Five days ago, it was the Feast of the Ascension. That day I met with a group of Christians who didn’t realise what day it was. They wondered why I wanted to celebrate Jesus’ ascension that evening.  

The writer of Hebrews would want to enlighten them. These opening verses offer a brief account of Jesus’ life leading to his return to heaven. He existed long before the world began, but now is described as the perfect, final imprint of God’s very being (v 3). His death and resurrection completed his mission on earth. His resurrection body with its limitations was no longer needed. Job done! Time for the Spirit to come instead. 

Jesus’ ascension means that as an equal and greater than the angels, he can sit down beside his Father. Far from putting his feet up, he’s doing many things including sustaining all things by his word. And he doesn’t remain seated. Moments before his death (Acts 7:56), Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of his Father, ready to welcome him. 

As we begin reading Hebrews, ask God to illumine your mind by his Spirit and open your eyes to wonderful things about Jesus in this book.

The original readers of Hebrews were tempted to give up, so the writer introduces them to the exalted Lord Jesus. The opening words of the epistle differ from those of the other New Testament letters, in which the writer identifies himself and greets his readers. This writer begins by identifying his central concern: the exaltation of God’s Son, whom he will later identify as Jesus.¹ This paragraph is a single sentence in Greek, which boils down to ‘God has spoken in his Son’ and ‘the Son has sat down at the right hand of God’. Everything in the sentence is subordinate to that.

Since the same God who spoke to the ancestors through the prophets is now speaking in his Son, there is continuity.. There is also discontinuity: his former speech was ‘partial and piecemeal’;² his present speech ‘in these last days’ (v 2) is final. The writer believes that the Son’s exaltation to God’s right hand signals the beginning of the last days. His exaltation is God’s final word to humanity. The messianic age has begun. The Son of God has inherited all things.

The exaltation of the Son to God’s right hand is an allusion to Psalm 110:1, originally a command to the ancient Israelite king, showing that he ruled God’s people with the power and authority of God. Here God’s Son has obeyed this command by taking his seat at God’s right hand in heaven. He rules not just ancient Israel, but the entire universe with the power and authority of God. Finally, his exaltation was ‘After he had provided purification for sins’ (v 3). This announces another central concern of Hebrews: Jesus is the great high priest who has dealt with our sins once and for all.

The writer later tells his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus.³ Ask God to help you to fix your eyes on him as you go about your day.

¹ Heb 2:9  ² FF Bruce, The Christian Approach to the Old Testament, second edition, IVF, 1955, p9 ³ Heb 12:2