Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Tuesday of Holy Week - Hebrews 3:1-6

Tuesday of Holy Week

Daily Lectionary Readings: Exodus 9:29-10:20; Hebrews 3:1-19; (Lamentations 2:1-22)

Hebrews 3:1–6 [1] Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, [2] who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. [3] For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. [4] (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) [5] Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, [6] but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Hebrews Chapter three begins a section from 3:1-5:10 we may call "The Faithful and Merciful High Priest." It often alternates between doctrinal and paraenetic (rhetoric, advice of an appropriate course of action). Hebrews 3:1 summarizes the preceding section: Jesus is the Son sent by God as His spokesman (1:1-2:4). Jesus is the great high priest who sanctifies (makes holy) his brothers (2:5-18) and sets up Jesus as the anointed Son set over God's house (3:2-6).

V.1 The preacher summarizes what preceded, describing Jesus as the Son sent by God to be His spokesman (1:1-2:4) and the sanctifying high priest (2:5-18) and introduces this new section about Jesus as the anointed one set over God's house. It begins with the preacher's first direct address of his hearers- "holy brothers" sharing in the priestly holiness of Christ by sharing His Sonship. Also, they are partakers of a heavenly calling because Christ shared in their flesh and blood. They share Christ's work as God's anointed Son, as "little Christs" Cf. Hebrews 3:14. It is a heavenly calling because God calls them to participate in his glory (2:10) through their heavenly brother, Jesus (2:11-12), as members of the heavenly house (3:6; cf. 12:22-23). Since their status and vocation come from Christ, the preacher tells them to consider Christ with the eyes of faith. The preacher exhorts them to consider the implications of their confession in baptism (we would recall what we were taught in confirmation).

V.2 The preacher also instructs the congregation to see Jesus as faithful. In the Greek, ὄντα is better translated as “is being” rather than "was" therefore, Jesus "is being faithful," an active present tense condition. This is a call to focus the eyes of faith on the living and active presence of Jesus as our high priest in the Divine Service. Jesus' faithfulness is portrayed by an Old Testament allusion: 1 Samuel 2:35 – a new priestly family fulfilled when Solomon deposed Abiathar and re[placed him with Zadock, prophesied in Psalm 110 and Zechariah 6:11-13. They speak toward the preacher identifying the faithful high priest as Jesus in Hebrews 2:17; 3:1-2, and the people as His brother who share His vocation in Hebrews 3:1, 12-14. This is a paraphrase of Numbers 12:7 (How Moses was different from all other spokesmen, Numbers 12:1-16). "In [all] his house" can be taken two ways: the tabernacle as God's residence or the people as God's household.

As the preacher to the Hebrews frequently does in this sermon, he means for us to receive this as both of these simultaneously.

V.3 Moses does not furnish the house. Christ does. Moses was glorified more than any other until Christ.

V.4 Christ is the builder, furnisher, and ruler of all things in this world and the world to come.

V.5 Moses bore faithful witness then, but also now, and is, therefore, one of the “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 11:23-28; 12:1).

V.6 The preacher uses "Christ" as the title for God's anointed priest, not "king," as it is regularly used elsewhere in Scripture. Unlike Moses, Jesus is the Christ. See Mark 14:61; Acts 2:36, 10:36; Revelation 11:15, 12:10. Like Israel's high priests and kings, Jesus was anointed by God and authorized to deputize for him. Yet unlike them, Jesus was not anointed by Moses or a prophet or priest with the holy oil (Exodus 30:22-33) but by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Hebrews 1:9; Acts 10:37-38).

Jesus did not become God’s Son by adoption at His anointing (Cf. 2 Samuel 7:12-14; 1 Chronicles 17:11-13, 22:9-10, 28:6). Rather, He was anointed as God’s royal priest because He was already God’s eternal Son (Hebrews 1:2). God’s house belongs to Him.

Who or what is God’s house? It is the congregation. The status of the congregation as God’s house depends on its ongoing adherence to Christ – both pastor and people, holding on now and continuing to do so.