It is a little known fact that many asthmatics wake up around 3:30 in the morning.  The prevailing thought is that most asthma medications wear off after 6 hours and so it is at about that time in the morning that breathing becomes more difficult and asthmatics just wake up.  I turn the TV on when I wake up.  Consequently I have watched some unusual TV programming through the years.

            One morning I turned the TV on in the middle of an interesting movie.  It was placed somewhere in South America in the 19th century.  The government there was corrupt and the economy poor.  People had begun to rally around a leader who was teaching them to rob - first stage coaches and then small banks and then bigger banks.  As their numbers grew, so did their daring and the size of the banks they would attack.  The size of the band grew until it was the size of a small army. 

            Finally, the leader announced that they would start a revolution in the country, work to overthrow the corrupt government and bring democracy.  Many of his followers were surprised.  ‘When did you decide to do this?’ they asked.

            ‘It was always the real plan’, the leader replied.

            ‘Why didn’t you tell us this at the beginning - when we first came to you?’ they asked.

            ‘I could not.’ he continued.  ‘Your Vision was too small.  If I had told you in the beginning that we would work to overthrow the dictator and improve our country, you would never have followed me because you would have thought it was impossible.  You didn’t have enough confidence to start a revolution, but you did have enough confidence to rob banks - and that is what we did until your confidence grew.  Now’, He said, ‘you have a Vision of the Glory we can accomplish for our country and that is what we are going to do now’.

            Visions of Glory. - Visions of Glory require time, faith and courage and they are the themes of these opening verses of Hebrews

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Unlike many of the pastoral letters of the New Testament, the author of the book of Hebrews never tells us that this letter is addressed to the Hebrew people.  Through time, many scholars have reasoned that it was written to Hebrews because the author assumes that the reader is very familiar with the Old Testament.  The author quotes from several of the psalms and never mentions them by name.  We learn a new vocabulary here as well.  Jesus is referred to as the inheritor or heir of all things, high priest, creator, sustainer, reflection of God and pioneer of salvation.

            Scholars believe that the Hebrews were beginning to suffer persecution -- that their faith and practice may have begun to waver and that they had begun to return to the practice of sacrifices.  The author goes to great lengths to show that Jesus is superior to various facets of the Hebrew worship.  The practices of the Hebrews are but faint shadows, or foretastes of the glories of the Christ.

The first 4 verses of chapter 1 condense the entire history of the OT and NT into fewer than 100 words. ‘In the beginning God spoke to us through the prophets, but now (in the last days) he has spoken through a Son, the heir of all things and through whom he created the worlds.  He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being and He sustains all things by His powerful word.  When He had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.’ 

            WOW -- what an opening.  I counted -- it’s actually only 95 words and he has pretty much said it all. We have a picture of Jesus before the incarnation, during the incarnation and after the incarnation.  We see Him acting as Creator, Purifier and inheritor and intercessor.  We also have four pictures of Jesus in relation to the creation.

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(1)        The first picture is of Jesus as superior to any of God’s previous human messengers.  Throughout history, God spoke through the prophets.  He rarely spoke face to face (except for Moses).  For the most part, prophets heard the voice of God in dreams and visions.  Frequently, these dreams were allegorical, like the dreams of Jacob, or Daniel.  Prophets had several things in common. They all proclaimed the messages to the people of God.  They all knew that they were only instruments of God’s work.

            Jesus is superior to the prophets.  He speaks with the authority of God (Matt 7:29 ‘he spoke to them as one having authority, and not as the scribes’).  He claims to be God. (John 10:30, ‘I and my Father are one’).  He does not just condemn sin, he forgives sin (Mark 2:5, ‘He says to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’’).

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(2)        The second picture is of Jesus as superior to heavenly messengers.  In Heb 2:9 ‘we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor.’  In Heb 2:5 we read that this creation was not even made for angels -- it was made for us.  Angels are sent by God to deliver the messages of God.  They announce the births of Samson, Jesus and John the Baptist.  In Matthew 4:10, they minister to Jesus in the wilderness -- but they only deliver the word of God.

            Jesus, on the other hand, does not simply deliver the Word of God.  He is the word of God.  In John 1:1 we read, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’  For a little while (2:9) Jesus was made a little lower than the angels -- but Hebrews says the same thing of humankind in v 7.  ‘You have made them for a while a little lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.’

            Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being. The Greek word here is pronounced, character, which means both ‘the impression that a stamp makes,’ and ‘the stamp itself’ which makes the impressions. Christ is not just the impression of God but the one who can in turn create impressions of God.

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(3)        The third picture we have of Jesus is that the priesthood of Jesus is superior to the priesthood of the Levites.  The Levitical priesthood was instituted while the Israelites wandered in the wilderness.  They worked as mediators between God and human.  They presided over worship, cared for the temple, read from the sacred scriptures, offered sacrifices for the people and pronounced benedictions.  They were to mirror their God in every way they could. They had to be of the tribe of Levi and be without blemish.  Any sin committed by the high priest was considered a blemish on all the people.

            In Jesus the Christ, we have both priest and king -- and he is entirely perfect and without blemish.  He is the one mediator between God and man.  His sacrifice was necessary so that once and for all he could pay the penalty for sin.

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(4)        In the fourth picture, we see that the sacrifice of Jesus is superior to the animal sacrifices in the temple.  Like the priesthood, the practice of ritual sacrifice was instituted while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.  They served to provide a means of making tangible or concrete, various parts of mankind’s relationship with God.  There were sacrifices, or offerings, of thanksgiving, gratitude, and -- oh yes -- for sin.  It is interesting to note here that the sacrifices for sin were only meant for those whose sin was unintentional.  There is no provision for those who choose to sin.  The sacrifices performed by the Levites were incremental -- that means that each one would cover a single occurrence and they had to be repeated with each new transgression.

            The sacrifice offered by Jesus is superior to anything we could offer to the Levites.  Any animal to be sacrificed would have been the best animal available, but it can not compare with Jesus’ sacrifice of himself.  It would have been offered by priests who were like we are, imperfect and sinners.  Jesus was without sin.  The Levitical sacrifice was only effective for this particular occurrence.  The sacrifice of Jesus was once and for all time.  The Levitical sacrifice delivered us from the penalty of a particular sin.  The sacrifice of Jesus delivers us from the nature of sin.

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We have here a Vision of Jesus the Christ -- better than the prophets -- higher than the angels, superior to the priests and offering a more excellent sacrifice that we ever could offer for ourselves. 

            And yet we settle for less.  Like those South American bank robbers, our Vision is too small.  Like the Hebrews and those bank robbers, when hard times come we tend to return to the things that seem safest and are most within our control.  We take comfort in having some measure of power over our lives.  We claim to seek after god whom we can only see through faith while we chase after the wealth, power, position and comfort we can hold in our hands.  We worship at the altar of fine cars and clothing and color TV’s.  We seek to justify ourselves with right actions and clean living.  Like the Pharisees, we like to count our good works as righteousness.

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            While I was in Guatemala, one of the professors reminded us that the Bible is not a book about sin – rather it is a book about grace: not a rulebook to tell us what to avoid, but a roadmap to tell us how to live.

            Our scripture portion in Mark is one such periscope.  When Jesus speaks against divorce, he speaks against the abuses and the tragedy that so closely follow it.  IN the first century, divorce was easy.  IN the Roman world, it was commonplace.  Remember that John the Baptist was executed after he spoke out against Herodias who divorced her husband Philip so she could marry Philip’s brother Herod because as a politically savvy woman, she knew that Herod had better prospects.  

To divorce one person simply to marry another is to commit adultery.  In an age with dire consequences for marital infidelity, serial monogamy was an easy solution and one often taken.  A Hebrew woman could be divorced by her husband saying simply, ‘I divorce you.  I divorce you.  I divorce you.’   Without a letter of divorce – a sworn statement from the husband as to the particulars – she would always be accused of adultery.

Even with such a letter, she, and her children, would be destined to poverty, social segregation and loneliness.  The children would be looked down on.  The wife, as ‘damaged goods’, would probably never remarry.  And for what reason could such divorces take place?  If a woman burned dinner, wasn’t pretty enough, was unable to bear children, nagged too much or if the husband found a younger or prettier or richer woman he wanted to marry.

            This scripture portion is not an explanation of sin.  It is not a command for people to remain in abusive relationships while they pray for deliverance.  Don’t get me wrong.  Divorce is a terrible thing.  Even in this age it can leave scars on lives that may never heal and is something to be avoided if it can.  But the intent of what Mark writes for us here is that Jesus offers grace, justice and mercy for those who are powerless in their society and cannot seek justice on their own.  Jesus takes the little children into his arms and offers us a vision of what our lives in the world can be if we can accept the vision of glory that Jesus brings to us.

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            But more often, our Vision is too small.  When times are hard, we settle for less because it is easier.  It is easier to listen to a prophet whom we can hear with our own ears than to seek to hear a God whom we must hear in our hearts.  It is easier to look up to and rely on human beings whom we can see and touch than to look up to an intercessor whom we can not.  It is easier to keep score of our good deeds and sacrifices and try to participate in our redemption than it is to trust in a sacrifice which we cannot see and can never deserve.

            What we have is Visions of our current circumstance.  We measure our success in possessions rather than in grace because it’s easier to measure.  We take comfort in things we can acquire rather than in grace we can be given.

            What we need -- is Visions of Glory -- especially when times are hard.  Those things which so frequently distract us from our Christian journey are the very things which should be driving us to our knees are we continue in faith.  ‘Fear not little flock.  It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’.  Paul says that ‘the sufferings of this present age are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us’. Visions of Glory require time, faith and courage.

            What we are called to is higher living and higher aspirations.  Walking by faith is hard work.  Walking by faith requires courage.  Walking by faith requires time -- time to let the Savior do God’s perfect work in us.  Not easy answers, not the world’s vision of security and safety, but Visions of the Glory that will be revealed in us.

            Visions of Glory require time, faith and courage.  Let us pursue those visions as we look to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our salvation.

Amen