5th Sunday in Lent “What a Priest We Have in Jesus”
March 17, 2024 Hebrews 5:1-10
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
There are a number of different ways of referring to Jesus; it would probably take about 5 full minutes to recite them all. He is called ‘the Son of Man’, but that doesn’t mean as much to us as it did for the OT Israelites or the early Jewish disciples. We use other names or titles because they are encouraging or comforting to us. We call Jesus our Savior or Redeemer;
He is King, God-in-the-flesh, or God-with-us. He is our Brother, the Way, the Truth & the Life. He’s our friend: ‘what a friend we have in Jesus.’ He’s the Good Shepherd. All these names highlight some aspect of Jesus’ service and sacrifice for sinners.
One title that is usually left way down on our list is that of ‘PRIEST’ or ‘High Priest’. Which is a too-bad, since that title is rich in Biblical history & meaning, & really should be meaningful for all Christians. We often talk about the priestly services He does for us,
but we don’t often refer to Him by that title.
+++++++++++++++++
In the OT, the office of priest was required & indispensable. The priesthood was instituted by God with one whole tribe of the Twelve assigned = the Levites. They served the Israelites by presenting to God the offerings, prayers & sacrifices of the people; they were in charge of the worship life of God’s people, & dispensing God’s Law & God’s forgiveness.
The priests organized the holy rites & ceremonies, & the feasts & fasts in the right & God-pleasing way. The High Priest entered once-each-year into the Holy of Holies to offer the blood sacrifice of forgiveness for the all the people. Without the priesthood, the people quickly fell into doing those worship things haphazardly, incorrectly, or neglected to do them at all.
Without the service of the priests, the people did not receive God’s blessings, because His promise was connected to those things, … those ‘means of grace.’
In today’s Epistle, the author of Hebrews gives us a picture of the priestly service of our Savior, & he highlights how Jesus is our perfect High Priest, who still delivers to us the promised blessings of God. What a Priest We Have in Jesus!
+++++++++++++++++++
By the way, we do not know who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews; many think it was Paul, because -early on- it was accepted as Scripture along with Paul’s letters.
But some suggest it was Paul’s equal mission partner ~ Barnabas. Either way, the letter shows a vast understanding of the OT history & purpose, and clearly presents Jesus as the Messiah. In chpt.5, we hear about the Priesthood.
++++++++++++++++++
I said that the priests were in charge of the worship life of God’s people. However, the Israelites did not have a ‘church’ life & a ‘home’ life; their whole life was guided & governed by the worship schedule & the Laws of Moses ~the Torah. The priests taught, guided, & even judged the daily behaviors of God’s people according to His Word. God specifically chose the sons of Aaron to provide this priestly service. Their lives were solely dedicated to serve on behalf of their fellow Israelites; they daily offered sacrifices to God = both for the sins of the people, and for their own sin. In vs.4, we are specifically told that it was God himself who ‘called’ those men to that priestly service.
This priestly service & calling was designed by God to point us to the promised Christ & His salvation work for the world. No man decided for himself to become a priest; and even tho Jesus is the Son of God, He did not take that position of priest for himself. If the quote in vrs.5 sounds familiar, it’s because Jesus’ priestly appointment was made by the Father publicly at His Baptism. That’s where the Son was anointed with the Holy Spirit, and set apart to serve as our great High Priest. With John-the-Baptist as the witness, the Father declared, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’ (Mt 3:17).
++++++++++++++++++
God appointed Jesus as our great High Priest so that He would serve us. But how is Jesus eligible to do this, since -as the Son of God- He is too holy to identify with us – sinners? He was made suitable for the job as He became one of us = bone of our bone & flesh of our flesh. As human, Jesus knows our weaknesses & temptations. In Hebrews chpt.4 we are told: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one -who in every respect- has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (4:15)
In the OT, the priest was a sinful human, just like the sinful humans he served; he dispensed God’s Law for repentance, and God’s Promise for forgiveness, for others & for himself.
In the NT, the pastor is called to do that same service – of dispensing repentance & forgiveness for the people and for himself. So, the very Son of God came among us as the ‘Son of Man’ to live under the Law, and under the promises of The One who appointed Him for service.
Even tho He himself does not need that forgiveness, Jesus willingly accepted that calling to share our human weaknesses, to suffer temptation & sadness, disappointment & loneliness, rejection & persecution in order to dispense God’s forgiveness to God’s people.
Because Jesus has shared our human weakness, He can deal gently with those under His care who are ignorant & wayward. And that’s what we see as Jesus walked among us proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He ate with the tax collectors & sinners, He forgave the repentant adulterers & those who once denied Him. He healed the lame & blind, and gave true hope & guidance to those meek & poor = who were being misled by the false teachers.
He knows our lives. Temptations tangle us up, but He is dealing firmly & gently with us so that we might not fall away. We constantly have to battle our old nature so that we will not give in to selfish actions, hurtful words, or hateful thoughts. Paul reminds us, in Rom.7, that ‘when we want to do right, evil lies close at hand.’ Our priest Jesus know this, and deals gently with us, so that we would continue under the promised blessings of God.
++++++++++++
In Mark 10, we heard how our High Priest Jesus gently dealt with a sin of His disciples. As they near Jerusalem, for the third time, Jesus has explained to them that He must suffer & die & rise again. But rather than preparing for the Lord’s Passion, James & John showed ignorant selfishness & wayward greediness. They wanted the box seats in the kingdom, & the others could have the cheap seats. They said: ‘Teacher, we think we’ve earned a top place in your coming glory. Please give it to us, …& not to them.’
When the ten heard about this audacity, they didn’t laugh at how foolish James & John had been; they were angry that they hadn’t gotten to Jesus first with the same request.
Why didn’t Jesus blow a gasket? Because His job, as a priest, was to deal gently on behalf of wayward men in relation to God. Very soon, they would see very clearly what He had been trying so hard to teach them; His kingdom is not of this world.
Soon, Jesus’ whole life would be engulfed under the ‘baptism’ of mankind’s transgressions as He suffers the false accusations, flogging, beatings & crucifixion for the sins of the world. Soon they would see Him drink the cup of God’s wrath on behalf of mankind, and He would be the sacrificed lamb-of-atonement for salvation. And soon, as His appointed apostles, they would have their share in His suffering cup & baptism for this one true faith.
So their priest doesn’t scold them. Instead, with sympathy, He straightens out their wrong thinking on the issue of earthly glory, & being rulers, lords & authorities. ‘It shall not be so among you. You are servants, just like the Son of man, who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (10:45).
Because Jesus is also our great High Priest, He deals gently with US. He knows our sins of anger against others; He knows our ignorance of His larger plans; He knows our times of spiritual pride over those we consider to be less worthy of sharing His glory. But the point this morning is that He is not just the holy God who can judge us from on high for those sins; He is our priest, appointed to share the burden of those sins for us on the cross, under the cup of God’s wrath. Our priest suffered the penalty of our sin, death & hell in His human body – on the tree. Our priest offered himself as the sacrifice before God. What a priest we have in Jesus!
++++++++++++++++++++
One of the interesting things concerning our Savior’s priestly service is that it was a learning process for Him. Jesus learned to be a priest the hard way = thru the school of suffering. Vs.8 said, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience thru what he suffered.”
That means that Jesus did not have it easier than we do in this life. Altho He is God, & could always know everything, Jesus never used His knowledge as God to serve himself & make His life easier. Instead, He reverently & prayerfully learned obedience thru what He suffered.
You & I learn from reading, listening, watching, or hands-on experience. We learn thru trial & error. Lessons in life are learned thru successes, & also thru suffering. Jesus would not sin, but He learned to be your priest by feeling all the effects of sin: Hunger & thirst, sorrows & disappointments, injustice & bias, tears & pain would be His lessons. And in order to suffer for all, He would suffer it all.
Heb.5 alludes to the Garden of Gethsemane. There -as our priest- He ‘offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.’ In the Garden, our priest also learned what it means that God does not always answer our prayers with a ‘yes.’ To His prayers, Jesus heard the word ‘no’. Later, when Jesus prayed, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” there was only silence.
But, for us, our High Priest did not give up. In obedient faith, He prayed: ‘Father, forgive them.’ And, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ We thank the Father that we have a perfect High Priest, who learned obedience thru what He suffered, and so He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him = that is, who trust Him, follow Him, & obey His teachings.
Our High Priest was saved from sin’s eternal death, and raised up from death by the Father, who then seated Him at His right hand of authority & glory. There He continues to intercede for us, just like a High Priest is appointed to do. What a priest we have in Jesus!
+++++++++++++
It should be mentioned, as a closing thought, that this priestly work of Jesus does not end with Him, but He shares it with US = His church. You & I have a another name besides ‘believer,’ or Christian. Rev.1 & 5 says that Jesus has made US to be a ‘kingdom of priests’ to serve our God & Father. Romans 12 teaches that our true worship is how we live our lives in reverence & obedience, just like our High Priest Jesus.
Thru water-baptism, we are called into the priesthood, and appointed to offer prayers, not just for ourselves, but on behalf of those around us. As priests, we are expected to deal gently with the uninformed & wayward, just as we have been gently served by Christ.
All of that is in Hebrews 5: Our Priest Jesus was appointed to serve us; to sympathize with us; He learned obedience thru suffering, and He quips us for priestly service.
He continues to intercede for us, He guides our whole life as worship by His cross & teachings,
and He dispenses to us the blessings of God. What a priest we have in Jesus!
Amen.