An overarching point of Hebrews chapter four is that we are destined for a sabbath rest: “so then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10 NRSV). This is a heavenly image, especially for a world and its people who increasingly seem to run to and fro, sometimes without purpose. This promise, however, is preceded by what seems to be a warning: in order to gain this sabbath rest, we must not fail as “those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience” (4:6 NRSV). The second reading for this Sunday follows on this promise, and it, too, is a warning, but it is not, as I once thought and felt, a threat.

Indeed the word of God is living and effective,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,
and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
No creature is concealed from him,
but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must render an account. (Hebrews 4:12-13 NAB)

I thought this passage might be a threat because the “word of God,” both the Scripture and Jesus, the word made flesh, know my inner thoughts. Nothing is concealed from Jesus, as the word penetrates “between soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” Everything is naked and exposed before Jesus Christ. This used to chill me as a young man because I thought of my sins and failings as beyond repair, shameful and embarrassing.

Some years ago, though, while working in suicide prevention, I began counseling men who had been sexually abused as children. They had such shame in their hiddenness, embarrassment over the abuse, but also the ways in which they had responded to the abuse. What they needed most was someone to hear them, to give them a place where they could know their stories would be heard and they would be accepted. That took place in our group sessions. We knew their hidden secrets and they were accepted. We were clear about behavior that was unacceptable, but they knew they were accepted.

We were just other people, ordinary people, with our own hurts and shames, but we were able to comfort others in need. Think of what it means to have Jesus Christ, who knows our sins, our pains and our repentance, and to be accepted and loved by him. I no longer think of this passage as a threat, but as a promise, that the one who knows my sins, also knows my sufferings, my yearnings and my struggles to fulfil the Gospel. He knows where I have fallen, but also the attempts to stand up, dust myself off and move closer to him. He loves each one of us, and he knows everything about us. What a comfort to know that we are loved just as we are as we move forward to the sabbath rest.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.