THE ONE WHO SANCTIFIES AND ONE WHO ARE SANCTIFIED BELONG TO THE SAME STOCK

The One who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified belong to the same stock.

By Fr.Felix (African Times Guest Writer)

The reading is a meditation or midrash on Psalm 8, applying directly

to Jesus what is said in that psalm about humanity in general. The

change in sense is legitimised by the expression ‘son of man’, which is

the one title which Jesus takes for his own in the gospels.

In the psalm itself it is strictly parallel to ‘man’, but Hebrews takes

it to apply to Jesus, and goes on from there to deduce Jesus’ special

position ‘crowned with glory and splendour’ Jesus himself uses this

title deliberately enigmatically, using it to describe both his

authority (‘the son of man is Lord of the Sabbath’) and to foretell his

Passion (‘the son of man must be rejected’). There has been

considerable discussion about whether Jesus intended a reference to the

glorious son of man in Daniel 7.13, the son of man who comes to the One

of Great Age and receives from him all power on earth. Certainly this

passage in Hebrews seems to take that interpretation of the title,

seeing Jesus as ‘crowned with glory and splendour’.

However, beyond the psalm, our passage stresses that Jesus was made

perfect by suffering, and that his followers too will be made perfect

and taken to perfection only by suffering with Christ. This is the

beginning of the theme which will be so important throughout the

Letter, the self-sacrificial priesthood of Jesus, which will bring all

people to salvation.