Hebrews 3:1-6 (NIVUK)
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
Jewish Christians had a bit of a quandary. Moses gave them the fixed and absolute Law, which brought them into relationship with God. Was Jesus simply speaking about the Law, which would mean that Moses was greater than Jesus, as Jesus was simply commentating on what Moses had given, or was Jesus supplanting the Law, putting it to one side? Neither, says Hebrews, the Law remains good and God given, but Jesus is superior. As Tom Wright puts it, ‘Moses matters […] but Jesus matters even more; Moses was a true servant of God, but Jesus is God’s son. You don’t diminish Moses by making Jesus superior to him; you give him his rightful place, which is a place of honour even though it’s not the supreme honour.’
Thank you Father for the many great leaders and teachers you have given us, but most of all, thank you for Jesus, our supreme teacher, the teacher of teachers and leader of leaders!
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