“We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.” (Hebrews 2:1-3)
In the previous reflection we mentioned the reasons why it is so critical for us to recognize Jesus as equal to the Father, greater than every angel and prophet? Well, the writer of Hebrews (we don’t know his identity) gives us another reason in these verses. It’s so that we’ll heed His word and embrace Him as the Savior. The writer points to all the times in the Old Testament when disobedience to the message of angels and prophets brought immediate judgment. Then, how much more should we more closely heed and obey the words of the divine Christ and partake of His salvation?
Remember, this letter was written to the Jewish community of Christian believers, both in Jerusalem and beyond. They were under tremendous pressure to renounce their faith in Jesus, confess that He was a false prophet, and return to Judaism. The great golden Temple was still standing at this time. The priests, in their splendorous garments, were still offering sacrifices daily. In contrast, the Jewish Christians had no earthly temple to look to nor any visible priest to come to. They only experienced rejection and persecution from their fellow Jews.
The writer repeatedly warns them in this letter that they have a superior High Priest, who offers the only sacrifice for sin that God recognizes. He reminds them that their great High Priest ministers in the true Temple, heaven itself and not a mere copy on earth. Christ is the ultimate reality of which all the Old Testament priests and sacrifices only foreshadowed. These Jewish Christians dare not yield to temptation and turn from Jesus, the Creator, Redeemer, and Judge of all the earth. There is no other Savior.
All of us face the temptation to pursue after the cheap imitations of Heaven’s true glory, true riches, and true joy and delight. We’re tempted to chase after the temporal blessings of this life and neglect those which are eternal in the life to come. But we dare not do so. “For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). And we will not escape God’s judgment if disregard His perfect Sacrifice and His great salvation.
REFLECTION
- Within a few years after writing this letter, the beautiful temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and its priests and sacrifices were swept away by the Roman legions in AD 70. If some Jewish Christians had forsaken God’s true Sacrifice for sins, His true High Priest who ministers in the true Temple – heaven itself, to pursue the mere copies on earth, what would they have left? Nothing. And what will we have if we neglect so great a salvation to pursue earthly goals and pleasures?
