Lesson 4: Hebrews 2:5-18
The Son became Human For Humanity’s Sake
Now [because] God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But [and] someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”
Now [because] in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is [but now], we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
[Because] It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For [because] the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”
Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For [because] it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
God did not subject the world to come to angels but humans. Now, however, chaos reigns and death enslaves. But God made the Son a little lower than the angels, a human being named Jesus. As the appointed heir of all things, the Son of God who is Jesus will bring “sons” (his siblings) into God’s glorious presence as a new humanity. Consequently, it was necessary for this Son to execute a new Passover/Exodus by sharing the flesh and blood of Abraham’s descendants in order to defeat death, liberate those enslaved by death, and free them from the fear of death. For this reason, the Son became a heavenly high priest of Jewish descent to liberate the people of God so that all “sons” (siblings) might inherit what God has promised from the beginning.
The Son Becomes Lower than the Angels (2:5-9)
There is a trajectory within the Old Testament that angels were set over nations to govern them (Deuteronomy 32:8 [see footnotes]; Daniel 10:20-21; 12:1). So, one might surmise that God intended to rule the coming world by angels or, as Job 1 calls them, “sons of God.”
Our preacher, however, identifies humanity as God’s intended ruler over creation, including the coming world. That world is, in the language of Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21, the new heaven and new earth. Both creation and new creation were not the inheritance of angels, but the inheritance of humanity.
Psalm 8:4-6 testifies to God’s intent in creation. God crowned humanity with glory and honor, even though they were created less than (“lower”) the angels. Remember angels serve the heirs; they are not themselves the heirs (Hebrews 1:14). Humanity was given royal dignity from the beginning, and they were intended to rule over the whole creation.
The present reality, however, is otherwise. Now the creation is unruly, and everything is not subject to human rule. Specifically, and ultimately, death reigns rather than humanity. Chaos infects the creation in such a way that humanity is enslaved to death and fears death (Hebrews 2:14).
But God responded to this chaos through the Son who became human. We see Jesus. This is the one who was made, for a time, a little lower than the angels, but is now exalted above the angels as the royal Son who sits at the right hand of God (Hebrews 1:3, 13; the latter quoting Psalm 110). He was exalted because he suffered death for everyone and having suffered as a human being amidst the chaos of the world, he was enthroned at the right of God. Now, because of his death, he has been crowned with glory and honor as the heir of the world to come and present king over creation.
Moreover, remembering the previous section (Hebrews 1:5-14), the one who was higher than the angels now became lower than the angels and suffer death in order to be crowned the royal son who is greater than the angels. The divine Son humbled himself to become a human being (lower than the angels) so that he might lead other human beings (“sons”) into the glory of God’s presence.
The Son has defeated the reign of death by sharing our human weakness in death, but then restored human honor by his enthronement as the royal Son. This is the great reversal! The Son becomes human to reverse what had been lost, to restore human dignity and honor to their royal priesthood upon the earth. The Son, as royal priest, restores humanity as royal priests through dying and rising—rising from the grave and rising to the right hand of the Father.
The Son Speaks to the Father with Other “Sons” Present (2:10-13)
God the Father, for whom and through whom all tings exist (cf. 1 Corinthian 8:6), purposed to bring, as the NRSV says it, “many children to glory.” The NRSV, while seeking to be gender inclusive (often a healthy impulse), obscures the connection between the Son (ton huion; Hebrews 1:8) and these “many sons” (huios). It is important to highlight the sense of sonship because inheritance belongs to sons. This, of course, does not exclude women because women are also heirs; they, too, are “sons” in this sense (cf. Galatians 3:26-29). The point here is that God purposed to bring many heirs (sons) into the family through the one whom God appointed heir over all things (the Son).
How did God do this? He made “the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” What made the Son perfect? We might think of this as a process of sanctification whereby the Son learned and grew into moral perfection. In this sense, then, some suggest the Son became a morally perfect and unblemished sacrifice for sins.
However, it may be that the Son was perfected in his sufferings, specifically his dying. He became perfect when he suffered death (Hebrews 5:7-10). His obedience to the will of the Father through death perfected him and enabled him to become a merciful and faithful high priest. He was perfected in the sense that he completed his race; he stayed the course. He persevered to death in full obedience to the Father.
This enabled Jesus to be the “pioneer” (archegon) of our salvation. There are several options for the translation of this term: trailblazer, author, source, champion (like Hercules). However we translate it, it is a word that describes one who goes before others to forge a path. Here the point is that Jesus goes before us and blazes a trail so that other “sons” may follow him. Interestingly, the spies Moses sent into the land were called archegoi (plural of archegon; Numbers 13:2-3) in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. They were supposed to forge a path but failed (at least 10 of them did). Jesus is our archegon!
The one who became human is the one who sanctifies those who are being sanctified, but they are both, literally, “out of one.” [Some translations supply “Father” or “family.”] To whom or what does the word “one” refer? It may refer to the fact that they are both related to the one God who sent the Son and makes others sons. Or, it may refer to the fact that both the sanctifier and those being sanctified are of the same nature, one humanity. It is a present ongoing activity that is both sourced by God the Father and shared through their common humanity. Translators must interpret the meaning here, but both translations are theologically legitimate. I lean toward the latter: a common humanity, and primarily because it is the main topic of this section of the sermon.
Because the Son was made a litter lower than the angels as Jesus, because the Son came to share our humanity, we are the “brothers” (adelphous) of Jesus, which includes male and female (“brothers and sisters”).
Turning to Psalm 22:22, the preacher quotes his Bible. He places the words in the mouth of Jesus so that the Son now speaks to the Father whereas in Hebrews 1:5ff, the Father spoke to the Son. The Son is present in the “assembly” or “congregation” (ekklesias, the church), praising God and announcing God’s name. Ekklesias is a common word for the assembly of Israel throughout the Hebrew Bible in its Greek translation. The Son joins the assembly of God’s people as one of God’s “sons” to worship God and bless God’s name. In other words, we may envision our assemblies as spaces where Jesus the Messiah is present with us to join the praise of God the Father. It was the Father who made the Son a little lower than the angels so that God the Father might bring many “sons” into the divine presence, into the assembly of the people of God. The Son assembles with and worships with the “sons.”
To further his point, the preacher quotes the Prophet Isaiah (8:17-18). The larger context of Isaiah 8 is the stress of Judah’s future war with Israel (the northern kingdom) and Syria due to their aggression against Judah. Ultimately, this will entail the fall and exile of the northern kingdom. Isaiah 8:17 affirms trust in God, and Isaiah 8:18 rests in God’s promises to God’s faithful servants.
Jesus affirms his trust in the God who sent him, and he claims the children (not “sons” here but paidia, children) God has given him. In other words, our archegon faithfully trusted in God through his obedience and thus made a path for others to enjoy God’s presence and glory. These are the children God gave him. This emphasizes the familial nature of the relationship between Jesus and his siblings. He is our brother—one who shares our human nature and one who leads us into glory.
The Son Serves the Descendants of Abraham (2:14-18).
The Son became a Jew, a descendent of Abraham. Jesus shared the “flesh and blood” of the children (particularly Israel, though not necessarily excluding Gentiles). The word “share” is the term communion, that is, Jesus participated in” flesh and blood.” He became truly human so that he shared the same human condition as others, particularly living under the reign of death and with the weaknesses humanity experiences as “flesh and blood.”
But God purposed that through sharing this human condition and suffering death Jesus would (1) destroy the destroyer who had the power of death, and (2) liberate the children from their enslavement to the fear of death. These points remind us of the Exodus story. There was the destroyer of death, and there was liberation. The Passover protected Israel from the destroyer and liberated them from slavery. The Exodus is also recalled by the language of a “merciful and faithful” high priest in Hebrews 2:17 because this language describes God in Exodus 34:6 where the Lord passed before Moses proclaiming God’s presence. Moreover, Jesus serves as high priest for the “people” of God in Hebrews 2:17. This recalls the Exodus and Mt. Sinai, the institution of the law, and God’s relationship with Israel. God promised to help Abraham’s descendent, not angels. This is about God’s relationship to Israel. Whether it is the angels who mediated the law to Israel, the Passover that liberated Israel, or Moses who led them in the wilderness (see Hebrews 3), God honors the people of Israel and now seeks to fully redeem them through the Son who became a Jew, died for them, and was raised to serve as their high priest.
At the same time, as Psalm 8 reminds us, God intends to bring many “sons” to glory from all of humanity. Jesus will be a high priest for his people Israel, but he will also serve all humanity through his priestly order, which is the order of Melchizedek (more about that in chapters 5-7).
The middle part of the sermon will explore the meaning of the high priestly work of Jesus, and I’ll save comment until we begin to explore that in more detail there. But here the preacher anticipates his point: Jesus, both faithful and merciful, made purification for sin as our high priest and then sat down at the right hand of God (remembering Hebrews 1:3). With this status and function, Jesus brings many “sons” to glory through forgiveness and intercession.
The emphasis in Hebrews 2:5-18 is the radical nature of the Son’s incarnational act by which the Son became human and served humanity, particularly in his empathy for their condition. This included temptation or testing. That ultimate test was whether Jesus would obey God by suffering death. As the preacher’s audience faces trials and temptations—including the temptation to abandon their faith or the testing of potential martyrdom, Jesus understands their journey. He has run the race (Hebrews 12:1-3), and Jesus, as a merciful and faithful high priest, can help them finish their race because he knows the trials believers face.
Theological Take-a-Aways
- The incarnation lies at the heart of the Christian faith because this is how God brings many “sons” to glory.
- The incarnation was authentic and real; Jesus became truly human in every respect, evening suffering trials, temptations, and death.
- The obedience of the Son through dying resulted in his exaltation to the right hand of God to serve as a merciful and faithful high priest.
- This obedience enabled him share family life with those whom he sanctified, to be siblings who together praise God the Father in the assembly of God’s people.
- Jesus, because he was tested and was in every respect like his by sharing our flesh and blood, is not only a model for perseverance but also blazed a trail for us as our champion.
- Because Jesus shared our human condition, he is able to help us persevere and run the race to the finish line.