Hebrews 3:1-11: a reflection

1Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession: Jesus, 2who was faithful to him who appointed him, as also Moses was in all his house. 3For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. 4For every house is built by someone; but he who built all things is God. 5Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, 6but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end. 7Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice, 8don’t harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of the trial in the wilderness, 9where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years. 10Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’ 11As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’”

Hebrews issues a simple but weighty invitation: Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. Fix your attention, it says, on him. And it establishes his supremacy, even over Moses, the greatest figure of the old covenant: Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house. Moses served in the house; Christ is the Son who is over it, worthy of more glory, as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

Notice the two things Hebrews puts before us. First, the call to consider Jesus, to fix our thoughts and attention on him, the faithful Son, our apostle and high priest. In a life crowded with distractions and lesser concerns, the summons is to turn our gaze deliberately to Christ, to consider him. And second, the greatness of the one we are to consider: not merely a faithful servant like Moses, but the faithful Son over the whole house of God, supreme, worthy of our fullest attention and trust.

And the passage adds a condition: we are his house, it says, if we hold fast our confidence and hope firm to the end. Considering Jesus is not a one-time glance but a fixed, persevering attention, holding fast to him all the way through. When your thoughts are consumed by lesser things, or your confidence is wavering, do what Hebrews urges: consider Jesus. Fix your attention on the faithful Son over God's house, and hold fast your confidence in him, firm to the end. He is worthy of your fullest gaze and your enduring trust.

Lord, Hebrews calls me to consider Jesus, the faithful Son over your house, worthy of more glory than any servant. In a life crowded with distractions and lesser concerns, help me fix my attention deliberately on Christ. When my thoughts are consumed by other things or my confidence wavers, draw my gaze to the faithful Son, and help me hold fast my confidence and hope in him, firm to the end. You are worthy of my fullest attention and my enduring trust. Help me consider Jesus.