Hebrews 2:8-9, ‘At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death…’
Two “sights” are juxtaposed in these verses.
The first is what we might call the “sight of the flesh,” that is, what our present experience declares to be true. According to this sight, the present world is not subjected to God in Christ. The ravages of cancer, the rending grief of loss, the brutality of humanity turned against itself, the seemingly meaningless destruction of innocence; every horror and agony and terror broiling in the serpent pit of the world around us—and within us—is part of “not yet see[ing] everything in subjection to Him.” That is the first sight.
And if this is the only sight we had, then we would conclude that God’s promise to subject the world to Himself had failed; that, indeed, the word of God has died, “crucified,” as it were, on the cross of my present experience.
But there is a second sight in these verses, the “sight of faith.” And what does faith see? It sees the Crucified Jesus Christ who is Risen and crowned with the glory and honor. Now, to see the Risen Christ is not merely to see one thing—even the best thing—that God has done, it is to see ALL and EVERYTHING that God does, because it is to see God Himself. Let me explain two ways this works—>
*All* of my experiences of God’s word “dying” in my life—all the seeming failures of His promises—these *happen* in the moment that the body of the crucified Word hangs dead on Calvary. There, in that moment of arch-dismay, as God’s embodied promises are literally lifeless on the cross, there is made present every shattering of peace, every loss of joy, every dismantling of faith. Which means that the *resurrection* of that same Word is also the *vindication* of every promise God has ever made. To see the risen Christ is to see that every word of God proves true.
But further, the risen Jesus Christ *is Himself* all creation reconciled to God since he bears in Himself that human flesh which is the crown and consummation of creation—the flesh in which all the cosmos is present “en nuce.” Thus, the risen *material body* of Jesus Christ *is* the reconciliation of the created universe to God—Jesus Christ, risen and reigning, is Himself, as it were, the New Heavens and Earth, the Embodied Eschaton, the “World to Come” living and breathing on the throne of reality.
Thus, when we look to the Risen Christ in the midst of this sin-torn world, we do not look to a far-off and disconnected reality—a “nice thought” to help us through the Night. No, we look to the Living Embodiment of our Invincible Hope, we look to the Enfleshed Word of God, proven faithful through every horror, vindicated beyond every death, crowned with the glory of the Truth, such that—in Him—we know that in our own life, every promise will be true. And we look to the Incarnation of universal reconciliation, to Shalom in the Flesh, to the Personification of All Things Ordered, All Things Well, All Things Healed—we look to the One whom to see is to see what has been, is now, and will ever be TRUE, because it is to look to the Radiance of the Glory of God Himself (Heb.1:3).
So, in the midst of chaos, in the midst of madness, in the midst of loss and pain and the seeming death of God’s promises, let us fix our eyes on the Crucified One who is Risen, in whom EVERY Word of God proves True and who is Himself the Promised Reconciliation of the Cosmos.
