Hebrews 2:2-10; Joshua 5:13-15; Judges 6:2-24; Galatians 6:11-18
For some reason, this is a week in which I have been thinking about angels: what an odd thing to be doing during election week! But in my teaching, I am preparing to lecture on and to discuss C. S. Lewis’s cosmic trilogy. In these books, the eldila—his fictional equivalent to the light-bodied powers, come to humans as emissaries of the LORD, and help them on their way. And this coming Sunday is the Synaxis of Michael and the other Archangels, some of whom are mentioned in Scripture or other ancient books, and some of whom we know by Holy Tradition. Though our Scriptures (and indeed our ongoing tradition) do not encourage us to speculate concerning those beings and realms that are normally hidden from our eyes, part of what has been revealed to us concerns angels, since much of revelation comes through God’s angels to His people. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us of how the Law itself, and other instructions, were given through angels by God, and contrasts God’s earlier way of dealing with Israel over against how He has come to us in Jesus:
For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Heb 2:2-10)
Here the apostle outlines the positions of God, the angels, and humankind, as ordinarily seen, but then shows how Christ has overturned that scale, at least in some respects. Psalm 8, which the apostle quotes, speaks of humankind as “a little lower than the angels” and “over” all the other “works of God’s hands”. But Paul reminds us that this sovereign care over the rest of creation is not clearly visible now: “we do not yet see all things put under him.” After all, our race has taken a detour because of our rebellion against God, and so everything is not as it should be. Yet, as the apostle goes on, we have a potent sign of God’s ongoing care for us in this fallen world. “Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, because of his suffering of death [was] crowned with glory and honor” and that, “by the grace of God, tasted death for everyone.” Astonishingly, this One who has gone before us, shows us how God can even use what seems to be our enemy for our good—Jesus, and we in our turn, are made “perfect through suffering.”
This, says the apostle, is even more marvelous than the way in which God came to us in the past eras, through the majestic voices and frightening appearance of angels.
Consider the first of our OT readings for matins:
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us or for our adversaries?” So He said, “No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, “What does my Lord say to His servant?” Then the Commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Josh 5:13-15)
The “Man” upon whom Joshua gazes has a drawn sword. He will not be pinned down as “for” or “against” Joshua’s army in the current battle that the people are fighting: after all, he is the Commander of the hosts of heaven! (And this should be a signal to us this week, as all of America is in a state of suspended polarization: God will be no one’s mascot, yet He cares about our earthly situation, and speaks to his people, for the healing of the world). At this majesty, Joshua falls prostrate, and asks for God’s word. Before the angel will relay this message, he instructs Joshua to take off his sandals, as Moses did before the burning bush. Where God meets with humans, even through a mediator, is a holy place!
We see a similar dynamic in the reading from Judges 6, when Gideon and his men were losing against the Midianites. All the people were hiding in caves from this great military force, and Gideon was even threshing wheat in the winepress shelter, out of sight of the enemy. An angel comes to him, and speaks to him a surprising message, considering the fact that they are all in hiding: “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon is doubtful, and confesses that he is the least of all, from the weakest tribe, but the angel insists that God has called him. So Gideon asks the angel to tarry, and he presents him with a meal, which the angel burns up miraculously, before disappearing himself. At this, “Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the LORD. So Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God! For I have seen the Angel of the LORD face to face.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’” Notice the instinctive response of Gideon when he realizes that this is no ordinary man, nor even a regular angel, but the Angel of the LORD: he fears death. And when he is reassured, he calls this meeting place “The LORD is Peace.” (Judges 6:2-24)
So, when God sent His Angel to reassure these patriarchs, they showed intense respect, falling prostrate, removing sandals, even fearing that they would die. Similarly, when Moses before them had been given God’s name, it was by a sacred burning bush, and when he had been given God’s Law, it was on a mountain that smoked. As St. Paul says in Galatians, “the Law was put in place through angels by an intermediary” (3:19). When God shows His presence through the angels in the OT, it is a fearful thing, though it can bring comfort, too! But His means of showing that He is Peace, that He is God-with-Us, in Jesus, is thoroughly astonishing. Not even the angels, who worship before the heavenly throne, could have imagined what God the Son would do. He is so great that He can stoop to heal and to be with us: He is so great that He appeared in weakness for our sake, without fear of losing His majesty or His position. He is the I AM, with the Father on the Throne, and with the thief on the cross. Before this humility, before this grandeur, all of our earthly squabbles and fears may be silenced; we are reminded again not to put our trust in princes, in sons of men in whom there is no help. It is He who brings us the Peace that the world can never give.
Not everyone has been able to accept the means by which God pulls us into utter communion with Him, His humble incarnation and death on a cross. In our other reading for this Sunday, St. Paul rails against those who were unable to see the complete sufficiency of what God had done in Christ, and hold onto those parts of the Law that had come to an end:
See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avail anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. (Gal 6:11-18)
Here is the problem that was plaguing the Galatians to whom St. Paul is writing. They had among them those who thought that they could avoid persecution simply by continuing to obey the Law—being circumcised, and so forth. And these half-Christians, who had one foot in the gospel, and one foot in the ceremonial Law, were trying to impose their confused teaching on Gentiles, telling them that Jesus’ work for them was insufficient. St. Paul reminds them that the mighty act on the cross compels our allegiance, and that human beings have no call to boast in anything else—not in circumcision, for it is no longer God’s sign, not in keeping Kosher, for all foods are clean, not in anything but Jesus crucified. It is by conquering death by death that Jesus has brought for us a new creation, in which there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, if they are in Christ. The sign of God’s greatness is His ability to hang on a cross for us! And St. Paul says that this is the rule by which all of us should walk. Indeed, since he has himself suffered for Christ, he bears in his body the very marks of the Lord!
This new way that God has acted among us is a wonder to the angels, who do not have flesh and blood as we do. It is a wonder to the angels, who see God high and lifted up, and bring messages from His throne to us. Into our midst has come God the Son, made for a moment “lower than the angels” like us, so that we could be fulfilled, and glorified, in Him. We know something about God that the angels cannot ever know, for God has become a human being, and not an angel. We can witness to the strength of God’s seeming weakness, to the glory of the cross! Perhaps we will not bear obvious signs of suffering for Christ in our bodies like the apostle did, but we will certainly, if we continue to follow Him, show in our bodies that great humility leading to divine glory. For He has come among us, has become what we are, that we might (it is so mysterious!) become what He is, through His grace. Let us not allow familiarity to make the wonder of this grow dim. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Here is a deliverance that takes on our weakness, to lift it up beyond everything that we can think or even imagine. Seeing an angel is a wonderful thing; contemplating and knowing the Incarnate God, and being changed by Him throughout our life is immeasurably greater.
Edith M. Humphrey 