Reading: Hebrews 2
Jesus, by taking on humanity, became “a little lower than the angels,” as Psalm 8 says. But Psalm 8 also says that God “put all things under” man’s feet. So which is it? Are the angels above Jesus, or under His feet? The author of Hebrews resolves this tension by pointing out that it’s a process. Jesus became lower so that He “might taste death for everyone,” and for exactly that reason He is “crowned with glory and honor.” As we already saw in chapter 1, He sits at God’s right hand until His enemies are made His footstool.
But Psalm 8 is not principally a meditation on the Messiah; it’s a meditation on the nature of humanity. Through Jesus, God is “bringing many sons to glory.” And so Jesus unashamedly calls us His brothers and sisters, prefigured in the words of Psalm 22 (“I will declare Your name to My brothers”) and Isaiah 8 (“Here am I, and the children God has given Me”).
Isaiah 8 is particularly striking, written just before a catastrophic invasion. Isaiah’s ministry was to announce the impending judgment and that God would preserve His people through it. Knowing his homeland was about to be invaded and destroyed, Isaiah did the most foolish thing you can imagine: he kept having kids. Because God assured him that there was hope, and he believed God’s promise. Likewise Jesus, believing God’s promise that He is bringing many sons to glory, is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters, to identify fully with us. It’s a sign of hope that can’t be faked. He became one of us, so that we could one day be His companions, “crowned with glory and honor.”
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