Some Jewish teachers say that Eve and Cain had much the same
attitude. Eve says that she got a man
"with the help of God." In other
words, she isn't quite sure what God had to do with it but she had enough pain
that it was primarily her effort. When Cain
brings his offering he brings some of the fruit of the ground while his brother
Abel brings "the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions." Cain chose to work the land. In other words, he, like his mother, worked
against nature in getting what they had.
Child-birth was cursed as was the ground and these two had to labor
while Abel participated with God and enjoyed the labor, as man was meant to
do. Cain was angry after working so hard
that his offering wasn't as pleasing to God and perhaps we find the reason in
that he brought not his best but some stuff.
Could he have had that same attitude as his mother, that he was, in
essence bribing God to continue to do his part in the productive process? Cain is told to deal with sin which is
crouching at his door and he failed. He
was warned, knew to be on the lookout and went and did that very thing. Jesus spoke about murder once didn't He? He said hating your brother was just like
murder. If you don't deal with the hate
it only gets worse. It all begins,
however, with offering, how do we get what we have?
How incredible is it that Jesus takes away the sin of the
world? What will the world be like
without sin? It is literally
unimaginable to us that sin is no more in the world. We have only seen a world broken and degraded
by sin. We know only a world that yields
its produce with effort. We know only
what it is like to have deception, jealousy, murder, false witness, adultery,
theft, violence, and obsolescence. Jesus
makes possible what is beyond our wildest imaginings, eternity in the world we
always knew it should be and then some. When
John makes this proclamation is there any way he could have imagined how Jesus
would take away the sin of the world, through dying on a cross? When the first disciples followed Jesus and
He turned and asked what they were looking for it would seem they thought He
was a travel agent, "Where are you staying?" They honestly didn't know and you can't
really ask, "Are you Messiah?"
In our worship we speak of waiting for the return of our
brother Jesus and I know that it makes some folks uncomfortable. It is very familiar language, it feels as
though we are bringing down Jesus to our level, but it comes certainly from
this passage in Hebrews. Instead of
thinking that it diminishes Jesus it should resound as a challenge to us to
raise our own level of living and of righteousness. Indeed He became one of us and lived a
sinless life in the flesh and gave us the Spirit to assist us in the journey to
be like Him. We who claim His Name need
to step up to that challenge and be more devoted and delighted followers. If our faith in eternity is secure, let us
deal with the sin that crouches at the door and pursue being a brother or
sister that doesn't bring dishonor on the family name.
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