Christmas is quickly approaching. We’ve been looking at the book of Hebrews to recognize that Jesus is better. The gifts of the wise men remind us that Jesus is the better Prophet, Priest, King, and Sacrifice. Today, I’m going to focus on what it means for Jesus to be our better Priest. Read Hebrews 5:1-10. Pray.
The first few verses of our text today point out that Jesus fills the role of priest better. Some of you may know that when I ask someone to meet me at my office, they should plan to come to McDonald’s. Some of the people that I see there almost every day like to joke that I sit there to get stories for my sermon. Monday, I told them it’s their big chance. I’m preaching today and they can help me out. When you hear the word priest, what comes to mind. They started out by pointing out that the Catholic and Episcopal Churches have priests. They said it was another word for preacher. Then they had some choice words about all the news stories of priests who have abused their power. One of them then turned the talk to the Jewish high priest in the Old Testament, the day of atonement, how Zechariah was a priest who was visited by an angel, and how Jesus is our high priest.
God set up a system for priests as He formed the nation of Israel. Moses’s brother Aaron and his descendants were set apart to act on behalf of men to come into the presence of God to worship. The priest was needed to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin, first for themselves, then for the rest of the worship community. It was expected that the priest would be the one to help the ignorant and wayward because they would be able to handle the most difficult people with gentleness.
As the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches formed their leadership structure, they chose to continue this idea that the common person needed someone to go to God on their behalf. This separation of priests from the common person has created a power system within these churches that God never intended. However, Peter tells us that all believers now have the status of being priests. Read 1 Peter 2:4-5,9.
So how does Jesus fill this role better? Because He never sinned, He doesn’t have to make sacrifices on His own behalf to be able to serve mankind. He is the best example we have of how to focus on the needs of people. Think about how He responded to people. Those who were often looked at as outcasts and sinners, Jesus treated with compassion and respect, allowing Him to challenge them to turn to God. It was those who thought they had it all together that Jesus dealt with harshly when needed. Of course, Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate sacrifice for all sin for all time so that we no longer have to offer sacrifices to God. Because of how Jesus filled the role of priest, we are able to come directly to God and ask forgiveness for our sins. Jesus fills the role of priest better.
In Hebrews 5:4-6, we see that Jesus fills the qualifications of priest better. The author of Hebrews points to Aaron as the example of how one qualifies to be a priest. First of all, they are called by God. For Aaron, that happened as God directly instructed Moses to appoint Aaron to be the first high priest.
Now, often when someone in ministry is interviewing for a new position at a church, they are often asked to share about how they were called into ministry. Here’s my story. Early in high school, I was sure that I would follow my father’s footsteps and become an engineer. Between my sophomore and junior year, however, I had the opportunity to attend a summer camp to learn about different types of engineering. I went expecting to figure out what kind of an engineer I would want to be and begin mapping out my classes for the next few years to get there. Instead, I found myself so bored that I knew I could never be an engineer and have to sit at a desk 9-5 for 5 days every week. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life, it was not a good place to be. A few weeks later, I attended my week of church camp. It was a great week and gave me plenty to think about. On the last night during campfire time, we were singing and it was as if God was giving me a nudge. We were singing, “God is so good,” and as I sang I thought about how true that is. Then we started singing, “I’ll do His will,” and as the words we were singing sank in, I began to cry. We continued to sing, “I’ll live for Him,” and I knew that I couldn’t just sing those words, I had to live those words. It was then that I knew what God wanted me to do with my life. I needed to go into ministry. I went forward at the invitation and committed my life to ministry. When I got home, I called my high school guidance office to change my class schedule from a heavy math focus to more of a language arts focus so that I could prepare to fulfill what God had called me to do. I’ve never looked back nor regretted that decision.
The list of qualifications for the Jewish priest included more than just a calling. One had to be a male descendant in the tribe of Levi, to be high priest you had to be able to trace your ancestors back to Aaron. Priests could only serve in their role between the ages of 30-50 and had to demonstrate that they had a godly marriage and family. Spiritually, they had to be careful to not allow themselves to be unclean by what came into their presence. Physically, their bodies had to have no blemishes- scars, missing body parts, or other wounds would disqualify them from service. In addition, they must maintain a proper beard and head of hair.
While men would choose the next priests based on these qualifications, God Himself called Jesus to the priesthood. The Hebrews author quotes two verses from Psalms to show that God Himself called Jesus to be high priest. Read Psalm 2:7. This verse shows us that Jesus isn’t only a priest like others who have come before Him, He is God’s Son. Read Psalm 110:4. This verse helps us to see that Jesus isn’t simply a priest like the Jewish priests. He comes from a higher order, an eternal priesthood, like that of Melchizedek, whom we’ll look at more closely in a minute.
I believe the reason that God gave the physical and spiritual conditions for priests that He did was because He will not allow sin to enter His presence. Notice how similar these conditions are to those of the Passover lamb. It can have no blemishes, must be physically perfect, must be prepared in a specific way, remaining spiritually clean. To accomplish this, other priests had to offer sacrifices to cover their own sins, but Jesus was already perfect, was already clean, was already fully qualified to fulfill His duties. Jesus qualifies as priest better.
Finally, we see in Hebrews 5:7-10 that Jesus fills the perfection of priest better. I’ve mentioned this a couple times already, but the Jewish priests had to sacrifice on behalf of themselves before they could sacrifice for others because they were imperfect, they were human, they had sin in their lives. Being both fully God and fully Man, only Jesus was able to live life perfectly, making Him the perfect priest. These priests were chosen from among men, so God chose to draw from a higher order of priest- the order of Melchizedek.
We don’t know much about Melchizedek. His entire story is contained in four verses, Genesis 14:17-20. Abraham’s nephew Lot had been taken captive during a battle involving nine kings. When Abraham finds out, he gathers his men and defeats Lot’s captors. Upon his return, he is met by the king of Sodom, who desires to get his people back, and Melchizedek, who is identified not only as the king of Salem but also as priest of God Most High. This Melchizedek preceded the Jewish priests, in fact he’s the first priest mentioned in the Bible. He was also the king of Salem, which is interesting because David eventually conquers Salem and renames this city to be Jerusalem, where the temple of the Most High God would be built. I believe God included Melchizedek here as a reminder that He is God of ALL people, not just the Jews. Paul also talks about the fact that God has revealed Himself to all people in Romans 1:18-20. No one has an excuse for not knowing God and His desire for people to have a relationship with Him.
We know this Melchizedek to be a “type” of Christ, a type means something that points towards something else in the future. A couple examples- Noah and the flood is a type of how baptism saves us, Abraham willing to sacrifice his son is a type of God giving Jesus to die on the cross. Melchizedek serving as a priest of the God Most High is a type of Jesus as our high priest today. Notice some of the similarities- neither Melchizedek nor Jesus were appointed by people. When Melchizedek came to meet Abraham, what did he bring out? Bread and wine. When Jesus was preparing for his crucifixion, what did He give the disciples to use to remember the sacrifice He was about to make? Bread and wine (I actually had never noticed that before preparing for this message.)
Hebrews 5:7-10 outline this idea of how Jesus became the perfect High priest. Verse 7 tells us how, in His humanity, Jesus offered up prayers on our behalf and describes the pain He felt on our behalf. John 17 gives us the details of this prayer that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus began praying for Himself, knowing what He was about to suffer, that He would have the strength to carry it out for the glory of God. He prayed for His disciples, knowing the trials they would face as they established the church, that they would have the strength they would need to carry out their mission in the face of persecution. He prayed for future believers, that includes us, that we would have the strength to push for unity in our faith. Luke describes the pain mentioned by the Hebrews author in Luke 22:42-44. Jesus prayed for an alternate solution to the sin problem, but submitted Himself to God’s will- if you can take this cup from me, but not my will but Yours be done. God sent an angel to comfort Him, but as Jesus continues to pray Luke describes how the anguish He was going through caused His sweat to appear as drops of blood. That’s some intense praying on our behalf.
Verse 8 goes on to tell us how Jesus went on to learn obedience through suffering. Now, this wasn’t just some “my friends won’t stop picking on me” kind of suffering. The gospels tell us how Jesus was tortured and beaten so badly He couldn’t be recognized. I can’t imagine actually being there to watch it, but I think Mel Gibson did an excellent job of portraying the events that led to the cross in the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” I remember taking Terri to watch the movie in the theaters. Having been warned that it could be quite graphic, we left Hannah with her grandparents and I was glad they did. They showed Roman soldiers punching and beating on Jesus, we had to sit and watch as the soldiers took whips of leather embedded with broken glass and raked them across Jesus’ back and then… they had to pause the movie because these scenes were so intense an ambulance had to be called in to rescue a man who was having a heart attack. As we well know, this suffering led to Jesus dying in the most painful way possible, being hung on a cross.
Verse 9 tells us that Jesus became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him. John 19:30 describes that moment. When the time came for Jesus to surrender His life, He declared it is finished, and breathed His last breath. But we know His story doesn’t end there. They buried Him in a tomb and God raised Jesus back to life three days later. Death was conquered, sin was defeated, Jesus was the perfection of priesthood.
Verse 10 declares that Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. We see no human origin for either in their priesthood. That’s what separates them both, placing them above all other priests who have served on this planet. Jesus fills the perfection of priesthood better.
What does this mean for us? Read Hebrews 10:19-25. This passage tells us that Jesus has opened the way through the curtain to enter the Holy of Holies. What is this talking about? When God instructed Israel how to build the tabernacle first and later the temple, He had them build a structure in which there were two main rooms- the Holy Place and the Holiest of Holies. All priests could enter the Holy Place as a part of their service, but a curtain separated it from the Holiest of Holies and only the high priest could enter through the curtain into the Holiest of Holies, and then only once each year. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell about how when Jesus died, there was a great earthquake and the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holiest of Holies was torn from top to bottom. I believe they made sure to point out it was from top to bottom to make it very clear that this was an act of God, removing man’s barrier to approach Him. When Jesus fulfilled His duties as priest, He opened the way for all of us to approach God and also serve Him as priests. What does that look like?
1. We can come to God with confidence. Our baptism washed our sins away, we no longer have to conduct sacrifices in the Old Testament way to gain God’s acceptance. Instead, as it says in Romans 12:1, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Do all that you are going to do as an act of worship to God.
2. We can hold on to our hope. We live in a world that is doing it’s best to make it more difficult to live a life of faith. So many people want to drag believers down. I was telling someone just the other day that I don’t think they’re doing this because they actually believe we’re wrong. I think, deep down, they know we’re right and they don’t like what that means for them if they don’t change. But too many people would rather hold on to their sin than surrender their life to Jesus. Hold on to your hope.
3. Look for ways to encourage each other to love and do good works. Our world has twisted what it means to show love- they demand that you simply live and let live because that’s love. God shows us through His love that we don’t simply let those around us fall down in their poor choices. We encourage them to do the right thing, we hold each other accountable, and we seek ways to point people toward God through our good works. This is why we came up with the LOL Youth Ministry name. The LOL stands for Live Out Loud and it’s based on Matthew 5:16. Let’s encourage each other to do good works so that when people see it they praise God.
4. Continue to meet together so we can serve one another. The Hebrews author points out that some have gotten in the habit of missing the gatherings. We’re not told why they stopped attending, only that they did. Our church, and many others, has struggled with this problem even more so recently due to the COVID pandemic. Many people got used to the idea of staying home, some of them may watch the service online, others decided they didn’t miss gathering for worship as much as they may have thought they would. How can we encourage these brothers and sisters to return? Who do you need to talk with to let them know we love and miss them.
Let’s be the priests we are called to be as we follow our high priest, Jesus Christ, because He is the better priest.
