"My Time Has Not Yet Come": A Journey to Completion, pt. 1
I In John 2, at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus and his disciples have been invited to a wedding. The wine is running low, the celebration is beginning to fade, and Jesus finds himself pressed to "do something" about the situation. He responds to the request rather strangely. Reluctant to get involved he replies, "My time has not yet come."
Skip ahead to John 19, the end of his ministry. Jesus hangs on the cross, full of purpose and compassion, his life not being taken from him so much as given by him. In verse 28, Jesus surveys the situation and know that “all was now completed.” Ending his ministry with the same element with which he first “revealed his glory” (wine), he takes a sip and proclaims, “It is finished” and gives up his spirit.
This idea of Jesus' life building up to a completion that was fulfilled by the cross finds support in Hebrews 5:8-10...
"Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek"
The Greek wording here does not imply "perfection" so much as "completion." Jesus learning obedience from his suffering "completed" and "fulfilled" what was required of him before he could become the source of our salvation. There is a reason Jesus did not come to earth as a full-grown adult male on Thursday, go to the cross on Friday, rise from the dead on Sunday, and return to the Father on Monday, but instead came and "dwelt among us" for thirty years before beginning his public ministry. Jesus' mission ended with the cross and the resurrection, but it was not made up of only the cross and the resurrection.
So what else was it? What was required of our Savior before it was "the right time" to go to the cross? What are some of those experiences that "completed" the road to Golgotha? We are studying this very question in our Junior High class right now on Sunday mornings, and I thought I would share, over the next several posts, some of the conclusions to which we have come.
The first of these experiences was simply that of being human. There are several reasons I call Hebrews the "Now I get it!" book, and its discussion of the necessity of Jesus not only being human but experiencing humanity is one of those reasons.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. (2:10-11)
It was necessary that God use one of our own to make us holy. And God was able to make that happen, since He is the one "for whom and through whom everything exists" anyway!
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds 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 surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. (2:14-16)
Part of being human is, to put it awkwardly, "experiencing the human experience." Jesus
came to destroy Satan's hold on creation "from the inside out." It reminds me of the epic concluding battle in The Matrix Revolutions (one of my favorite trilogies of all time and blatantly loaded with Christological metaphor), where Neo (the protagonist representing Christ) appears to finally be defeated by Agent Smith (the antagonist representing Satan). Smith is finally able to "take hold" of Neo by turning him into one of his replicants, and it appears that Neo is no more. But suddenly this new "Neo/Smith" person begins to radiate light from the inside out. The Agent Smith "veneer" begins to crack and finally explodes in a shower of light, destroying the original Smith and his millions of replicants. And the original Neo remains.
You see, in order to defeat Smith, Neo had to willingly allow himself to be taken over by Smith. He knew that to defeat his enemy he would have to be able to overcome defeat itself, to "lay down his life" by his own accord and then rise to victory, not from a place of strength, but all the way from the depths of weakness.
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (2:17-18)
Jesus becoming "like his brothers in every way" took time. It took every second of every moment of his life from conception in Mary's womb to his final breath on the cross and even death itself for Jesus to be able to faithfully fulfill his role as high priest, making atonement for us in the presence of God. But Jesus' ministry is also an ever-present, continuing ministry, one that allows us to "approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (4:16). Jesus may have "sat down at the right hand of God" in order to wait "for his enemies to be made his footstool," but he also "lives to intercede" for us as His followers, and is qualified to do so not in spite of his humanity but because of it.
In other words, "Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant" (7:22).
Baptism has meaning because of the resurrection (1 Peter 3:21-22). The resurrection has meaning because of the cross. And the cross has meaning because Jesus shared in our humanity before he went there. This, then, was one step toward Jesus' journey of completion which found fulfillment in his death, burial, and resurrection. But it was not the only step. Our next post will discuss the deeper step of Jesus' experience of "suffering" and the obedience he learned from it.
Skip ahead to John 19, the end of his ministry. Jesus hangs on the cross, full of purpose and compassion, his life not being taken from him so much as given by him. In verse 28, Jesus surveys the situation and know that “all was now completed.” Ending his ministry with the same element with which he first “revealed his glory” (wine), he takes a sip and proclaims, “It is finished” and gives up his spirit.
This idea of Jesus' life building up to a completion that was fulfilled by the cross finds support in Hebrews 5:8-10...
"Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek"
The Greek wording here does not imply "perfection" so much as "completion." Jesus learning obedience from his suffering "completed" and "fulfilled" what was required of him before he could become the source of our salvation. There is a reason Jesus did not come to earth as a full-grown adult male on Thursday, go to the cross on Friday, rise from the dead on Sunday, and return to the Father on Monday, but instead came and "dwelt among us" for thirty years before beginning his public ministry. Jesus' mission ended with the cross and the resurrection, but it was not made up of only the cross and the resurrection.
So what else was it? What was required of our Savior before it was "the right time" to go to the cross? What are some of those experiences that "completed" the road to Golgotha? We are studying this very question in our Junior High class right now on Sunday mornings, and I thought I would share, over the next several posts, some of the conclusions to which we have come.
The first of these experiences was simply that of being human. There are several reasons I call Hebrews the "Now I get it!" book, and its discussion of the necessity of Jesus not only being human but experiencing humanity is one of those reasons.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. (2:10-11)
It was necessary that God use one of our own to make us holy. And God was able to make that happen, since He is the one "for whom and through whom everything exists" anyway!
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds 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 surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. (2:14-16)
Part of being human is, to put it awkwardly, "experiencing the human experience." Jesus
You see, in order to defeat Smith, Neo had to willingly allow himself to be taken over by Smith. He knew that to defeat his enemy he would have to be able to overcome defeat itself, to "lay down his life" by his own accord and then rise to victory, not from a place of strength, but all the way from the depths of weakness.
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (2:17-18)
Jesus becoming "like his brothers in every way" took time. It took every second of every moment of his life from conception in Mary's womb to his final breath on the cross and even death itself for Jesus to be able to faithfully fulfill his role as high priest, making atonement for us in the presence of God. But Jesus' ministry is also an ever-present, continuing ministry, one that allows us to "approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (4:16). Jesus may have "sat down at the right hand of God" in order to wait "for his enemies to be made his footstool," but he also "lives to intercede" for us as His followers, and is qualified to do so not in spite of his humanity but because of it.
In other words, "Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant" (7:22).
Baptism has meaning because of the resurrection (1 Peter 3:21-22). The resurrection has meaning because of the cross. And the cross has meaning because Jesus shared in our humanity before he went there. This, then, was one step toward Jesus' journey of completion which found fulfillment in his death, burial, and resurrection. But it was not the only step. Our next post will discuss the deeper step of Jesus' experience of "suffering" and the obedience he learned from it.
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