But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
Hebrews 1:8,9
One of the great ways of learning is to compare things against one another. When you put two things side by side, you get to see what they have in common and how they’re different.
Think about the last time you went shopping for something to wear. It doesn’t matter if it was for clothes, shoes, hats, or even underwear, we all do exactly the same thing. We put all the different choices side by side so we can look at them at the same time.
My mom was perhaps the all-time champ at this. She’d pick out about a dozen blouses and hang them over the rack on the store floor. She’d then compare them carefully, seeing which one was just the right color. Just the right style. Just the right price.
Then she’s look them over even more closely to make sure they were perfect. No holes. No dangling threads. No imperfections. After all, she wasn’t going to spend my dad’s hard-earned money on something that wasn’t just right.
Only then would she take the winner back into the changing room to try it on. When she came out, her face was beaming as she twirled around with this new piece of clothing on. She’d float through the women’s department and over to where the mirror. You know what mirror I’m talking about. Then one with a pedestal and at least three mirrors so you could see all your different sides.
She stepped up to the well-lit mirror and started looking at herself from all different angles. She’d spin this way and that. She’d hold her arms out and look at how the blouse hung on her. I could see her mind whirling as she imagined herself on the dance floor in this new blouse.
After she was satisfied came the absolutely worst part. The time of great embarrassment. It was the thing that I hated more than anything else. She’d hand me the blouse to hold while she went and looked for something else to buy. Oh, the humanity! Oh, the humiliation.
While the writer of Hebrews wasn’t buying a blouse or anything else, they were helping their readers understand a really, really important truth through comparison. And the truth is this:
Whenever you compare the Son to anyone or anything else, the Son always, always, always comes out on top.
And while the Son is bigger, brighter, stronger, and so much more than anyone else, or anything else, there’s something even more important going on here. There’s a truth that just blows our minds. A truth that makes us stand up and take notice because the Son is even more unique and special than all of these other things put together.
Here it comes. Are you ready for it? Make sure everything’s in the overhead compartment or safely stored under the seat in front of you. Doublecheck that your seatbelts are pulled tight and low.
The Son is God. There, I said it. It’s no mistake that the word “Son” is capitalized. This isn’t just some son. No, this is the Son. The one and only Son. And who does the writer call the Son? God. He’s not just some lower-case god out of the millions and millions of gods from around the world.
Oh no. The Son written about here is the one and only Son. The unique upper-case God. The God whose throne will last for ever and ever. The God who loves righteousness and hates wickedness. Make no bones about it, this Son is different and above all other sons. Period.
Because this Son is so different and unique, he deserves our attention. He’s earned our worship. He’s the one who we need to look towards. In response to who he is and all he’s done for us, this Son deserves our faithful and complete obedience.
And not just any old kind of obedience. You know the obedience I’m talking about. The obedience that’s based on fear. The obedience that we give just because we’re afraid of getting smacked upside the head.
No, the obedience this Son has earned and deserves comes from a heart that’s just overflowing with thankfulness. An obedience that just wants to do anything and everything to please the one who loves us. When we see this Son and all he’s done for us, and all he means to us, we’re gladly willing to put aside the things we want just so we can please them. Show them how much they mean to us.
So, I just have to ask, is this how we see God? Do we see him as someone who’s made us and chose us from eternity past[1]? Or do we see him as a bitter and angry god who’s looking for ways to pick on us for each and every little thing we do wrong? The Son of Hebrews is the God who loves us. Who dies for us. How’s that for a comparison?
Noodling Questions
Do you find it easy to compare people? Explain.
How are Jesus’ claim to be fully God and fully man change everything?
How does Jesus’ Sonship drive us to worship? Obedience? Explain.
[1] Ephesians 1:4
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