Week 50 Hebrews 1
A guy sits down to read the gospel stories of Jesus and he’ll most likely figure the Lord was a pretty great guy. Even if he didn’t think the gospel stories were true the chances are he’d be impressed by the Jesus of the gospels.
Jesus in the gospels did so many unlikely things (walking on water & healing sick people) and was so personally attractive (he had huge crowds of admirers) that it’s hard to read the gospels without thinking: what an unbelievable & extraordinary person!
But it looks like the writer of Hebrews wasn’t sure the gospels had made it absolutely crystal clear how great Jesus was. So he started right in by listing unusual things about Jesus not highlighted in the gospels (well…maybe with the exception of John). He said that:
God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance
Through the Son he made the universe
The Son reflects God’s glory
The Son represents God exactly
The Son sustains the universe by his command
The Son sat down at the right hand of God
It’s almost like Hebrews figured a person might not get an accurate top-to-bottom impression of Jesus from reading just the gospels.
It’s almost like Hebrew’s writer thought Jesus needed to be put in an elevator:
“In the gospels you get to see him on the lower floors…fair enough.
But now I want to make sure you see him in the executive suite.”
Note: quotes from Hebrews 1:2-3 (NLT)