The Good Portion

I think movies, in many ways, have done us a disservice. Seeing life on the big screen, larger than life, we lose sight of both the majesty and the miniscule-ness of life as it really is. We (or is it just me?) see Jesus as a giant figure, a massive close-up, a star on a screen, forgetting that He was a man. He was as invisible as we are from the distance of a mile. He was the same size as we are, more or less, from the distance of a hug. He was a man who could easily fit through the nearest doorway. On the other side of the world thousands of years ago, invisible to us both in space and time, tiny and barely noticeable, almighty God, vaster than all the universes, took on flesh. There and then He lived. There and then He loved, and taught, and served. And there and then He died, a being so small history should have forgotten Him. So why have we not forgotten? And why would the Infinite God create a finite planet, a pale blue dot (to quote Carl Sagan), for tiny men to live as ...

It's almost two years since my church began its trek through Hebrews, and we have covered a lot ground! We've learned that the Bible is one story, and that the prophets, priests, and kings of the Old Testament are to Christ what the shadow of an approaching man is to the man himself. Christ, we’ve seen, is superior to angels, a better mediator than Moses, a greater high priest than Aaron, and a better sacrifice than bulls and goats. Through his blood, we have entered a better covenant than Sinai’s, a better Jerusalem, and a better kingdom, one that will never be shaken. Now we have arrived at Hebrews’ benediction, and the writer sneaks in one final Old Testament archetype: the Great Shepherd. “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to wh...