Chasing After Copies And Shadows

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest (Jesus) 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…

Hebrews 8:3-5a

One of the central themes of the book of Hebrews is the comparison of all kinds of people and things with Jesus.  Moses with Jesus.  The Law with Jesus.  The Levitical priesthood with Jesus.  Melchizedek with Jesus.  The gifts and sacrifices of the priests with Jesus’s gifts and sacrifices.  And so on. 

What the author concludes each and every time is that “the substance belongs to Christ.”  (Colossians 2:17b)  All of these people and things are mere representations of the ultimate reality of Jesus. 

We can see this idea in the passage above.  Priests are appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, so Jesus, as a high priest, must also have something to offer on the altar.  While the earthly priests offer ram’s blood, Jesus offers Himself.  The one is simply a shadow and copy of the true sacrifice of God’s own Son necessary for us to be forgiven and redeemed. 

The beginning of verse 5 “They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,” has got me thinking.  Daily, I am aware of the copies and shadows that I chase after.  (I guess you could say that I’m a subject matter expert on chasing replicas and dark outlines.) 

Imagine the lunacy with me.  Let’s say that you happen to be as enlightened as I am.  You know that Ultimate Frisbee is the most awesomest sport on the planet.  So you want to become a professional Ultimate player.  You get the best cleats.  You do sprints and box jumps so you can outrun all the fast guys and sky over the tallest players on the field.  And then the time comes to play.  You’re ready.  You’ve prepared.  The sun is out.  There is excitement and tension in the air.  Your team gets the first possession and you race across the middle of the field two steps ahead of your defender.  The thrower leads you perfectly.  You dive to the ground and the disc sails right by you.  Your team is baffled.  What happened?  Imagine that instead of keeping your eyes on the substance, the Frisbee itself, you were watching the shadow below the disc.  You dove because it was barely hovering over the ground.  And even though you got your hands on it, it just passed right over your hands! 

Maybe you’re thinking, “Duh, stupid.  You can’t catch a shadow!”  But we chase them, don’t we? 

Or what about if we were to compare Monopoly money with a Fort Knox room full of gold?  The monopoly money has no real value, especially when you compare it to gold bars!  It might buy you Parkplace and Boardwalk with the family on game night, but it won’t carry any weight outside of your living room. 

“Duh, stupid.  Monopoly money isn’t real!”  But we all put extremely high value on copies, don’t we? 

It’s easy to see the absurdity in chasing copies and shadows when it’s put like this.  But, I believe that it is even more absurd to chase after the copies and shadows that we all stuff into our pockets or run after as depraved human beings.  We can easily tell the difference between a copy of money and real money or the shadow of a Frisbee and an actual Frisbee, but that is only because they are all part of creation. 

When God enters the picture, we can’t make the distinction any longer.  Since God is outside of creation and He has made everything, it stands to reason that He is more beautiful, knowledgeable, wise, famous, strong, lovely, generous, compassionate, kind, and gracious than everyone and everything in creation. 

And yet, how often do we fail to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name?  How often do we elevate worldly beauty, fame, knowledge, etc. above the ultimate realities found in Christ?  We were created to worship, and all of us prove this by putting our ultimate satisfaction in something or someone.  To put one’s ultimate satisfaction in God is right.  To put it in anything other than God is sin.  And, to some degree, we have all exchanged real satisfaction with shadows and copies.

I just want to share a few of mine in hopes that my expertise will expose some of the shadows and copies in your own life. 

Beauty:  The world says that ultimate beauty is supermodels, celebrities, and sex icons.  I too am guilty of exalting these shadowy things into substance.  When I go to take hold of them, I’m left with hands full of air.  I’m left unsatisfied and longing for substance.  Jesus is the substance.  He is Beauty.  He defines all beauty.  He is the substance that I long for. 

Fame:  For me, fame is being a pastor that everyone knows who has written books and spoken at Gospel Coalition conferences and has millions of podcast subscribers.  I look up to these guys.  To me, they are famous.  More famous than Tom Cruise or Michael Jordan.  But, even the “good” people that I consider famous are mere copies of true fame.  Jesus is the Famous One.  He is the One that I want to know and be like.  And His is the fame that I want the world to know about. 

Love:  I am tempted to be so caught up in my desire to be “in love” and married that I forget that even knowing the love of my wife will not satisfy ultimately.  While the love that spouses know is as intimate as it gets here and now, it does not even compare to the love that God has for me.  To lose sight of that love and exchange it for marital love is to go chasing after shadows or stuff my pockets with Monopoly money.  The love of God in Christ Jesus satisfies ultimately.  And to know His love is better than life.  Chasing after any other love is foolishness. 

How silly it is to exchange ultimates for copies and shadows!  Why would we ever do such a thing? 

I believe the answer lies in one final copy/shadow vs. ultimate.  The sin that we see around us is but a shadow of the ultimate reality of sin in each of us.  The sins of others are comparatively mere copies of the real sin that is in our hearts. 

When Paul says that “Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost,” he isn’t making a boastful statement about his superior sinfulness.  He’s making a statement that all of us ought to make.  When I accurately assess my heart and thoughts and motives, I see myself as the chief of sinners.  It’s hard for me to imagine anyone thinking some of the evil thoughts that I think or being motivated by some of the selfish motives that I have. 

The substance of sin belongs to me.  In any conflict, if only I was more compassionate, more patient, communicating more clearly, loving better, the conflict would be resolved and if I had simply loved my neighbor with all my heart, most conflicts wouldn’t even happen to begin with. 

It’s so easy to pretend that the sin that we observe around us is the BIG sin and ours is small comparatively.  But when Jesus tells us to take the log out of our own eye to see clearly to help our brother with the speck that is in his, we have to swallow hard and deal with the fact that we are the ones with the tree trunks in our eyes! 

Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:24-25

My prayer is simply this:

God, help me to see that you are the definition of Beauty, Knowledge, Fame, Love, and that the substance of all good things belongs to You.  Help me to love these things as You define them and not how my sinful, depraved heart is tempted to.  I agree with Your Word that says in Your presence there is fullness of joy and Your steadfast love is better than life.  Help me run to You, the Ultimate Reality in the universe.  Amen.