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 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.

Jesus was willing to experience the bitterest taste of all that we might know the sweetest of outcomes:

 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵ and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Someone noted that just as David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword, so Jesus used the devil’s weapon against him in order to destroy him. Ever since death came furiously riding into the world on the back of sin, we humans have been ‘scared to death of death.’ It was one of the Marx brothers who quipped, ‘It’s not that I’m scared to die; I just don’t want to be around when it happens!’ I guess he speaks for us all. Many a true word… But Jesus can remove the fear from death for those who trust in Him.

Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Saviour took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death (Verses 14,15: The Message).

I remember the late, great David Watson using this vivid illustration in one of his books. He said he was out walking in the countryside with his family when a bee started buzzing around his daughter’s head. He put his arm around her to shield her, and the bee stung him instead. He went on to say that, having drawn the bee’s sting, it was no longer interested in his daughter and flew away. This is what Jesus has done for us in His death on the Cross, said David. He has drawn death’s sting.

For relection: No Longer Slaves (Official Lyric Video) – Jonathan David and Melissa Helser | We Will Not Be Shaken

God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,

What is man and woman that you bother with them;
    why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
    bright with Eden’s dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
    of your entire handcrafted world.

When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place. (The Message).

Note the order. Here we have God, then the angels, then man ‘at number three in the charts’ (as someone put it). What staggering humility that God, the Son, should stoop so low: becoming, for a time, even lower than the angels He Himself created. But now the great reversal has occurred, and Jesus is in His rightful place above the angels.

But He humbled Himself for our sakes.

Furthermore, our Lord set this pattern of ‘downward mobility’ for all His followers to note and pursue (see John 13:1-17; Phil.2:1-11). He shows us ‘God’s law of gravity’ that ‘what goes down must come up.’

All of you, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because,

‘God opposes the proud
    but shows favour to the humble.’

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Peter 5:5b,6).

PRAYER: Lord God, may I be content to take the lowest seat at the table, and trust you to say ‘Come up higher’ in your way and time.