Blogging Through Hebrews: Heb 2:5-9

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)

There are two interesting contrasts here, one of the “not yet” aspect of the Kingdom and the other of the relatively brief but infinitely precious earthly ministry of Christ. Jesus, who as we have seen prior, crated all things and holds all things in His control, freely lowered Himself, emptying Himself out and taking on flesh to dwell among us.

It takes some enormous leaps to even begin to comprehend the world renewed and under the subjection of Christ in every aspect. What is the weather going to be like this weekend? What am I going to eat tonight? Will the nation of Israel attack Iran and what does that mean for me? The aches and pains of aging, the eyesight that starts to go and the mind that becomes forgetful.These will all go away for those redeemed by the blood. It can be difficult to comprehend those words amidst a world that is so wrong in so many ways but the glory is yet to come and we can rest easy in that promise.

There is also that short period of time, a mere three decades or so, nearly two thousand years in the past when something happened, or perhaps more appropriately Someone happened, and during that time, a blink of the eye in the grand scheme of history, everything changed. It seemingly ended in failure but that perceived failure turned to glorious victory, a victory that we are still celebrating today. For Jesus to redeem us, He had to set aside His glory and become, for a short time, "lower than the angels". I love those words, especially poignant today, that Jesus was crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death on behalf of His sheep. The upside-down Kingdom where the least are greatest, the King became a servant, death is victory and suffering is glory.

It is so important to remember that Jesus gained nothing by doing this but we who are His gained everything. What a Savior!