Copy and Shadow, message 4

Hebrews 8 ESV

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Everything else can only prop up, Christ builds up

I was working for a coffeeshop in Milwaukee. A man walked in and told me he was selling leftover electronics from a previous trade show. I was busy and not super interested but he persisted. I was interested in cameras and he brought one in. I was pretty informed on cameras and was still pretty busy so he told me that I could buy this $500 camera for $80. I knew something was off but I figured I’d have some form of a camera.

So when I got a second I opened everything up and realized it was a a complete fake. It was a prop. It looked like felt like even had some areas that worked like a camera but it was not a camera.

Even though it looked like a camera it couldn’t do what a camera was meant to do.

This passage looks at the shadow and copy of the law and the world in comparison to Christ.

The book will continue to take other things and compare them to Christ. Putting one thing after another up to Christ.

And we find that even the good things that God has used in the past, compared to Christ, are only, at best copies. They are shadows of what is really true.

They may have use or have had use. They may even have been what was needed at the time but they are not what God is offering as truth and life in life of Christ.

Copies are more easily made and more easily trusted than the real thing. We can generate all sorts of things that look like salvation or look like life but really aren’t. We find in the end they are just copies and while they can point to life they cannot give it.

A copy reminds us of our hope but cannot deliver on it.

Hebrews 8:1–5 ESV

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

Here is the point, there is no one like Jesus. He is unique and particular. Cannot be copied, replaced. His work is final and finished. He is glorious and holy, beyond our comprehension and yet ?He has shown us who He is.

The author of Hebrews tells us that Christ responds to a need that we have been working to eradicate since Genesis 3. We have gotten creative in working to dissolve our speech, to erase our brokenness, to lift us up and to transact our freedom.

We relentlessly work in order to try and concoct the things that Christ has already done.

Hebrews 2:10–11 ESV

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Reminds us that Christ has already done, by whom and for whom. He has gone before all we have tried to make

We copy and create shadows of Christ but Hebrews tells us there is only one. We know that but we often are satisfied with a copy.

In this passage we see that God set up a copy found in the heavenlies. That what was true in heaven, what was actual, became a copy on the earth. SO that we could experience heavenly realities.

God set up a system that would help us to see Him as best as we could.

It is a system that represented the fulness of heaven, that was a callback to Eden and a projection of what the Kingdom would be like.

Exodus 25:40 ESV

And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

Moses is just making what he is being shown on the mountain. As he encounters God he receives instruction to make a dwelling place for God.

And yet this is the copy that is being talked about in Hebrews. It is a shadow. There are 7 chapters in exodus given to the proper instruction. and at best according to Hebrews they are copies.

That is how great the real thing is. How great God is in His dwelling place.

The copies and shadows show us need for Christ but they are not Christ.

They help us to see how much we need Christ but they are only means through which we can see our need in Christ.

This is the difference between Mimesis and Poieses

Mimesis is the copying of something real and true. It is a reflection of sorts, or a copy of something that is real.

Mimesis is the copy of things, which becomes useful to help us to point to things.

I have a friend. Actually he was in my youth group when I was a youth pastor. He is in his early 30s now. About four years ago his dad went into his room for a nap and never woke up. He died at 60 years old. And my friend, Caleb, who had grown up in a faithful house, and had taken on a faith of his own, was now stuck in the throes of grief. He and I would text back and forth and I would send Scripture and he would ask about heaven. If you have ever lost someone close to you you have asked real questions about heaven.

And he asked me what it was like and we talked and I told him that the earth is somewhat of a copy, that God has made things in heaven that look like things on the earth. And that it all points to him . I said it was like earth but a lot better.

And a few days later he sent me this picture with the short caption: like earth but better. SHOW PICTURE

That is his dad sitting there a couple months before he died.

That is my favorite representation, mimesis of heaven.

Mimesis gets us thinking about heaven. about grace but it’s not grace.

Mimesis gets us there but what we need is poises. Poiesis is a generative and creative action, a singular and unique action.

Mimesis moves us into position but we need a singular, generative action that can actually change us. We need Christ’s poiesis.

Grace is not something that can be copied. It is something that needs fresh action.

True grace cannot be copied. It is given in and through Christ alone.

Christ delivers on what we had been hoping for

Hebrews 8:6–7 ESV

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Our passage shows us that the first covenant wasn’t good enough. It was not sufficient.

And not just that Christ replaces the old but that He mediates the promises better, that He is a better promise Himself.

He is not a replacement of the old but is new wine. He is altogether something more sufficient

Demi Skipper was a 29-year-old newlywed working at home during the pandemic giving advice to people about how to save money with a tech app when she decided to try something crazy.

In May 2020, Skipper set out with this idea: trade a bobby pin for a house. That sounds impossibly insane, but you can follow every step she took on social media. She sent 300,000 trade proposal emails, she joined so many Facebook groups that the social media company thought she was a bot and banned her (temporarily) and she traveled across the United States and Canada to complete her mission.

Today she is world famous with 5.1 million TikTok followers (more than even Paris Hilton, who became part of Skipper's journey). She has made television appearances on networks around the world and she has a corporate sponsor.

Oh, and she has a new house in Clarksville, Tennessee, for which she paid one bobby pin.

https://apple.news/A0QTN28a7SiSjHaC1PjYVHQ

Whatever we put before Christ He comes back with something more excellent. We show up with a bobby pin and he comes back with a house. The promises of Christ are more excellent than anything we can offer.

I showed up with a bobby pin in 2000 looking for something. I was 20 and was in school as a english major. And I wasn’t interested in Christ, I was interested in other things. But I was working at a coffee shop.

Sat down with the Bible study.

Argued along the way.

Used all my philosophical and literary chops.

I had this argument about the brown mug on the table and whether or not it really existed. It might or might not. Now this group didn’t laugh, didn’t bat an eye, listened and continued to live the Gospel.

I showed up with a brown coffee mug. That was my bobby pin. And God kept giving back something better. Until I realized that He was the highest order of what I was looking for.

The brown mug argument. And while my arguments are more polished, they are no better now than a brown mug. And every time that is all I can offer Christ He still comes back with more.

And I think of whatever it is we are offering today. Whatever we trade in we are assured that Christ will trade up on us. He will build into us.