Today's reading touches on another theme, one very important for understanding what life in the Kingdom is. But the meaning of what Jesus says becomes clear only in the context of the situation of that transitional era which began...
Today's reading touches on another theme, one very important for understanding what life in the Kingdom is. But the meaning of what Jesus says becomes clear only in the context of the situation of that transitional era which began with the coming of the Savior and in which we live. It could be called the era of the advancing Kingdom, and it will be completed by Jesus' return. But since we do not know the exact timing of this return, readiness is required always, every day and every hour.
In fact, this is the meaning of the parables Jesus tells (vv. 36-48). When the Gospel speaks about the nearness of the Kingdom, what is meant is not the date of Christ's second coming, but the fact that the Kingdom has already entered the world, that its presence for us today is no longer future but present; and if we notice nothing of the sort, it is only because we do not want to notice. Of course, sometimes for those to whom God entrusts ministries connected with the Kingdom, the apparent remoteness of the time when the process will be completed has a relaxing effect, like the effect produced on the unrestrained servant in the parable by the thought that the master was far away (v. 45).
It is not surprising that those who knew everything and, despite everything, allowed themselves to relax are called to a more serious account than those who knew less (vv. 47-48). What is interesting is something else. In the world there are those who know more and those who know less, but, as one can see, there are none who know nothing. It is no accident that Jesus compares the signs of the advancing Kingdom to the signs by which people in those days recognized a coming change in the weather: they were just as obvious and just as understandable to everyone, so that it was simply impossible not to notice them at all and understand nothing (vv. 54-57).
That is why the coming of the Kingdom divides people, and the division, as one can see, does not run along any national, class, or religious border, but across all borders, separating those who accept the Kingdom from those who reject it, people sometimes living not only in one country and one city, but even in one house (vv. 51-53). And this happens not because God needs divisions, but because the Kingdom is an absolute reality; it is impossible to enter it partly or halfway, and even entering it "almost completely" will not work: one enters the Kingdom either to the end and without looking back, or one does not enter at all. That is why in the Church, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, there can be "neither Greek nor Jew": if the Church remains the Kingdom and does not turn into a religious organization, one among many, then only one division remains relevant for it: between those who accept the Kingdom and those who reject it. All other divisions are conditional and relative; this one is absolute, as absolute as the division between eternal life and eternal death can be.
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13:7 Remember them - Who are now with God, considering the happy end of their conversation on earth.
13:8 Men may die; but Jesus Christ, yea, and his gospel, is the same from everlasting to everlasting.
13:9 Be not carried about with various doctrines - Which differ from that one faith in our one unchangeable Lord.Strange - To the ears and hearts of all that abide in him.For it is good - It is both honourable before God and pleasant and profitable That the heart be stablished with grace - Springing from faith in Christ. Not with meats - Jewishceremonies, which indeed can never stablish the heart.
13:10 On the former part of this verse, the fifteenth and sixteenth depend; on the latter, the intermediate verses. We have an altar - The cross of Christ. Whereof they have no right to eat - To partake of the benefits which we receive therefrom. Who serve the tabernacle - Who adhere to the Mosaic law.
13:11 For - According to their own law, the sin - offerings were wholly consumed, and no Jew ever ate thereof. But Christ was a sin - offering. Therefore they cannot feed upon him, as we do, who are freed from the Mosaic law.
13:12 Wherefore Jesus also - Exactly answering those typical sin - offerings. Suffered without the gate - Of Jerusalem, which answered to the old camp of Israel. That he might sanctify - Reconcile and consecrate to God. The people - Who believe in him. By his own blood - Not those shadowy sacrifices, which are now of no farther use.
13:13 Let us then go forth without the camp - Out of the Jewish dispensation. Bearing his reproach - All manner of shame, obloquy, and contempt for his sake.
13:14 For we have here - On earth No continuing city - All things here are but for a moment; and Jerusalem itself was just then on the point of being destroyed.
13:15 The sacrifice - The altar is mentioned, Heb 13:10; now the sacrifices:
- Praise;
- Beneficence;
with both of which God is well pleased.