To read: Hebrews 2:1-9
New Revised Standard Version Bible,Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God added his testimony by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will.
Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
To think about:
We
must pay greater attention to what we have heard. Our opening text says a lot about how God wants us to lead our lives. As the text continues it tells of angels declaring the message that God wants us to hear. That has me thinking about angels. When you think of an angel, what or whom do you see? I have been thinking, have I even seen an angel or am I too blind to recognize one?
God says we have been made for a little while lower than angels. That tells me that in a little while I too will be transformed into an angel - what a glorious thought!
The Hebrew text for today continues and says that Jesus for a little while was made lower than the angels. Did we not just read that we also were made for a little while lower than the angels? What a divine relationship we can have with Jesus! Not only did God come to us as Jesus, but he allowed Jesus to be like us, to feel our pains and sufferings but also our joys and loves. But Jesus went farther for us, he went all the way to the cross to die for OUR sins, so that we would be allowed to be made angels and live in the company of our Savior forever.
As this Lenten season comes to a close and we look forward to the cross, the place where Jesus would forgive all my sins to God our father, I rejoice in my Savior, Jesus the Christ.
To pray:
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for sending your only Son Jesus Christ to save me and all people who believe in you, even people starting out as being a little lower than an angel but who can be allowed to live with you in your heavenly kingdom forever. Amen.
Northern Great Lakes Synod Council member
Bethany Lutheran Church, Amasa, Mich.