Consider Jesus 3.26.2026

    While it is true that during the Easter season, we want to be well aware of the depth of our own sinfulness and the glory of our redemption, we must ever be aware that, in a sense Easter is not about us. During this holy season our gaze needs settle on Jesus. So, the last two weeks (though last week was quite short) have been about focusing on Him, or as the Hebrew author puts it “considering Him”, or this week “considering Jesus”.

    Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.” (Hebrews 3:1-2 ESV)  

 

     Though the text might seem, at first elusive there are some clear directions that it gives us about Jesus and His mission and our response. First, we are reminded of what we share in Christ, because of the finished work of the cross. We are brothers, called to share not only in the salvation won for us by Jesus but in the ministry apportioned to us as members of His body. During the Easter season with its focus on individual piety and penitence we might be tempted to overly cloister ourselves and individualize the salvation won upon the cross. Resist that temptation. This body of which we are now a part, this bride, this temple in the Spirit is the whole point to the passion. It would be a shame to diminish it by becoming overly self-absorbed. 

    Second, we are reminded of the heavenly calling that unites us. The salvation celebrated at Easter—and around the communion table every Lord’s day is the Lord’s doing. It is not the result of our spiritual longing or religious inclination. That inclination and our longing, without God’s revealing work culminating in Jesus is a part of the problem. Without a word from God—the Word from God—our fallen spiritual nature leads us further from Him. It is His call, first as a whisper throughout the Old Testament, and finally culminating in Jesus’ definitive statement of God’s nature and love on the cross which turns the nightmare of our fallen state into the dream of paradise restored as we answer His call upon our life. 

    That settles our part. The Hebrew author goes on to make statements about Jesus. He is the “Apostle” of our confession. Knowing what the New Testament says about the Apostles who bore witness to His resurrection and proclaimed that message as Gospel might lead to misunderstanding. The Hebrew author is using a different dimension of that otherwise, very useful Hellenistic term. By apostle he is describing Jesus as the one “who was sent”. Other terms that express this particular domain of the term are emissary or ambassador. His point is that this great saving act required this heavenly interruption, this divine presence, this…incarnation! By using that well know term for the Apostolic ministry of the Church and tying it to the mission of Jesus the Hebrew author allows for a compelling unity to what Christ did and what the Church should be doing. 

    Then he gets to what we think of the heart of the Gospel. As our High Priest, the only High Priest who could do what needed to be done Jesus has won for us eternal salvation upon the cross. His faithfulness to His Father’s appointment hard as it must have been, fixes what is broken in our fallen world. Easter season is a reminder of all those truths the Scriptures imply, of all that Jesus taught, and that which the Apostolic witness clarifies about access to God’s presence. Jesus alone. That is the point of Easter. Our faith. Our witness. Our lives. Yes, repent during Easter—but more importantly—consider Jesus.