Better Than the Angels

On the night Jesus was born, the sky over Bethlehem was full of angels, singing glory to God. But who were they singing about? The letter to the Hebrews gives an answer. The angels were worshipping someone greater than themselves.

We do not know who wrote the letter to the Hebrews. It may first have been a sermon, written down and sent to a group of believers who knew the Jewish Scriptures well. They had suffered for their faith. Some had lost property; some had been in prison. Now they were weary, and some were tempted to drift away and go back to the old ways. So the writer reminds them how great Jesus is. And he begins with a sentence so grand and sweeping that it reads like the opening of a symphony.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. In many pieces and in many ways. Through a burning bush to Moses. Through a whisper to Elijah. Through visions to Isaiah, and dreams to Daniel. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Not one more prophet, not one more piece of the message, but the Son himself. The prophets were like candles lit one by one through a long night. The Son is the sunrise.

And who is this Son? The writer tells us in a rush of wonder. God has appointed him heir of all things. Through him God made the worlds. He is the brightness of God's glory, the way sunlight is the shining of the sun. He is the exact imprint of God's being, like the stamp a seal leaves in wax. He upholds all things by the word of his power. And when he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Maker, sustainer, rescuer, king.

Then the writer compares the Son with the angels. To which of the angels did God ever say, you are my Son, today I have become your Father? That line comes from Psalm two. No angel was ever called God's Son like that. And then a Christmas line. When God brings his firstborn into the world, he says: and let all the angels of God worship him. Picture the angels over the shepherds' fields. Bright, powerful, glorious beings. And they are bowing. Not to Caesar in Rome. Not to Herod in Jerusalem. To a baby in a manger, because he is the Son.

Even in the early church, people wondered who wrote Hebrews. Some said Paul, some suggested Barnabas or Luke. The great scholar Origen, writing in the two hundreds, gave a famous answer, recorded by the historian Eusebius: who wrote the letter, in truth, God knows. The words about the angels worshipping the Son match the ancient Greek translation of Deuteronomy, which these early readers used.

Better Than the Angels. You'll find it in Hebrews chapter one, verses one to six. Many churches read this passage on Christmas Day, because it tells us who the angels were singing about. So here is a question to carry with you. If even the angels bow to Jesus, what place does he have in your life?