Fix Your Attention on Jesus
Jan 8, 2015 2287
by Milton Hook
Therefore, Christian Brothers, you who, all alike, have received the Call from Heaven, fix your attention on Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Religion. – Hebrews 3:1 (TCNT)
The writer of Hebrews, whoever he or she might be, doesn’t call anyone else an apostle. The term is reserved for Jesus only. The Hebrew readers would know exactly what the writer was driving at. They knew that the Sanhedrin, their Supreme Court, was in the habit of sending out apostles who carried their authoritative commands. The picture here is one of Jesus as an apostle being sent from heaven with the Father’s full authority. For this reason we are invited to fix our attention on Him. The translation is a good one. The Greek word means more than simply to glance at Jesus. Instead, the original word means to concentrate and search for the meaning with some seriousness or earnest intent.
This serious searching for meaning leads the writer back to the Old Testament scene of Aaron and Miriam’s murmuring against Moses and his Egyptian wife. In the story God endorsed the faithfulness of Moses in high office. The argument used in the narrative was that God spoke to prophets only in visions and dreams but spoke to Moses face to face therefore Moses was greater than the prophets (Numbers 12).
That placed Moses, in the mind of the writer of Hebrews, as the leading servant in God’s house. But the writer then elevates Jesus to the status of son and legitimate heir of the house.
It was a persuasive argument tailored for the Hebrew mindset. And the admonition is also relevant for Gentiles, i.e., the words of Moses are from God’s servant but the words of the Apostle Jesus are from the Son and Heir of the Heavenly Sanhedrin.
It seems to me that Scripture grants rank to the prophets, Moses and Jesus, with Jesus given the top slot. He deserves our fullest attention.
We “who share in the heavenly calling” are invited to “fix your thoughts on Jesus, the Apostle ….. He was faithful to the One who appointed Him ….. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house …. but Christ is faithful as a Son over God’s house ….” (Hebrews 3:1-6).
– Milton Hook
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