been a rhetorical trope in early Christian preaching. This suggestion would explain why we find it in both Galatians and Hebrews, in spite of the great differences between these two works. This contrast is used in both places and adapted to the theme of each work.<\/p>\n
Here in Hebrews, the two mountains are contrasted with respect to what we may call \u201ccomfort\u201d: Mount Sinai provokes fear and trembling, whereas Mount Zion inspires boldness, or parresia<\/i>. In Hebrews, this word describes the spirit in which believers have access to God.<\/p>\n
Thus, we read earlier of Christ as \u201cas a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the parresia<\/i> and the rejoicing of a firm hope\u201d (3:6). Or again, \u201cLet us therefore come with parresia<\/i> to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need\u201d (4:16). There is an irony in this verse: We might imagine that the way to obtain mercy is not to demonstrate too much boldness. On the contrary, says Hebrews, boldness is the path to mercy!<\/p>\n
Mount Sinai inspired a sense of awe and fear, even to the point of cringing. The author of Hebrews will have no cringing Christians. They are to approach God\u2019s presence in a bold and confident spirit. He wrote earlier, \u201cTherefore, brethren, having parresia<\/i> to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near with a true heart in the full certainty of faith\u201d (10:19,22). In this text we observe that Christian boldness comes from Christian \u201ccertainty\u201d—plerophoria<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday, January 24 Hebrews 10:32-39: In a sense this section of Hebrews is a synopsis of the whole, or at least a summary of its thesis. That is to say, it is an exhortation to patience. An initial motive for patience, says our author, is the active recollection of those things endured immediately after conversion … Continue reading January 24 – January 31, 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.touchstonemag.com\/daily_reflections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}