Picture a family that is wealthy beyond all measure. Then the head of that family decides to adopt, to bring into the family, a child from a terribly poor and destitute background. The child is in rags, filthy, and even smelly. It would not be too surprising that the natural-born son might resent this child, the fact that this beggar child, this vagrant, will now get a portion of the inheritance. The now older brother is not happy, and he is ashamed to be seen with his new sibling. Why, they don’t even know how to dress properly, to talk or enunciate properly! He doesn’t want to be known as this scoundrel’s brother. In a different, and admittedly probably less common scenario, we might see the older brother lovingly welcoming this penniless beggar child into the family. We see this, though, in our Scripture for today, with our older Brother, the Lord Jesus. Let’s look at what lessons the Lord can teach us from this portion of the Book of Hebrews.
One key theme of the Book of Hebrews is that Jesus is greater than many things the Jewish people held important, including Moses, and here mentioned, greater than angels. Though when Jesus became man He was a little lower than the angels, but after He suffered death for us, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor, much greater than any angel (vs. 9).
The author of Hebrews calls Jesus the Captain of our Salvation (vs. 10). A ship’s captain, in a time of a disaster, will ensure that every passenger and crew member has been rescued before he leaves the ship. If need be, the captain will “go down with the ship”. Jesus was willing to sacrifice His life for His family. He is our Captain, the One willing to give all for us. He is the One we need to look to, as well, just like a captain of one’s team.
As we continue, we read that Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren, His brothers and sisters. Each of us, without exception, were sinners before we were saved, covered with the filth of our sins. Yet in this awful condition, the Lord reached out to us, and when we accepted Jesus as our Savior, He brought us into His family, cleaning us up giving us the righteousness of Jesus, and our inheritance with Him. Jesus loved us while we were still sinners, still covered with the filth of this world, and He is not ashamed to call us His family. He is our Big Brother (Romans 8:29).
Jesus, the Son of God, became man, took on flesh and blood, just as we are (vs. 14). He did this so that His death on the cross would destroy the devil, who holds the power of death, and we would be set free from the fear of death, and the bondage that it holds (vs. 15). Jesus did not do this for the angels, but for us (vs. 16).
Jesus had to be made like His brethren in all things so that He could be a merciful and faithful high priest (vs. 17). One thing that some people who have a nice older brother have stated, is that they like that their older sibling went through some of the difficulties they have beforehand. They went through school, each grade, before us. They went through the same scrapes and struggles. The older sibling can relate to us. Jesus enters into our lives, and experiences our pain, hurt, and guilt right along with us (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus can identify with our circumstances, and He feels every single thing that we experience.
When we encounter some particularly difficult temptation, we can turn to our Older Brother Jesus, as He, too, went through similar temptations. There is no sin in being tempted, but there is sin in yielding to temptation. Jesus was tempted just as we are, by the very same sins into which we fall. Jesus was tempted, but He never sinned. In His power we may also flee from sin. Jesus bore the load before us. The Blood-stained footsteps of the King of Glory can be seen along the road that we travel.
When we feel that no one understands or can help us, we are reminded that Jesus gave us Himself, and He knows exactly who we are, and what we are facing. Jesus fully shared our humanity. He is our loving Big Brother, there to help us when we call on Him.
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