Dying with Christ. That, in the end, is the only good way to die, the only way to die well. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, imitate that.
The first time I preached Hebrews 13 was in my first months serving a parish. The pericope came up the week of the attacks on September 11, and the church was packed. What a joy in the midst of worry and need for a preacher to dilate on the credal verse, Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same comfort for hearers two thousand years ago amid persecution, the same comfort for people just a quarter century ago amid anxiety, loss, and terror, is the same comfort for people this very week. We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, we wither and perish, but naught changes thee: The same, yesterday, today, forever.
With a closer look, longer study, and especially another couple of decades of service and my own impending senescence (!), I read the concluding chapter of Hebrews as an exhortation to die well. It is a fitting end to a lengthy letter (or sermon) that has in its last quarter reviewed the faith of the Old Testament saints (Hebrews 11) and laid out for the original recipients their identity as sojourner-exiles on their pilgrimage to the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, the gospel geography of Mount Zion, where Jesus is, the mediator of a new covenant, sprinkling with His blood (Hebrews 12). If all of Christianity is the art of dying well, then this is a great pericope to preach in that vein!
I would invite your focus there specifically, especially since the balance of Hebrews 13 is the author’s “haustafel,” that set of guidelines for living in the estates of home, church, and society which several epistles include (see the end of Colossians 3, Ephesians 5-6, 1 Peter 2:13-3:17, and others). Hebrews 13 could possibly be read as a concluding catch-all for advice about hospitality, the purity of marriage, and deference to leaders. I would say that is a superficial read, one which likely turns on a quick assumption that “leaders” here refers to superiors in society, political leaders (as, for example, Paul delimits in 1 Timothy 2 when he commands prayer for the emperor, or in Romans 13 with obedience to governing authorities). But the author of Hebrews does not have a general ethos of submission and obedience in mind as he gets to the end of the letter. Contextual reading demands we recall that his words here come hot on the heels of the chapter 11 roll-call of faithful followers who are now the “great cloud of witnesses” along with the whole company of Heaven (Hebrews 12:1, 23), the exempla of faith that the reader/hearer has already been called to emulate even as they fix their eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2, 3, 24). In other words, if there are “leaders” (Hebrews 13:7, 17) to follow and imitate in this letter besides the Jesus of Hebrews 12:2-3, they are those who teach about this Jesus. The writer makes this explicit at both Hebrews 13:7 and 17, when he calls them such people as stay vigilant over the souls or lives of the hearers/readers and when he identifies them as those who speak the Word of God. The author of Hebrews is talking about those who blazed the trail ahead in teaching God’s Word; contemporary elders, pastors, teachers, leaders of the congregation, and those no longer alive.
And that is the point. This epistle’s immediate audience is told to imitate their faith when they “consider the outcome of their way of life.” It might be easy in English to listen to that being said quickly and hear “the result of their lifestyle,” or something like that, imagining the copy job is about sanctified habits. That is not what Hebrews 13:7 is talking about. The “outcome,” or “ekbasis,” is idiomatic Greek for the end of a person’s life. It is as if the author is saying, “Consider how they died, and imitate that!” How did they die? They died hoping in promise, walking their sojourn, owning the outcome in the now and the not yet. They were guided by faith (Hebrews 11:1-2), not glorious heroes with what the world would call a happy ending (reread Hebrews 11:35-38!) but commended for their trust, their walking in hope, and their faith (Hebrews 11:39).
How did they die? They died hoping in promise, walking their sojourn, owning the outcome in the now and the not yet.
Do not let it be lost on you that the Old Testament and Gospel lessons this week reinforce the important point about “leadership” being topsy-turvy in the Kingdom Jesus preaches. It is not the leadership of a human theology pyramid (the stuff that runs corporate America, secular humanism, and even too many people running conferences and classes on leadership in today’s church), but service, lowness, the life of the bondservant, and the status of the slave. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted. And whenever Jesus is running the opposite game in His kingdom talk, that is theology of the cross talk right there.
But I digress. Indeed, those who follow a leader like the ones the Hebrews author has been memorializing will begin to look like that leader. And what does the Leader with a capital “L” look like in this scenario? We should know. We have been told to fix our eyes on Him since Hebrews 12:2, to consider Him who endured in Hebrews 12:3, and we cannot deny that this is the Christ of the cross. That is what your true leaders look like, Christian. They are those who have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20-21; 6:14-17), who bear in their body the death of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10), and who live the theology of the cross. The cross is where baptismal life begins, the cross is where baptismal life is fulfilled, and dying with Christ is the precondition to rising with Him.
Dying with Christ. That, in the end, is the only good way to die, the only way to die well. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, imitate that.
Not everyone is called to be a martyr like Saint Lawrence or Saint Perpetua or any number of gruesome ends and glorious witnesses. Certainly, such people are included in those we are here encouraged to emulate and imitate, not only in life but also in death. But the precise manner and circumstances of their life and death are, rather, more the exception than the rule. The rule (and this is the point) is they lived with Christ, and they died with Christ. How did they live? In such a way as to die well. This begins by walking according to promise, walking in hope, walking along the definition of faith that the author introduced at Hebrews 11:1-2. In what way did they die? They died as witnesses and martyrs. Not every martyr, not every witness, dies a memorable death, because martyrdom for the saint is not as we have come to understand the word in our common parlance, like dying for a cause or some such. No, martyrdom in the Christian tradition is always dying to the world in order to receive what God has promised. It is a consistency of habit, an integrity of confidence only and ever in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has promised. To die as one of these is to walk daily in hope with the confidence that you own the fulfillment in the now, even as you wait for it as not yet.
No, martyrdom in the Christian tradition is always dying to the world in order to receive what God has promised.
This mundane reality might seem to diminish the fantasy of doing something glorious, showing off a witness, yearning to make a mark. It should. This is not what we are called to in our emulation of the saints, Old Testament saints, New Testament saints, or contemporary saints. Do, do, do is never the answer faith demands. Trust, trust, trust is. Live with Jesus, die with Jesus. That is all. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
What is the price of a life? An effective illustration that left a martyrdom mark on me many moons ago was delivered by a speaker talking about his young, emotionally charged conversion experience, inspiring him back then to evangelize and somehow demonstrate his love for God in an amazing way, a blaze of glory, a martyrdom for the history books. It is as if, he said, he had won a million-dollar lottery and he wanted to do something prodigal with it, blow it all in one swoop, pay it back to the Lord as a mark of love. What he had learned after many years was that the Lord did want those million dollars, just not all at once; fifty cents at a time, a dime here, a dollar there. Stop trying to do something glorious, in other words (it is not about do, do, do! It is about trust, trust, trust). Look at those who live in faith. Imitate what they do. What did they do? They lived with Christ. They died with Christ. That is the only way to die well. You do it too. Live with Christ. Live in such a way as to die with Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, forever.
One final note on this pericope is the overt sacramental connection to be drawn at Hebrews 13:10-15. There is a rich theology here consonant with the theme of the entire letter, which is Jesus’ superiority to all Second Temple Jewish institutions and Old Testament history, and which most recently was confessed in the distinction of Mount Sinai and Mount Zion in last week’s epistle pericope (Hebrews 12:18-24). This is a great focus and particularly apropos should you be concluding a “series” of these four last weeks’ readings of Hebrews in order to reinforce the point, but this business of “foods” and characterizing the inside the tent, outside the tent duality might otherwise take a bit of time to unpack if your people are relatively less familiar with the Old Testament references. You do not want to burn your pulpit time teaching from a commentary or rehashing tabernacle history in order to get your people to learn something that commentaries will not necessarily find agreement on with respect to Jewish-Christian relations in the first century AD, nuanced by what an author argues about this letter’s dating. That is not what a pulpit is for. It is for killing and making alive through the delivery of God’s Word in Christ. Do that by extending the invitation to eat at the altar where there is no sacrificed bull or goat or sheep or any such thing that must be done over and over (tapping into the lessons of Hebrews 7-10), to eat at the altar that was forged not in national pride or kingly pageantry (in Jesus’ day, the pomp of a puppet king, see Matthew 24:1-2 and John 2:13-22), but rather to eat at the altar built of wood and bloodied by the One who endured opposition from sinful men, who endured the cross, shame and all (Hebrews 12:2-3). Invite your people to dine on Christ and drink His blood like the outsiders we are. The world was not worthy of them (Hebrews 11:38), because it was not and is not worthy of Him! So, let us live with Him as they did, and as they did, that we may die with him. And let us dine with Him and them at that same altar. He is the same, yesterday, today, forever!
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Hebrews 13:1-17.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Hebrews 13:1-17.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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