Our Brother, Jesus

Scripture:

Heb. 2:10  ¶ It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Heb. 2:11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,

Observation:

God's desire is that all of his children will come to glory; come to be in his holy presence.  Because of sin this is not possible and so our big brother, Jesus, became human to try and save us.  Through Jesus' suffering and death he created a pathway for the salvation of all of his younger siblings.  Not only is there a pathway for salvation, but there is also a way in which we may be made holy.  Jesus is holy and he makes us, the ones created in his image, to be holy as well.  All of those created in the image of God are his children and Jesus, our big brother, is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. 

Application:

I love my big brothers.  One of them passed away a few years ago after suffering from an illness for many years so today I am left with two big brothers here on earth.  My brothers love and care for me and find ways to express this from time to time.  For a period of time I often found myself in the Chicago airport during my travels.  Chicago often has airport delays and one night I was there for a rather extended visit.  About a week later I discovered my brother Dennis had been there throughout the entire delay as well.  We had been in the same airport and didn't know it!  We were disappointed because we live 2000 miles (3200 km) apart.  After that we made a decision that anytime we were in the Chicago airport we would call each other, just to see if we were in the same place at the same time.  It became fun as we began to call each other more regularly and simply check in on life.  We never did end up in the airport at the same time again, but we enjoyed the brother-sister banter. 

Another one of my brothers and I are a lot alike.  We certainly didn't think so growing up because we were close in age and fought a lot -- but as we got older, we discovered that we thought alike.  It's fun to hang out with him because it's so easy to have conversations because our line of thinking is so similar.  Our spouses make fun of us -- but they are rather alike -- and so they hang out -- and Kurt and I hang out and we all have a lot of fun.

You see -- I love my brothers!  I am like them in so many ways.  They "get" me in ways that no one else does.  Jesus "gets" us too!  I think that we often fail to realize how much we really are like him.  Even religious folks have wandered away from Jesus himself to the point that they don't recognize him.  Brothers and sisters are to recognize one another!  We are God's children and we are created to be like our big brother, Jesus.  If we follow the path of salvation and sanctification which he has already prepared for us, we will become more and more like him.  The family resemblance will continue to grow and develop.  We will unconsciously discover that we are acting like him and responding in the same way that he would respond.  We will walk like him and talk like him -- and the world will be amazed for they will have seen Jesus in the world.  Our brother, Jesus, has made all of this possible.  He loves us so much that he suffered and died just so he could create a pathway for our salvation and he is "not ashamed to call [us] brothers and sisters."  How incredible is that?  But are we ashamed to let the world know that he is our big brother?  Let's throw off any reluctance we may have and let the world know that we are proud of Jesus, our big brother and that we want to look and act just like him.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for all you've done for me.  I want to be like you.  Amen.