Jesus' Family Legacy--June 2, 2021

Jesus' Family Legacy--June 2, 2021

"Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." [Hebrews 5:8-10]

Jesus lived up to his family name, so to speak, by what he endured for us.  Maybe that's a place for us to start.

One of the things I have loved most about serving in the same place for a while is that I get to know extended families--like sometimes four or five generations of a family.  And in that time, you get to know family traits and traditions, their mannerisms as well as their distinctive facial features.  You come to recognize the Smith eyes or the Jones smile, or the slow drawl of a family patriarch echoed across later generations.  You come to know the sort of character that defines a family, too, quite often--these are the ones who pride themselves on being good hosts and welcoming all with their hospitality; those are the ones who raise their kids to be polite but tenacious achievers. And those folks over there are the ones who keep on showing their resilience through struggle after struggle in life.  That sort of thing.

Of course, a particular character doesn't just come with a surname--you may be raised in a family of hard workers and still grow up to be lazy and entitled, just as you can grow up in a family of apathy and dysfunction and still break the mold to become an overachiever.  You can grow up in a family that prides itself on its integrity and strength, only to grow up to be a sell-out; and you can break with all the family history of lying and deception to choose to be an honest and reliable person yourself.   All of that is to say that just because you happen to be a son or daughter in the Jones family, you may or may not yet have grown into the family legacy that goes with the Jones name.  It really comes down to what you do with the life you are given, and whether you resonate with the best your family identity has to offer, pass along their worst habits and hang-ups, or chart your own course entirely.  Or some of all three--families are messy that way.

Well, if you can picture the way our families pass on traits, not only physiological things like blue eyes or tall statures, but patterns of virtue and behavior like honesty, decency, generosity, and hospitality, then maybe we can keep all of that in mind as we think about Jesus, and the "family" he embodies as Son of God.  The writer of Hebrews knows that just because you have a name or a title may not mean anything if you don't actually live into your your identity by your choices and your actions.  You can be the crown prince of a good king and still be a selfish jerk.  You can be the descendant of a wise and courageous ruler and still be a foolish coward yourself.  For that matter, you could be the great-great-grandchild of a Confederate officer or Klan member and yet still choose to reject that legacy of racism and work instead to restore justice rather than fueling hatred.  The question is what you will when push comes to shove.  And with Jesus, Jesus lives up to the character of the God whose Son he is.  Jesus embodied the faithfulness and grace of God in his own suffering love--revealing that he really is the fullness of God in a human life.

It really is saying something that Jesus doesn't just ride on the family coat-tails and coast his way through life claiming special status and privileges because he's God's Son.  You half expect that sort of thing anymore these days, when people cash in on having famous parents, or parlay having a celebrated relative in public office into their own political candidacy, based solely on name recognition.  We're used to stories of "legacy students" at posh and prestigious universities, who get in because their parents or grandparents are big donors.  There are, to be very honest, an embarrassingly large number of stories where wealthy or powerful parents use their influence or money to keep their kids out of trouble, or to get them into a cushy job, or to perch them in some position way beyond their talents, just because of the family name they carried.  And if anybody had the opportunity to play that card, surely it would be the one who called the Creator of the Universe and Source of all Being, "Abba"--Father.  Surely, there could have been the temptation for Jesus to just trade on the family legacy.

But the writer of Hebrews insists that Jesus is different than all those stories of nepotism.  Jesus revealed his character--and showed that he is indeed the Son of the living God--by the ways he chose to endure for our sake.  Jesus shows what he is made of by his self-giving love.  In a sense, this all goes back to the idea we first encountered at the beginning of Hebrews that Jesus is the exact and complete image of the living God in a human life.  We really get to know who God is by what we see in Jesus.  And instead of just trading on his family's reputation and coasting through life with privilege and comfort, Jesus chose the path of suffering love.  Jesus chose the difficult path of laying down his life for others.  Jesus chose the path of standing with the ones labeled "sinners" and "outcasts" rather than rubbing elbows with the country club scene and the politically well-connected. Even when the titles of privilege like "Messiah" were thrown at him, he redirected people to see him as the suffering servant rather than a privileged prince.  And in doing that, Jesus shows us the living heart of God.  God is, all the way down to the core, self-giving love. 

And so, in every instance we have in the storytelling from the Gospels, where Jesus puts the good of others before seeking his own comfort, we get a picture of God's truest nature as radical love.  When Jesus washes the feet of his confused (and bickering) disciples, he is living up to the family legacy as Son of God.  When he chooses the table fellowship of pariahs like Zacchaeus or Simon the Leper, he is showing that he is in tune with the audacious hospitality of the living God he calls "Abba."  When Jesus faces hostility by dying for his enemies rather than killing them, he reveals what God is most like, deep down. There are no coat-tails for Jesus--only the path of self-surrender that reveals who God really is.

That is why we can count on him.  That is why both Jesus and his Abba are worthy of our worship.  That is why our definition of God--our working mental map of the divine--only makes sense if it includes the love that goes to a cross.

And all of that is to say that Jesus really lives up to his family legacy--and his own identity as Son--in what he chose to endure for our sake.  Yours, mine, all of ours.

Lord Jesus, help us to see your self-giving love the reflection of the One whom you called "Abba," and whom you taught us to call with the same relationship of love.