I was up until 4:30 Wednesday night, or I guess Thursday morning, studying for a test I had yesterday. One of the topics we were tested on was the social setting and main theme in Hebrews. The author of this message wrote to these people, many of who were new converts to Christianity, encouraging them not to return to Judaism. As I read the following passage this evening, I want to challenge you to hear it with new ears. Hear it from the perspective of a brand new Christian, struggling to live a completely new way of life:
HEBREWS 10:16-25: ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds’,
he also adds,
‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
What peace this message must have brought….but also, what challenge. “Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” the author encourages, but I can’t help but imagine that was probably easier said than done. Easier said than done because it was all so new to these people. It would have been easy to stay a Jew; to follow through with the habits and customs of a lifetime spent practicing that faith. Admittedly, I’m making a few assumptions in stating these claims, but I don’t think they’re too far-fetched. I think if we all really thought about converting from Christianity to Islam or Buddhism, we would probably struggle too.
But isn’t that the theme of tonight? Struggle? It’s easy to read this passage at face value and accept it as an encouragement and hope for a better future with Jesus, but it’s also easy to do that with Good Friday. I’m not trying to discourage us from looking forward to Easter. After all, without Easter (as Frederick Buechner says) there would be no New Testament, no Church, no Christianity. But without Good Friday, we wouldn’t have any contrast to such a miraculous event. It is through Good Friday that we gain a true perspective of Easter Sunday. It is in the struggle, in the pain, and in the trial where we learn to understand what a blessing Easter morning really is.
So, yes, let’s heed the author’s advice in the message to the new Christians: let us have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. But let us do so with the understanding of struggle. Just as it was hard for these people to accept a new way of life as Christians, so too was it hard for Jesus to forsake his life completely in order to give birth to Christianity through resurrection.
Easter morning, new life, joy, and celebration are just around the corner – and when it comes, let’s rejoice. But let’s pay attention to the struggle tonight.
