Here are a few thoughts on a passage from Hebrews as we remember Armistice Day this week.

Hebrews 10:11-14 (New International Version)

11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The writer to the Hebrews now stresses the exaltation of Jesus and he chooses his words carefully. Jesus sits down at the right hand of God. As much as to say that Jesus, unlike the priests, takes the position of a monarch. Jesus is the King come home. His task is accomplished and his victory won.

There is also a wholeness to the life of Christ that I have never before understood in this way. His life is incomplete without his death; his death is incomplete without his resurrection; his resurrection is incomplete without his return to glory. It is the same Jesus who lived and died and rose again and is at the right hand of God. He is not simply a saint who lived a lovely life; not simply a martyr who died an heroic death; not simply a risen figure who returned to company with his friends. He is the Lord of glory. His life is like a panelled tapestry; to look at one panel is to see only a bit of the story. The tapestry must be looked at as a whole before the full greatness is disclosed.

Then the writer stresses the final triumph of Jesus. He awaits the final subjugation of his enemies; in the end there must come a universe in which he is supreme. How that will come is not ours to know; but it may be that this final subjugation will come not in the extinction of his enemies but in their submission to his love. It is not so much the power but the love of God which must conquer in the end.

Finally, as is the habit of the writer to the Hebrews, he clinches his argument with a quotation from scripture. He quotes Jeremiah who says, "I will remember their sins no more" Jeremiah 31:34). Because of Jesus the barrier of sin is forever taken away.

God bless you

Mark