Jesus The Priest: “Portraits of Christ” series: Hebrews 4:14-16
Jan. 26/27, 2002 – Steve Simala Grant
Intro:
I know we have heard a lot already this morning, and experienced a wide range of emotions. We heard from Matt, one of our pastors and friends, who has felt God leading him to resign and complete his education and then move back to BC where he and Dawn’s families are. We react to that with a whole range of emotions, including shock, sadness, and uncertainty about what happens next. I don’t mind sharing that we used a large number of Kleenexes at our staff meeting this week.
We have also heard Janice’s testimony this morning, heard how God has been working in her life for many years and some of the exciting things He has been doing lately. And we react to that with a whole range of emotions also – excitement, gratitude, hopefully even a desire for each of us to experience God more in our own lives.
I know that we come together each week out of a variety of experiences and emotions, and today we have heard these two specific things which give rise to a whole bunch of other emotions. I believe that a big part of our job in worship is to enable us to bring all of those things together before God and allow God to speak to us. And it is somewhat fitting that the portrait of Christ I want to look at today is that of Jesus as our priest. You see, the major job of a priest is to facilitate worship – to enable God’s people to come before God and have communication and conversation – to bring an offering of worship and also to find strength and encouragement and healing and power. That is what Jesus has done for us – He has bridged the gap between us and God and has made a way for us to come before God and worship Him.
Context:
It might be helpful to begin by backing up from Jesus into the OT for just a moment. After leading His people out of Egypt, God provided them with a detailed description of how to worship Him. A significant part of this description was the setting aside of a large group of people (those of the tribe of Levi) to be “priests.” Their job was to serve the Lord in His Tabernacle (and later His Temple), to offer the sacrifices brought by the people. So the people would bring their offering of grain, or of animals, give them to the priests who would then present them to God. In it’s simplest form, the responsibility of the priests was to present the people to God. They really functioned as a go-between.
That is a really simplistic overview, but I think is enough to enable us to understand Jesus as our priest. I realized too late this week that my title is wrong: it was “Jesus the Priest;” it should be “Jesus the Great High Priest.” That is the title my NIV Bible gives to the passage of Scripture I want to look at – Hebrews 4:14-16. These three verses introduce the next five chapters of the book of Hebrews, which are a detailed discussion about Jesus as our great high priest, and I would encourage you to go home and read all the way to chapter 11 this afternoon or evening; you’ll get a much more complete picture than I can paint this morning. But even in these 3 short verse, the author gives us a lot to chew on. First, 6 descriptions of our priest, then 2 consequences of what this means for us.
1. Who our Priest is (6 descriptors):
A. “a great high priest”
In my really brief background above, I didn’t mention that out of this entire group of priests, one was chosen for a unique role – one priest was chosen by God to be the High Priest. This one man had additional responsibilities, most notably for our purposes was an annual duty on behalf of all of God’s people. This is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Leviticus 16 describes in detail the responsibilities of the High Priest on this day, with the overall purpose being that on this one day all of the sins of God’s people would be recounted and atoned for. Part of his duties on that one day was to take two goats, to sacrifice one and on the other to place all the sins of God’s people – he would put his hands on the head of the goat and recite out loud all the wicked and rebellious actions of God’s people. Then that goat, now known as a “scapegoat,” would be led out into the desert and released, symbolizing the carrying away of all the sins of God’s people. That being done, the High Priest was allowed to enter into the Most Holy Place, or The Holy of Holies – to enter the very place where God dwelt – to make sacrifices for the sins of the people. This was the only day entrance was permitted, and the High Priest the only man permitted to enter.
Jesus fulfilled this role. He made atonement, or provision, for our sin in a way that no sacrifice or scapegoat ever could. More on that in a few moments…
B. he has “gone through the heavens”
This second descriptor is most likely a reference to Jesus’ ascension into heaven following His resurrection – the story we find in Acts chapter 1. It parallels the part where the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies – the idea that Jesus left our sight and went into the presence of God just like the HP left the sight of the people when he went into the Holy of Holies. It could also refer, however, to Jesus’ coming from the heavens to become a man. Either way, the emphasis is on the uniqueness of Jesus, and the fact that Jesus is God, as the next descriptor points out more clearly.
C. “Jesus the Son of God”
Just so that there can be no misunderstanding, the text states clearly who this Great HP is: Jesus. And it emphasizes that Jesus is God’s Son, states it clearly and directly. Who is our new HP? No question; it is Jesus.
D. He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses
Verse 13 tells us that as our HP, Jesus can identify with us. He understands, sympathizes with our weaknesses.
Come with me to a third grade classroom. There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk, and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet, and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before and he knows that when the boys find out, he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again for as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop, so he puts his head down and prays this prayer: "Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat." He looks up from his prayer, and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says that he has been discovered. As the teacher is coming to snatch him up, a classmate named Susie is carrying a gold fish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl in the boy’s lap. The boy pretends to be angry but all the while is saying, "Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!"
Now all of a sudden the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the children are on their hands and knees around his desk, cleaning up the mess. The sympathy is wonderful! The ridicule that should have been his was transferred to someone else, Susie. As the day progresses the sympathy grows better and Susie’s ridicule grows worse.
At the end of the day they are waiting for the bus. Susie has been shunned by the other children. The boy walks over to Susie and says, "Susie, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?" Sue whispers back, "I wet my pants once too."
The story illustrates a simple point: Since Jesus had become human, had fully entered in and participated with us and lived our life with us, He understands, He sympathizes. He knows what it feels like to stub your toe, to be hungry and thirsty and dirty and cold. He knows what it feels like to be joyful and to be angry, to be sad, to be betrayed by a friend, to be frustrated in your purpose. He knows, He sympathizes, He understands.
This is one of the main reasons why I am convinced that we can and need to have a closeness with our Lord Jesus. We do not need to keep Him at arms length, we don’t need space between us. Sometimes we feel like since He is God we can’t get close; He is too different, too holy, too powerful – so we’d better stay cautious and keep our distance. This point tells me the opposite. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He understands them, so rather than trying to stay distant and keep them from Him, we know instead that we can bring them to Him, we can say “Jesus I am weak in this area…” and know that His response will be one of compassion and understanding and not of rejection and judgment.
E. He “has been tempted in every way”
Not only does our HP understand our weaknesses, He understands our temptations. He understands how we can get caught up in sin, not because He has also been caught up in sin but because He has been tempted. Do you think holiness was easy for Jesus? I think not. I think He struggled, I think there were times when His humanity pushed and pulled at Him. We know the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil in the desert immediately following Jesus’ baptism. All three temptations were devious, and were the devil’s best attempts to draw Jesus into sin. One of those was satan’s offer to relinquish control of all the kingdoms of the world – he was basically offering Jesus an alternative to the cross. Basically saying “I’ll give you back the whole world; all you have to do is bow and worship me.” I believe Jesus knew the road ahead, knew the pain He would suffer through His death on the cross, and I believe satan’s offer would have been tempting. Hebrews tells us that Jesus has been tempted, just like you and I. So He knows the draw, He’s felt the enticement. Yet His response to those temptations leads us to our last description of our great HP:
F. He “was without sin”
The last two points have emphasized Jesus’ similarity to us; this final one emphasizes the distinction. Though tempted, Jesus did not sin. You and I can’t claim this; we have given in to temptation and rebelled against God. Yet Jesus resisted the temptation and lived a sinless life.
Those six descriptors describe a portrait of Jesus: He is our Great HP, He has gone through the heavens, He is the Son of God, He sympathizes with our weaknesses, He was tempted just like us, yet He was without sin.
Because this is who Jesus was, His role as HP changed everything. In the old system, a goat ran off with the sins of the people placed on it. It was a symbol. A powerful symbol, yes, but still merely a symbol. Jesus was the real thing. Up until Jesus’ death, all the sacrifices merely covered over sin, temporarily. In Jesus things change, forever. Because Jesus was sinless, and because He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sin, now the way is open.
2. So What Does This Mean For Us?
These verses tell us two consequences of having Jesus as our Great HP:
A. “let us hold firmly to the faith we profess”
Do you know what it means to “hold firmly?” It means to cling. To grasp tightly, without letting go. One of the things we do at SDC is take kids swimming. Often there is a young child who wants to go into the deep end, but knows enough to not try on their own. So sometimes I would take them. And sometimes, for those who are scared and excited at the same time, they would wrap their arms around my neck so tightly that they would almost squeeze the breath out. They would hold on with every ounce of strength, feeling as if their life depended on it. That is what this verse tells me to do with my faith – to hold firmly, to cling to it, to not let go.
Here is the antidote to doubt – to hold firmly to our faith. To cling to those experiences in the past when we have experienced God, when we have known with every part of our being that He is real and alive and that He loves us.
B. “let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence” (vs. 16)
Prior to Jesus, the people needed a go-between; they needed a priest. Well now, Jesus has removed that barrier – that extra step – and now God Himself, in the form of Jesus, is the only priest we need. Each of us is now enabled and welcome to bring our offering of worship directly. We can now know God personally, not at a distance, not only through others. Now we can go directly.
I mentioned earlier that the HP could only go into the Holy of Holies once/year. There was a huge curtain that separated that place from the rest of the holy place, and all of the first three Gospels report that at Jesus’ death, this curtain was miraculously torn in two, removing the barrier that kept people away from the presence of God. This was a powerful symbol in Jesus’ day, which demonstrated that since Jesus has gone ahead of us as our great HP, we no longer need any other priests to intervene. Now we can go directly. Now we can enter the most Holy Place of All – the throne of God, and we can do it with confidence.
The author calls this the “throne of grace.” What should we expect to find? That is the last half of verse 16: “so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
I think one of the things that keeps us from coming to God’s throne is our expectation of judgment and punishment. We expect a holy fire, a righteous anger, a reaction that we, quite frankly, deserve. But that is not what we find. Instead we find mercy and grace. That is what the verse says.
And that is why I chose to highlight this particular picture. The story is of the woman caught in adultery, who was brought before Jesus. We know from the story that instead of being sentenced to death, as the Pharisees desired, Jesus instead extended grace and forgiveness. I love the portrayal – on first glance we might expect Jesus to be seated on the golden throne, high, distant, removed. But the artist captures the truth of the gospel by painting Jesus among people, surrounded by the needy, freely handing out grace.
Do you remember the story Jesus told about the prodigal son, the one who “squandered his wealth in wild living” and then sheepishly returned home. What happened? Did he get a lecture, a reprimand, a punishment? No – he got a kiss, a party, and a welcome. That is what is waiting for us at God’s throne. Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace. None of which we deserve or have earned or can claim to have brought about ourselves. But only because of who God is, and because of what Jesus has done for us.
Sometimes we are uncomfortable with grace. We are worried it will lead to more sin. Robert Farrar Capon writes:
You’re worried about permissiveness--about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it’s okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterward and take the free gift of God’s forgiveness. . .While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn’t. He wasn’t afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation; and he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections you do. He’s angry about the party. He complains that his father is lowering standards and ignoring virtue--that music, dancing, and a fatted calf are, in effect , just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the father say only one thing: "Cut that out! We’re not playing good boys and bad boys any more. Your brother was dead and he’s alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.
Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three.
Conclusion:
Now that we have Jesus as our great HP, one who can identify and sympathize with us, there is no longer any blockage that need keep us from coming to God and receiving His mercy and grace. There is nothing you have done, thought, or left undone that is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and His grace. I urge you to hold back no longer, but rather to come before God’s throne with confidence. He will meet us in our time of need.
