On the Anvils of Heaven

Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.  It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.  At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.  But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. -- Hebrews 2:5-9

I am clearly out of my depth here, and I would probably be better off to just post the passage and leave off my comments. 

The Apostle Paul gets a lot of credit for faithfully carrying and proclaiming the message and revelation of Christ with which he was entrusted.  Whoever wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews -- and it most likely wasn't Paul -- deserves some credit as well.  Hebrews has a richness and depth that is in some ways similar to the Gospel of  John.  As John steps away from the synoptic lens to go clear to the other side of Christ and picture Him in another dimension, so the writer of Hebrews steps away from the Pauline revelation to deliver a unique messianic unveiling. 

Man is not a mere clever ape.  Some men seem to be -- some are not clever enough.  Man as Man is a ruler of creation, not solely an occupant or an inhabitant.  Man was ordained a lord from the beginning.  In the new creation, "the world to come", man will be lord -- never the Lord.  It doesn't work like that.  Heaven and earth will come together again.  The world will be unbent — to use Tolkien's imagery.  The hierarchy will be restored, and those in the kingdom will live and work, create and replenish, subdue and reign, rejoice and celebrate.  All will be done in and through Christ. 

(An aside, the King James is the penultimate English translation of verse 9, poetically if not grammatically:  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.)

Most of the time I read the above passage, and because I am familiar with 1 Corinthians 15:27-28, For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” ..., I see "the world to come" being subjected to Christ Jesus.  And that is true, but it is subjected to Him through us.  Jesus as the Last Adam, the Second Man is our Lord, but we are His servants, ruling and reigning in a creation we cannot even imagine. 

Look, I'm going to be honest.  I love God, but I am not thrilled by the thought of spending eternity at an all-day singing and dinner on the ground.  Once a week would be fine, but some of the time (or untime or whatever it is), I want to run and roam, to see and solve, maybe even to battle.  Really, if it's just hanging around constantly, I'd about as soon sleep through it.  I know, I'm a horrible person.  I'm also the person God made.  I want to ride to and run with the hounds.  It could be I'm too bent to ever be fit for the kingdom, or it could be that I am the way I am for a reason. 

Still, even if I am wrong all the way through, man is not.  Man has been crowned with glory and honor and all things are subjected to him -- though we can't see it yet.  All those who are troubled by evil in the world, wondering why this is allowed or why that happens, here is your answer:  You will get to fix it.  The wrong you see, the wickedness, the injustice, the ruthlessness that troubles your heart, you will be assigned to set it right, to hammer out the crookedness and make it true. 

You don't even have to wait until you are resurrected.  You can start heating the forge and swinging the hammer now.  They call it prayer.