The Ministry of Human Understanding

The Epistle to the Hebrews has many different aspects and lessons to convey. How­ever, its main objective was obviously to prepare the Christian Jews for the shock that was to come to them with the destruc­tion of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and all that it meant—the end of the Temple, its sacri­fices and priestly offices. It was also to ex ­pound the true significance of the Old Testament service and its fulfillment in the ministry of Christ. Presenting the rituals of the Levitical priesthood as a shadow of the more glorious ministry of Christ, Paul demonstrated to the Christian believers of Jewish extraction how the ceremonies in the Pentateuch had a profound spiritual and prophetic meaning, centering in Christ, the promised Messiah. Step by step the com­parison between the Old Testament priest­hood and that of Christ is developed, in every instance demonstrating the superior­ity of His person and ministry above the present institutions and priests.

By searching for the theological meaning of the Epistle we might, however, lose sight of some profound spiritual lessons that ac­company the presentation of Christ to the Christian Jews. The apostle does not con­fine himself to elucidate Christ's divinity (Hebrews 1), but emphasizes His true hu­manity, as well. The fulfillment of His divinely appointed work, the perfection of His life while in the flesh, make His minis­try on earth the more significant and glori­ous. In fact, these were contingent for the exercise of His subsequent office as the high priest of the New Testament.

Christ, the Man

Thus, one of the three main topics of the Epistle is Christ the man. The apostle states: "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature" (Heb. 2:14, R.S.V.). Being one of us, He shared with us human suffering, not only or primarily for His own sake, but for a purpose that went far beyond His own person: "For be­cause he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help . . ." (verse 18, R.S.V.).

In several subsequent texts, the apostle pursues this thought of suffering as part of the preparation of Christ for His ministry, and also of Christ's ministers. Such suffering stems mostly from the pastor's care for his flock, his agonizing for souls to be born into the kingdom; their perplexities and struggles he makes his own.

These were things Paul knew so well: "My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you! .

I am perplexed about you" (Gal. 4:19, 20, R.S.V.). And again he says: "And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indig­nant?" (2 Cor. 11:28, 29, R. S. V.). Phillips' translation makes the last point perhaps even more emphatic: "Does anyone have his faith upset without my longing to re­store him?" That is true apostleship, the mark of a Christ-minded shepherd, the seal of a spiritual leader.

In the third and fourth chapters of He­brews the apostle touches upon these es­sential points: 1. Leadership and people. 2. The task to lead them to the destination God had chosen for them—Canaan. It was an arduous task for Joshua to bring a stub­born, unbelieving, and sinful multitude into the Promised Land. But that was the assignment God gave His servants at that time, even though these men too suffered under the shortcomings of human nature.

True, their leadership and ours today dif­fer in many respects. Ours is more compli­cated and technical. There were no build­ing programs, no annual budgets for the maintenance of church and school, no dis­aster funds, Investment programs, Ingather­ing campaigns. No PTA and other com­mittee meetings. They did not have to fight laws curtailing religious liberty, Sunday laws, or seek an understanding with labor unions. And although they lived in God's great outdoors and were free from the beset­ments of modern life, they did have one thing in common with us—human nature.

It is one thing to speak in abstracts as to the qualities of a true leader, but it is an­other thing to strive to attain these goals in our own lives. We cannot all have the same position in leadership, but we can have the same spirit, the spiritual vision, the love, the compassion, the understanding, the firmness, and the gentleness without senti­mentality.

Let us keep our vision clear. Ellen G. White has warned us against the deception of numbers, and how right she was. Woe unto a church that measures its success by achieving goals instead of spirituality. It is even difficult to define the norms of a suc­cessful minister, the number of souls bap­tized, his success in Ingathering, his ad­ministrative abilities. As necessary as these qualities may be for effectiveness, they are not a substitute for the ability to tend his flock, to make them lie down in green pas­tures, to lead them beside still waters, to restore their soul.

Preaching With Concern

That brings us to the matter of pastoral concern and the message we preach. What shall we preach? With what shall we satisfy the souls waiting before us? Many sermons are not much more than Christian story­telling, reading of quotations, running "to and fro" in the multitude of contemporary news, but how shallow and neglectful of the deeper things of God's Word they are! We are not called to entertain, even if we could do it intelligently; we are to feed His sheep and His lambs. How much we could do, and how little we achieve! Why? Is it that we have lost touch with the church members? Is it that we don't know them any more by name? Have we come to the point where we perform our ministry "profession­ally" but not as a calling?

Many of us are aware of the problems the Advent Movement faces. For more than a century we have preached the chaos that will engulf our generation. But what have we done to meet that emergency? Many new and unexpected situations find us ut­terly unprepared, often unable to respond to the spiritual needs of the church, and possibly even less, to give guidance to a bewildered, frustrated humanity outside the fold. We have a message, but when it does not lead men beyond baptism by im­mersion, keeping the Sabbath, paying tithe, health reform, and living according to all the requirements of the church, that "gos­pel" degenerates to an "idea," a religious philosophy, and in spite of all activity, to a lifeless abstract.

Every denomination, including our own, is exposed to a historical development, where it becomes spiritually shallow, sub­stituting for its original fervor accepted forms of teaching and conduct. By and by the gap between denominational standards and the practices of the church and its members becomes alarming But if the min­ister tries to restore the spirituality of the congregation by stricter Sabbath observ­ance, stricter health reform, stricter enforce­ment of rules, he will discover that this leads not to a revival, but to a downward spiral between hope and failure, because rules and prescription for conduct are not a substitute for spirituality. What then, can we do?

Example of Christ

Christ knew the needs of those He met, and that the most outstanding one was sal­vation, freedom from the burdens of the inward man. Furthermore, when people did not know exactly what and why it was hurt­ing, Jesus was able to make them conscious of their real need, as shown by His con­versations with the rich young ruler and Nicodemus. Our Lord does understand the human soul and as our high priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, because He was tempted as we are (Heb. 4:15). How far-reaching these temptations were is stated in Hebrews 5:7, R.S.V.: "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears."

Did these temptations have the same ef­fect upon Him, seeing He was the Son of God? The apostle answered this question in the next verse, not easily understood: "Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered" (R.S.V.). We do not have to make a theological prob­lem of these words, but accept what the text obviously means, that from the days of His childhood Jesus had to learn obedience to­ward father, mother, teachers, rabbis, and whatever authority entered the orbit of His life. It does not mean that obedience was given to Him as a special endowment, neither that it was inherent in His nature. Our Saviour had to learn obedience, step by step, day by day, until He was "made perfect" (verse 9, R.S.V.). Even in Geth­semane He had to pray for that perfect obedience (Luke 22:42).

But this might be only one meaning of the above passage. In a more recent ver­sion in German by Albrecht the transla­tion is slightly different: "Although he was a Son, he has learned in the school of suf­fering what it means to be obedient." I do not want to stretch Greek terminology, but I accept this translation as entirely admissi­ble. It expands our understanding of Christ's humanity immensely. It indicates the response of His soul to all external and internal temptations, assaults and vexations of everyday life. He suffered through the injustice of man, his malice, his rudeness. But Christ never gave in to the natural im­pulse of retribution. He endured and ex­perienced what it meant to bear the weak­nesses of His fellow men, and thus learned how hard it can be to be truly obedient. He did not react as we would have done when He was abused, attacked, maligned, mis­treated, and falsely accused. When His own family rejected Him, when His disciples for­sook Him, when Judas betrayed Him, He neither repudiated nor condemned them.

In the school of suffering Jesus learned what it means to be obedient. That word is not only an indication of His own struggle and victory over human nature but is also the key to the understanding of the effec­tiveness of His ministry. By having been subject to our temptations Jesus had a grasp of the total issues of man's life, of the endless fight against evil.

The Jews who listened to the Lord had probably no problems about religious doc­trines, but many were concerned and bur­dened with sin and how to cope with the weakness of their nature. It may be that not much is evident of what goes on in the heart of our neighbor. It may conceal an ache that only the Lord understands. But sympathetic understanding without senti­mentalism can open the doors and the hearts of the people. However, the kind of preaching we sometimes present to our needy congregation is like giving a stone instead of bread to a hungry man. That was not what Jesus did. Today He sees our suffering and feels our pains. He suffers with our defeats, rejoices in our victories.

The remorse because of our having done wrong, the misery of an ever-present down­ward pull, the consciousness of one's own frailty—He understands.

God alone knows our desperate need of renewed spiritual power. He will give it to His church largely through the preaching of salvation by a fully consecrated ministry. There will be men who, like their Master, have learned in the school of suffering what it means to be obedient. These men will not preach condemnation, but knowing the intensity of the struggle, will stretch out their hand, open their understanding heart, and lead the needy to the Lord and into a new life, where sins are forgiven, and all things have become new.