A Thought For The Week Of November 27, 2017

"But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9) It's strange to think of death as something that crowns someone "with glory and honour." After all, a crown is a symbol of a king - it's a sign of someone who possesses power and authority even more than it's a sign of glory and honour. And, yet, here is death being looked upon as something that crowns Jesus with glory and honour? We usually see death as a sign of our weakness; as a defeat. Death takes us, it defeats us and it seems to be victorious over our lives. So this seems strange - at first glance at least. But let's remember a couple of things. First is that with the gospel and with Jesus things are never quite the way they seem. Jesus and his gospel have a tendency to throw the established order into chaos. Just when we think we have life and the world figured out - all of a sudden Jesus comes and things aren't the way they had seemed. So should we be surprised that death (usually a thing of defeat) is described as a crown? Of course not. The unexpected is exactly what we should expect from Jesus. And that, of course, leads to a second point: we already know that Jesus accomplished something totally unexpected - he defeated death! In a very real sense death did become a crown of glory and honour for Jesus because it was his death that allowed his ultimate power and authority to be revealed. After all, without a death there can't be a resurrection. Just as one king has to die before the next king can take the throne, so did Jesus have to die before the full extent of his power and glory could be revealed. Death is a strange crown, and probably not one that most people would choose to seek for themselves. But Jesus accepted it. And as Advent is about to begin, we look ahead to the birth of the one who was born to be king.