“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever”
Hebrews 13:8
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Long before there was a sun, moon, or stars and long before even time began, gods and goddesses ruled over the earth. (At least that’s what the ancient Romans would have us believe!)
And among Rome’s 267 or so gods and goddesses and even demigods, (there was, after all, a god for pretty much everything in life!), there was Jupiter, the king of the gods, as well as the god of thunder and lightning; Apollo, the god of music, archery, healing, poetry, and truth; Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, learning, arts, and industry; Vulcan, the god of fire, blacksmiths, and volcanoes; Venus, the goddess of love and beauty; Mars, the god of war; Neptune, the god of the sea; and Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and home. And why not? After all, the Romans believed that if you properly honored the gods, then the gods would be kind to you.
And among those nearly countless gods and goddesses, there was one more called Janus, what the Romans believed was the god of beginnings and endings, gates, doorways, change, and even time. (By the way, the name “Janus” is how our month of January got its name).
And what made the god Janus different from all the other gods is that he had two faces--one that looked to the past, (a face that was filled with sorrow, perplexity, and dismay), while the other looked toward the future, (with a face full of hope, confidence, and cheer). And since he was such an important god, Romans prayed to him almost as much as they prayed to their greatest god--Jupiter.
And as we stand at the threshold of a new year, just like the Roman god Janus, we look to the past and we look to the future.
So before we leave it all behind for another year, let’s take a look at what happened in the past, in the year 2023.
The year began on New Year’s Day, January 1st, as Jeremy Renner was accidentally run over by his 14,000 pound snowplow, breaking more than thirty of his bones. Twenty days later, on January 21st, a seventy-two year-old gunman took the lives of eleven people at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California.
In February, a freight train carrying a toxic mix of chemicals derailed and exploded in East Palestine, Ohio. The people who live there said that, even six months later, it felt like an apocalyptic movie. Also in February, Turkey and Syria suffered a devastating earthquake, killing close to sixty thousand people.
In March, a jury found Alex Murdaugh guilty of murdering his wife and his son, while a resident of Nashville took the lives of three children and three adults at their Covenant School.
In May, eleven thousand members of the Writers’ Guild of America went on strike, forcing some shows to cancel and the rest of us to watch reruns.
In June, a submersible voyaging to the wreck of the Titanic imploded, killing all five people on board.
In August, a wildfire in the city of Lahaina on the island of Maui destroyed more than three thousand homes and businesses, killing over a hundred people. “Everything was on fire,” one of the residents said.
In September, Dianne Feinstein, the longest serving United States female senator in history, died at the age of ninety.
In October, a Palestinian terrorist group known as Hamas attacked Israel. And so Israel declared war on Hamas.
And if you’re keeping track, 2023 also brought the death of a number of notable actors, actresses, sports celebrities, and singers, like Suzanne Somers, Dick Butkus, Roger Whittaker, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Barker, Tony Bennett, Gordon Lightfoot, Raquel Welch, Lisa Marie Presley, Burt Bacharach, Henry Kissinger, Sandra Day O’Connor, and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, just to name a few.
And closer to home, we lost some of those whom we have loved and known, like Dick and Lois Tews, Sharon Ogren, Larry Hines, Pat Bahrke, Evelyn Campbell, Larry Thompson, and Kim Gullickson.
2023 was a good year, but it wasn’t an easy year.
And as we remember the past and look forward to what is to come, we consider the words of Hebrews chapter 13. I’ll start at verse 1: “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:1-5).
About thirty years after Jesus died and rose again, a writer, (and we’re not completely sure who), wrote this letter to the Hebrews. As one author put it, “The book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to other Hebrews telling the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews.” And the reason he wrote it was because many of the Hebrews were starting to slip back into the rites and rituals of Judaism to escape mounting persecution. To put it simply, it was a lot less dangerous, in that time and place, to be a Jew rather than a Christian.
So when the writer wrote this book, he meant to impress on his readers the supremacy, the superiority, the power, and the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.
And what a beautiful book it is, for it’s here that we find words like these…in chapter 4: “Since we have a great High Priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Hebrews 11: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
And Hebrews 12: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). And he wrote, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Then finally in chapter 13, the author takes a moment to wrap it all up. And as he does, he leaves his readers with some things that they need to do. Verse 1: “Let brotherly love continue.” Verse 2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Verse 4: “Let marriage be held in honor among all.” Verse 5: “Keep your life free from the love of money.” And verse 7: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.”
And in the midst of the author’s final wrap up, he adds one more verse that shines out like a star. Verse 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
It’s easy to say that everything in our world is changing, constantly changing. It’s changing politically, socially, economically, and internationally. Seasons change. Civilizations rise and fall.
In the words of a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus, “The only constant in life is change.”
Technology is changing. Today’s new computer will be old tomorrow. And AI, artificial intelligence, is about to change everything.
Even the land beneath our feet is changing. Crustal plates, tectonic plates deep beneath our oceans, shift and slide, causing the earth to quake and volcanoes to erupt in lava.
And the “shifting” of the earth isn’t limited to only land masses or ocean depths. Change is happening in every area of our lives. As Henry Lyte once wrote in the words of his hymn: “Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day, Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away; Change and decay in all around I see…”
Then what? “O Thou who changest not, abide with me!”
And that’s what the writer to the Hebrews wants us to understand. As he wrote: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Even though our world changes. Even though our society changes. And even though the people you know and love change, there’s One who is always the same: Jesus Christ, yesterday and today and forever.
Think of the words of Malachi chapter 3: “For I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Or James chapter 1: “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Or Isaiah chapter 40: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
In the words of a poem: “I don’t know about tomorrow, I just live from day to day. I don’t borrow from its sunshine, for its skies may turn to gray. I don’t worry o’er the future, for I know what Jesus said. And today I’ll walk beside Him, for He knows what is ahead. I don’t know about tomorrow, it may bring me poverty. But the One who feeds the sparrow, is the One who stands by me. And the path that be my portion, may be through flame or flood. But His presence goes before me, and I’m covered with His blood. Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand. But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.”
So what does all this mean? If Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, then it means that the same God who once delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, the same God who delivered David from Goliath, and the same God who delivered the people of Israel from Pharaoh is our God now. And even though our friends change, our jobs change, politics change, economies change, and even our bodies change, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Not quite nine hundred years ago, back in January of 1172, a woman by the name of Donna Berta di Bernardo gave a sizable sum of money to buy stones to build a bell tower. And so the foundation was laid and men began to build.
There was just one problem, one really big problem. The ground wasn’t stable. And over time, the taller they built that tower, the more it started to lean, and lean some more, until it ultimately became known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
So what really was the problem? Simply enough, the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans because the soil underneath isn’t strong enough to carry the weight. If only the builders had built on a solid foundation, then it wouldn’t have leaned after all.
You know, we have a solid foundation, don’t we? He’s the One who lived and died for us and is now waiting to welcome us, by His grace, to our home above. His name is Jesus Christ.
And even though everything else changes, He’s the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
We thank You, Father, for the love You show and the gifts You give. Stand by us and strengthen us as we together begin a new year, for Jesus’ sake. Amen