The glazed look is what every teacher dreads. That point when the teacher realises that his material has completely outstripped the comprehension of the student.
The writer to the Hebrews was afraid of the glazed look as he reached the end of chapter 5.
In the first few chapters he has warmed to his theme: Jesus is the son of God, greater than Moses, a High Priest greater than those descended from Aaron. Then as he feels comprehension slipping he says: 'We have much to say about this but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.'
The implication is that they used to be somewhat sharper than they are now. He goes on in verse 12: 'Though by this time you ought to be teachers you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.' They should have progressed far enough to be able to teach others. But in practice they had forgotten the ABC of Christian faith.
The ABC
What was this ABC? He spells it out for them in Chapter 6.1-2. He writes: 'not laying again the foundation of ...' and gives them a list.
He begins with repentance: turning away from our sinful actions and determining to follow Christ. Next, faith in God - a personal trust in God, not just a theory. Then 'instructions about baptisms'. What is he speaking about here? Part of the problem is that the word he uses for baptism is not the usual word for baptism. It is a general word which was used for ritual washing. The thought is that they need to know about Christian baptisms in contrast to Jewish rites of purification. Christian baptism is a powerful symbol speaking of being united with Christ in his sacrificial death on the Cross, and rising to new life. Then fourth, the laying on of hands. Generally, the laying on of hands is associated with the gift of the Holy Spirit. We find it in the context of new converts in Acts 8.17 and in the context of setting people aside for special ministry in 1 Timothy 4.14.
But, in addition to these four (repentance, faith, baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit), the writers adds two more - resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. I wonder if I had asked you to write down the key truths of the Christian gospel you would have had those two in your list. The resurrection of the dead - the Christian hope not only of renewal in our present life, but also of eternal life with God. I suspect that we do not give that a high priority. Why not? Because our culture hides death away. It is not part of everyday experience. Indeed, apart from accidental death most of us can expect with modern medicine to live on well into our 80s. What a contrast with the first century AD! As far as can be estimated the average life expectancy in the 1st century for those who survived childhood (and not many did) was less than 40 years. There were few defences against diseases which were rife in ancient cities. 'Good news' which did not say anything about resurrection and eternal life would not have been good news for anybody.
Death is a constant reminder that we are responsible human beings. One day we will have to give an account of our lives to God himself. Hellfire and damnation are usually scoffed at. I think it would be much worse to live in a world where wickedness is never punished and evil is never finally destroyed.
I saw an exhibition of drawings by Jewish children in internment. They were 10-12 years old. They were full of life and hope. But within 12 months of doing those drawings they had died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. I cannot bear the thought of a world where such wickedness goes unpunished.
Teaching about righteousness
These doctrines are the milk of the Christian faith (the baby food): repentance, faith, baptism, gifts of the Spirit, resurrection, judgment. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says that there is more solid food to go on to. What is it?
Look at verse 13. He 'who lives on milk is not acquainted with teaching about righteousness.' Those who hold to the simple list lack this additional teaching about righteousness. What 'righteousness' is this? When righteousness is referred to in the Bible it refers to the whole plan of salvation - how human beings can be made right with God. It is the story of the whole Bible from Genesis 3 onwards. Abraham is chosen by God and his faith becomes the basis of being right with God. His descendants become God's chosen people, called to trust God in the context of the Covenant.
Jesus comes to fulfil the Old Testament pattern. His sacrifice on the cross completes and supersedes the Old Testament system. It is a perfect sacrifice which Jesus offers himself on our behalf as High Priest. That is precisely the theme of the book of Hebrews. Do we understand this? If not, we need to know our Bibles better. Obviously we need personal Bible-reading day by day. But we need to go on to study our Bibles. You see there is a hint in the way this letter is written to the Hebrews that they were getting lazy. They were ignorant because they were lazy. For many of us, Bible study gets nothing like the time and effort that students put into their studies.
Training for righteousness
How do you view sermons? In our church we aim to cover the whole of biblical teaching from Genesis to Revelation in our sermons. But do you see this a learning process for you? Or do you just take away from the sermon whatever seems right for you? Are you really engaged in learning when you listen? But there is more than this. We need to work out our Christian faith thematically. We need to see how different aspects of the teaching of the Bible link together.
A very good example is here in Hebrews. How does Christ's death on the cross link to the sacrificial system of the Old Testament? The answer is that it fulfils and supersedes it with the perfect sacrifice offered by the perfect High Priest. The task of theology is to take all the elements of the biblical message, relate them to each other, and explain them as themes everyone can understand. At this point you may be saying: 'That all sounds very academic. That is the kind of thing they do at university, but that's not for me.' But you would be wrong. It is not academic. It is not theoretical. Theology is for living.
Distinguishing good from evil
Look with me at verse 14: 'But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.' Theology is to be lived, not just to be learned.
No doubt some clever person had already worked out precisely how to do the triple jump. But Jonathan Edwards had to train eight hours a day to break world records. The theory is very clear. The practice needs a lot of hard work. Or think about learning to touch-type or acquiring another language. We all know that it is in the doing that perfection comes. And maturity here in the text is the Greek word for maturity - to be made perfect. But mature for what? The answer is so that you can distinguish good from evil. It is extremely difficult to live in a culture which is completely non-Christian. That was the nature of the society in which the church lived in the 1st century AD and it is the culture in which we live today.
Let me challenge you to an experiment. I won't ask which TV soap you watch on a regular basis, or which films. But the next time you watch, I want you to have a piece of paper beside you, and a pencil. And I want you to note down all the instances where the behaviour that is portrayed is distinctly non-Christian. Deceit, manipulation of other people, malicious gossip, hatred, physical and verbal abuse, sexual wrongdoing, drunkenness, discrimination. And at the end of the programme note how much non-Christian behaviour has been fed to you as perfectly normal and acceptable? And then ask yourself, ought I to be watching this? Alternatively ask a different question - is your regular Bible study and Christian learning sufficient to counteract the stream of poison that you are being fed from the TV programmes that you watch?
Living theology
So let me ask again why we need a theological, thematic approach to our Christian faith? The answer is very simply because the Bible does not always address directly the questions of right and wrong that we face every day. But we need to be able to distinguish good from evil (verse 14). Take one example: National Lottery tickets - do you buy them? I think you will find it rather difficult to find any part of the Bible that addresses gambling directly. Does that mean then that it is OK for a Christian to buy lottery tickets? The answer is emphatically No! Let me give you four reasons why you shouldn't.
The first is because you are relying on chance rather than God's providence to determine your life. You know God cares for each one of us who are his children. Secondly, in every place where the Bible speaks about how we provide for our existence, it emphasises that we do it through work or receiving gracious gifts. Thirdly, the whole ethos of the National Lottery is to encourage greed and covetousness. It breaks the 10th commandment.
And if you are not satisfied with those reasons, let me give you a fourth. We know that lotteries all over the world transfer resources from poor people to people who are much better off. And the Bible tells us God's particular concern is for the poor.
Why have I given you this illustration? To put the case against the National Lottery you need to be mature in your faith. You need to be able to bring together different aspects of biblical revelation to make an argument. If you rely just on picking up the proof texts you will not be able to do it. And what is more you will come across hundreds of other examples in your life where you will not know what to do simply because you cannot put the whole thing together.
Go on to maturity
Where do you stand on this? Are you stuck with Christian baby food? Too lazy to go for something more demanding? You need to be eager to learn to go on to solid food, to maturity, because without that you are unlikely to be able to stand and live as a Christian today.
Donald Hay is Fellow and Tutor in Economics, Jesus College, Oxford, and a Reader at St. Andrew's Church, Oxford.
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