But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. (Hebrews 2:6-8)
Agents of Redemption
Apr 29, 2018
Yesterday, we saw that “the kingdom of God” was at the forefront of Jesus’s preaching. At his resurrection, Jesus proved that he is the prophesied king of that kingdom, thus inaugurating his redeemed creation.
But as we saw a few days ago, Jesus didn’t bring the fullness of his kingdom in one fell swoop. He certainly could have, but he didn’t.
This shouldn’t surprise us. Before his crucifixion, Jesus made clear that his kingdom would come gradually—slowly—like a mustard seed growing into a tree or yeast folding into dough (see Matthew 13:31-33).
How will Jesus’s kingdom come? At least partially through him working through us. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is getting at in today’s passage.
Jesus is king—present tense—of the universe (see 1 Corinthians 15:25-26). “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to” his kingship. Until his return, he has “put everything under” our authority and called us to act as his agents of redemption, working in a way that makes his kingship a little more visible and tangible in our present world.
What does this look like? It looks like working to create jobs that alleviate poverty, solving problems for our neighbors, creating art that points to the “true myth” of Christianity. The list goes on and on.
