I found myself chewing over the word ‘heir’ when I was
preparing for this morning. The Good News Bible says that Jesus is the one God has chosen to possess all things
at the end. The NRSV and the NIV put it more simply – he is the heir of all things.
Now
he’s called plenty of other things in verses 1-4. The Son of God, the creator
of the world, the reflection of God’s glory, the exact imprint of God’s being.
The one who sustains and purifies and is high over all. The writer’s setting
out his case for Jesus’ divinity right from the start. And we’ll get to all of
that in good time.
But
I found myself unable to get past that word ‘heir’. He is the heir of all
things. I’ve rushed past that phrase a hundred times before, never even stopped
to say hello. It’s only this past week that I’ve found myself wanting to sit
down and have a coffee and a conversation with it.
What
does it mean that Jesus is the heir of all things?
Well,
for one thing it means that everything’s coming to him in the end. Everything.
The whole of creation, including every human being who’s ever lived.
That’s
why the Bible speaks of him as the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the
Omega. Everything tends towards him. His gravity pulls in every single one of
us at the end.
And
I allude to that in every funeral service I ever take. Drawing on the book of
Ecclesiastes, I remind the folk who’ve gathered that all things come from God
and return to God. And every knee will bow and every tongue confess.
Scientists
hold that a big crunch is coming in several billion years when the universe eventually
collapses in on itself. Christians believe that even if that’s where the
evidence points, it’s not where creation’s finally headed, because we have the
inside story.
The
universe has an heir – and we believe we know his name.
But
here’s the thing. What will the heir do with what he inherits?
What
will he do with all the people when they finally return to him?
What
will he do with you and me and the people we love?
Well,
if we’re to ground our answers in something other than folk religion or wishful
thinking we need to go the Bible for our answers.
And
the Bible’s very clear that there will be a reckoning. A weighing up of our
lives and a consequent dividing of peoples. You may not like that, but it’s
there – time and time again.
Think
about the teaching of Jesus - the sheep and the goats, the grain and the chaff,
the wedding banquet and the outer darkness, the wheat and the tares, the fish
that are caught in the same net but then
separated out.
Scripture
couldn’t be clearer that there will be a reckoning for how we’ve chosen to
live; how we’ve responded to God and to our fellow man.
Paul
says that God “will give to each person
according to what he has done”. To those who by persistence in doing good seek
glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are
self–seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and
anger. (Romans 2:6-8)
And
we need to be clear that Christians are not exempt from this. We don’t get to
play the Jesus card and walk on in past security.
Writing
to the church in Corinth, Paul reminds them that “we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him
for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Cor 5:10
And
there may be some surprises in store when the reckoning comes.
“Not everyone who
says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who
does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out
demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew
you.” Matthew 7:21-23
I’ve
told you before what the poet Heinrich Heine is reported to have said on his
deathbed. “God will forgive me – that’s his job”. That’s the sound of a man who
needs to read his New Testament a bit more. It’s not as easy as that. The truth
is, there will be a reckoning and it won’t be comfortable for any of us when we
have the truth of our lives exposed before the living God.
But
here’s the thing. There is another current in Scripture that runs alongside the
message of Judgment. And it’s the message of God’s universal salvific will.
In
writing to Timothy, Paul speaks of “God
our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth. (1 Tim 2:4) It’s God’s desire that all people be saved, whoever they
are.
In Romans and in 1st Corinthians Paul
argues that Jesus is a second Adam, who undoes humanity’s fall from grace
through his death and resurrection:
He says “as in Adam, all die, so in
Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Cor 15:22
And in Romans 5 he says:“ just
as the result of one trespass (the fall)
was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness (the cross) was justification that
brings life for all men. 19For just as through
the disobedience of the one man (Adam)
the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man (Jesus) the many will be made
righteous.” Romans 5: 18,19
And
this is the one that really blows my mind. “For God was pleased to have all his fulness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood,
shed on the cross.” – Colossians 1:19,20.
So on the one hand we have many passages that speak
about judgment and separation at the end; but we have many others than speak
about a universal restoration and reconciliation.
And If you’re going to be faithful to the full witness
of the Biblical teaching, you have to try and hold both of those strands of
teaching together. The reality of judgment and the reality of God’s expansive
mercy. And it isn’t easy. I’ll confess to you I’m still trying to make sense of it all.
For the sake of nice tidy theologies it’s tempting to
emphasise one set of texts over the other so the message becomes all judgment
or all mercy. The only problem with that approach is that it doesn’t do justice
to what the Bible actually tells us.
Scripture urges us, impresses upon us the need to
repent and the harsh reality of coming judgment. But it also holds out to us
the hope that the expanse of God’s love is wider than we could ever have
dreamed of.
Now it wouldn’t surprise me if you’re feeling like
you’ve just stepped off a waltzer after dealing with all those texts. Welcome
to my world!
But here’s the rub.
We may not be entirely clear how the heir is going to
tie things up at the end of days, but we know what kind of person he is. Forget the esoteric theologies if they don’t
help. Remember him placing his hands on the childrens’ heads in blessing;
remember the eyes that were opened, the ears unblocked, the voices freed because
of his compassion. Remember him spending time with the misunderstood and the ill-used.
Remember who he reserved his harshest words for; and who he spoke to with surprising
kindness and understanding. Remember
him, led like a lamb to the slaughter with scarcely a word in his defence – for
why? To take away the sins of the world.
That’s the character of the heir of all things. That’s
the nature of the one who judges us.
And as Abraham said all those years ago, “Will not the
Judge of all the earth do right?”.
Of course he will. We can trust God to do what’s
right. At the end of days, none of us will be able to say to him that his
judgments were wrong, or unfair, or disproportionate because he is a just judge
and he will surely do what’s right.
But let us not presume on his mercy. If you hear his
voice today, don’t harden your heart to it. Better to know him now and meet him
in eternity as a friend, than ignore him now and risk meeting him in eternity
as a stranger.
Jesus,
the writer of Hebrews tells us, is the heir of all things.
The
one to whom your story and my story and all of history tends.
Amen
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