Lent Day Six
“Hebrews 2:14-18”
Hebrews 2:14-18 The Passion Translation
14 Since all his “children” have flesh and blood, so Jesus became human to fully identify with us. He did this, so that he could experience death and annihilate the effects of the intimidating accuser who holds against us the power of death.
15 By embracing death Jesus sets free those who live their entire lives in bondage to the tormenting dread of death. 1
6 For it is clear that he didn’t do this for the angels, but for all the sons and daughters of Abraham.
17 This is why he had to be a Man and take hold of our humanity in every way. He made us his brothers and sisters and became our merciful and faithful King-Priest before God, as the One who removed our sins to make us one with him.
18 He suffered and endured every test and temptation, so that he can help us every time we pass through the ordeals of life.
As we approach the amazing Easter story many of us have heard it so many times that we can forget or miss how incredible it actually is. I have always loved Easter. But as a child hearing this most important of stories, we sometimes air-brushed death right out of the story of the cross somehow. I think we are taught to be scared of death from a very young age and so the Easter story is a tricky one for Christian parents and teachers. It is a bit morbid. As a relentlessly positive Jesus follower, my tendency was to rush straight to the resurrection and breathe a sigh of relief. Even as Jesus approached the Garden of Gethsemane my heart and thoughts were heading straight to the beach breakfast with the risen Christ.
But reading this familiar passage again in this unfamiliar version, the beautiful yet brutal truth of the work of Jesus on the cross has sunk a little deeper.
The translators have expressed the fear that so many of us carry as a ‘bondage to the tormenting dread of death.’ The words ‘tormenting’ and ‘dread’ here caused me to pause a little longer over my own feelings towards our inevitable endings. We see it everywhere, don’t we? People trying to beat death and tackle fear with so many different hacks to lengthen life. Yet the brutal truth is that death is a shared human experience, and it cannot be avoided. This translation tackles the reason for the season of Easter head on. Jesus had to become one of us. He had to face what we find hard to even talk about, he had to actually die in a human body so that our fear, our dread, can be dealt with once and for all.
I love that phrase ‘He had to be a man and TAKE HOLD OF OUR HUMANITY in every way.’ Isn’t that good news! He has taken hold of my humanity, my fear, my shame, my brokenness. He is stronger than death itself.
He has beaten it.
Amazing.
So, fears and dreads and scary thoughts: listen up… there is a deeper truth than the inevitability of endings. ‘This is why He had to be a man…’ Thank you so much Jesus!
Ruth Rice
Ruth Rice is Director of Renew Wellbeing, a charity which runs simple café style spaces attached to a quiet room where inner habits of wellbeing are shared. Ruth longs for every church to find ways to bring God’s peace onto the high street and open spaces for all to attend to their wellbeing.