Your World, A Poem for Nathaniel

Nathaniel likes to wake up while it is still dark.  While I held him yesterday morning his eyes were wide open, but they were moist, swollen and red.  He had been crying.  He had his first fever yesterday along with a few other symptoms of illness.  Like most of us, he was uncomfortable and frustrated.  But there was a curious look on his face as well.  A surprised and bewildered look.  Almost as if he was looking up and asking, what is this pain?  Why do I feel this?

And so I thought to write something for him…

___________________________

Your World

Looking into your worn eyes,

It's as if today is the first day,

The first day you feel that something is not right.  

As you look back at me,

You seem to sense

The world is not as it should be.

This is our world little one.

This is your world.

So many smiles and laughs.

So many new tastes and new adventures.

The joys you feel with every new discovery are so incredibly pure.

But not everything you find will be joyful.

Not everything you taste will be delightful.

Something has happened.

This is our world Nathaniel.

This is your world.

Trees and ferns, 

Flowers and fruits,

A forest of delight surrounds you.

But something else has grown up alongside.

A parasite never intended.

A disturbing overgrowth overshadows everything.

This is our world my son.

This is your world.

We often ignore the shadows,

Or minimize them.

But it waits for us all the same.

We isolate ourselves,

We insulate ourselves,

But the corruption you feel today needs another remedy.

This is our world Nathaniel.

This is your world.

Thrills and astonishing beauty,

Heroism and renewing hope.

Every day they live together with

Injustice and ceaseless warfare,

Betrayal and bitter words.

It is two worlds, but it is one world.

This is our world little one.

This is your world.

The darkness hangs above us, deeper still

The darkness lives inside us.

Precious little one, don’t let your eyes adjust.

When the thorns surround you, don’t prune them.

See it around you yes,

But see it inside of you first.

And tho’ the remnants of beauty have not vanished, look closer,

Something more magnificent has begun.

Precious little one, the corruption itself is being remade!

When thorns surround you, see more than silver linings.

See hope that stirs within you, yes,

But see the hope that is stirring outside of you first.

This, my son, this is our world.

This is your world.

Greater than Angels

First-century Judaism had a thorough-going hierarchy of spirits, angels, and demons.  Some Jews would wear amulets around their necks in order to invoke the protection of angels from evil spirits.  One amulet for example was published as saying: “Michael, Gabriel, Ouriel, Raphael, protect the one who wears this... Flee, O hated one, Solomon pursues you.”

Even the Qumran community, which was outside mainstream Judaism at the time, also had quite a vast understanding of the rank and function of angelic hosts.  In a text called the War Scroll, the “sons of light” fight valiantly at the end of the age against the “sons of darkness” with angelic forces leading both armies.  Another text called 11QMelchizedek interprets the Melchizedek figure in the book of Genesis as an angel.  They weave him into an intricate eschatological plot where this angel comes to have certain functions that would later be interpreted as distinctly messianic.  He is to return at the end of the age to bring liberty to the captives and to defeat, once and for all, the forces of darkness.  He is the “Prince of light” and they often seem to equate him with Michael the Archangel.

For a Jewish context that had a very high regard for angels, this is fascinating background for the opening chapters of the book of Hebrews.  The author of Hebrews wants his Jewish readers to know who they are leaving behind if they trade Jesus for Judaism.  And he starts by arguing Jesus is greater than “angels.”  And since angels meant something more to Jews in this period than the harp-playing, cloud-hopping, halo-donning anecdotes we see today, than this argument has an edge we are prone to miss.  It is about rulership.  The delegated authority of God is not given to an angel.  It is given to “a son” (1:5).  Slap one.  The one sitting at the authoritative right hand of God is not an angel; it is the living messiah (1:13).  Back slap again.  The one who will fight God's enemies (the forces of darkness), the one who will rule God's kingdom with a scepter is not an angel; it is the living Jesus (1:8,13).  Double slap!

Although there are aspects to Jesus' superiority in Hebrews 1 that go all the way back to Jesus' fundamentally superior nature and being (1:2-3, 1:8,10), the primary argument is that Jesus has become superior to angels because the name that he has inherited is superior to them (1:4).  Jesus has inherited a rulership over something that angels are merely servants within.  He is forcing his readers to understand that leaving Jesus means you are leaving the commander of God's new kingdom –the very kingdom which is at the center of their enduring hope.  If you long for God's ultimate victory over evil, you probably shouldn't leave the one who holds God's scepter.