Jesus Christ is the same today as He was the day He rose from the dead. This gives us confidence, hope, and salvation for life. Christ is Risen! This is the cry of Easter. It is the joyous reply, the joyous news spoken of centuries earlier by Job in his classic words, “I know that my redeemer lives.” It is the cry of hope to women who went looking for the living amongst the dead. They are the words of shock and hope to the disciples who thought they had lost forever their rabbi, their friend, their Lord. They are the words of shock to the guards and religious leaders and Pilate. But to us these words are our hope, our confidence, and our salvation. Because Jesus died and rose again, we are saved! Because Jesus died and rose again we can be confident in our standing with God, but also we can be confident of our future. What can man do to me? He can take my life, my money, my stuff, my job, anything, but that does not and cannot change my future. Why? Because Christ is risen. But that is also why Jesus is our hope. He has defeated sin, death, and the devil once and for all. And to remind us that this is not a one and done event, the author of Hebrews reminds us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is the God who loves us. This is the God who gave his life for us. This is the God who is risen from the dead. He’s the same now as He was then, and that is a good thing.
Jesus came, bled, died, and rose again to establish an unshakeable kingdom unlike any other. Palm Sunday was a mob scene. People all over the place waiting for their chance to see and to celebrate King Jesus. The cry of the crowd was “Hosanna, Save us, Lord.” Their hope was that their king had come. He could drive out the Romans. He could end the tyranny. Freedom would once again come. Could Jesus be the king they had been waiting for? The reality is they had the right king just the wrong kingdom. As Jesus will soon tell Pilate, His kingdom is not of this world. As we will learn in Hebrews, the kingdom of Jesus is much bigger than any one piece of land or any one nation. The kingdom Jesus was building would comprise people of all walks of life. People from every nation and tribe. And this kingdom will be unshakeable. Not even the gates of hell will be able to overcome it. Palm Sunday is a day we celebrate our coming king. Little did they know on that first Palm Sunday the greatness of the kingdom He was establishing before their very eyes.
God disciplines us that we might be shaped into the image of Jesus. There is always something that we are dealing with. There always seems to be something that gets in the way, that discourages us, that drags us down. How do we keep going when we are tired, discouraged, ready to throw in the towel? We are called to remember Jesus who endured it all: painful beatings, betrayal, abandonment, the crown of thorns, the nails that pierced his hands and feet, and the agony of the Cross. He endured it all in order that we might be saved. Encouraged by Him we are told that we too can endure. We can keep going. The promise of the Christian life is not Easy Street but that we are not alone. God is with us. And in the end, despite what things might look like currently, God wins. Part of the Christian life is this thing called discipline. Discipline may be painful, but it is necessary and helpful in shaping us into the people that God would have us to be. So instead of seeing every bad thing as the end of the world, we are to endure knowing that God can use even pain to help shape us into the people that He would have us to be.
As we run the race, we keep our eyes fixed on the One who made it possible for us to run in the first place, Jesus. Sports metaphors are great, for some. The author of Hebrews chose to use one to describe the life of faith. The metaphor he uses is that of running the race. When running the race there is a need for endurance so you don’t start and then run out of gas. You need to get rid of all the obstacles in your path. You need to take off everything that is slowing you down because you want to win. You need to know where you are running so the race doesn’t start, and you take off running the wrong way. The crowd around you helps to cheer you on and tell you that you can do it. But maybe the most important part of this illustration is the instructions to turn our eyes upon Jesus. Look to Jesus. He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is the One who makes the whole race possible. He will be the One to get us through. He has already run the race. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way of accomplishing His mission of saving us. Now it’s our turn to run the race and we are invited to turn our eyes upon Jesus who is with us, guiding us, directing us, and empowering us every step of the way.
Faith has Jesus as its object and is active in a life of following Him. What is faith? Is it knowing all the right things about God? James says no. “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-- and shudder! (Jas. 2:19)” Faith is much more than pure intellectual assent to a group of beliefs. Is it blindly following whatever we are told with no questions? No. Faith must have substance, a foundation upon which to build. So what is faith then? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This is an assurance, a conviction that knows who God is, what God has done, what God means for us and our lives, and then live according to that conviction. The chapter that follows these great words give example after example of people from the Old Testament who show us in the flesh what faith looked like. Abraham’s faith led him to leave home and follow God to a distant land. Moses’ faith led him to lead Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The Judges and David and the prophets were led to live and walk in faith. In the same way, we are called to follow God in faith. Jesus paints an incredible picture of that life of faith using the metaphor of a vine and branch. In faith, we receive all that we need for life from Jesus and all that we do comes from Him. For apart from Him we can do nothing.
Jesus gives us full access to God through His once and for all sacrifice. The sacrifice had been made. Atonement is complete. We have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus. And so we draw into the presence of God with complete and total confidence in Jesus. Our hope is Jesus. Our life now and into the future is in Jesus. For the work of Jesus gives us full and complete access to God. And now our life individually and collectively flows out of this work of Jesus as we believe, as we do life together encouraging one another, and as we meet together. This doesn’t mean that life is always going to be easy. This doesn’t mean there will be no suffering. But it does mean that we, as people who have been bought and redeemed by Christ the crucified, can come before God with boldness and confidence all because of Jesus.
The sacrifice of Jesus was once and for all that we might be freed to serve God. The Levitical Law is quite clear. It is explicit and even gory at times. When sin happens, blood must be shed. Based upon the circumstance or the particularities involved this might look different, but one thing remained, the sin: the wages of sin was death whether it be a bird or lamb or calf or even a person. It seemed to be a never-ending cycle. One would go and make atonement for one’s sins with a sacrifice. Life would get restored, then you would mess up again. You would go back and make a sacrifice again. It was a never-ending cycle of sin and sacrifices to cover those sins. Then Jesus steps in as the sacrificial lamb. He is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the whole world. So, He made the sacrifice. He opened the curtain. He made access for us to come before God. So, if we sin again does Jesus have to die again? Do we need to keep sacrificing animals? No and No! The sacrifice of Jesus was once and for all that we might be freed to serve God. Jesus gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice doing what only Jesus could do.
There are many things in life that vie for our attention, our minds, and our hearts. There are many things in life that can so easily distract us. There are situations that rock us to the very core leading us to question absolutely everything. So what is it that gets us through? What is it that keeps us on the straight and narrow? What is it that keeps us grounded in who we are and whose we are? According to the author of Hebrews it is ONLY Jesus. He is the Anchor for our soul. He shows us the absolute faithfulness of God. He shows us grace and forgiveness when we fall short of the glory of God. He is there with us each and every step of the way. Christ is our Anchor through all the twists and turns of life.