Our Perfect High Priest
Hebrews 5:1-10
We live in a world filled with scary monsters. No, I’m not talking about sasquatch or yeti or the Michigan dog man. I’m talking about different kinds of monsters, but they’re no less fearful. We live in a world of earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, hurricanes, and blizzards. We live in a world filled with war, murder, crime, illness, and injury. We live in a world of inflation and bankruptcies, economic downturns and recessions and stock market crashes.
This spring there were two major car accidents near our house that involved fatalities. That was followed by major State Police speed sings in the area during the next three Friday evening commutes. Just last week, 11 people were innocently shopping at Walmart right here in our vacation destination city when they were randomly attacked and slashed with a knife by a man with a very long history of mental illness and run ins with the law.
Life involves risk for everyone. And following Jesus doesn’t necessarily protect us from those risks. When we as followers of Jesus come face to face with those monsters, monsters that threaten our sense of safety and security in some way, how do we respond? Are we tempted to quit? To decide that if Jesus won’t solve all of my problems for me, it’s not worth it to follow him? To lose our minds when things don’t go the way we think they should? Or will we keep hanging on to Jesus, no matter what we face? Turn with me to Hebrews 5:1-10.
The first century pastor sent this written sermon that is the book of Hebrews to a small, harried church that was coming under increasing pressure to turn their backs on Jesus and go back to their old ways of living, to blend in with society and go with the flow like everyone else. To not stand out. For them, standing out was getting dangerous. They were finding it harder to find people willing to hire them or purchase from their businesses. They were losing economic security. Their friends and even family members shunned them, so the social safety net of family and friends looking out for and taking care of one another wasn’t necessarily available to them. And now the heat was getting turned up another notch. Persecution by Roman officials and city leaders was on the rise. Christians were starting to be jailed and, in some cases, killed if they refused to renounce Jesus.
And what our ancient pastor wants them, and us, to know is that regardless of what we face in this life, following Jesus is always worth it. I mean, look at what St. Paul faced. He was beaten with rods several times, and received the Jewish punishment of 39 lashes five times. He was stoned and left for dead in Lystra. He survived three shipwrecks, one of which included floating, lost at sea, for a night and a day. He crossed raging rivers, and faced the dangers of life in the wilderness as he traveled, and as he was traveling, he was in constant danger of being robbed.
He was imprisoned several times, and spent at least two years under house arrest in Rome. And that doesn’t count the several times he was falsely accused and brought to trial but not imprisoned. He was opposed and run out of cities by Jew and Gentile alike. His preaching led to riots and other kinds of civic disturbances. He was falsely accused by false teachers within the church, and he mentions a “thorn in the flesh” that he prayed to be removed, but God’s grace was sufficient for him to live with. And on top of all of that, there was his daily concern for the churches he started and the people he led to Christ, that they would mature in their fledgling faith and not turn back.
Now, either Paul was flat out nuts, or a glutton for unbelievable amounts of punishment … or following Jesus really is worth it, regardless of what we face in this life. Look at V. 1. Our pastor is comparing and contrasting Jesus to the ancient Jewish high priests. He’s focused on what, in the human mind, might be the “ideal” high priest, and he lifts that ideal high, because he’s going to lift Jesus even higher. The Jewish high priest represents what this small, harried band of struggling Christ followers was tempted to return to – their old life, their old ways. Pre-Jesus Jewish beliefs.
The high priest was chosen from among the people to stand before God on behalf of the people. And while that seems obvious – duh, the Jewish high priest was a Jewish person – it’s emphasized here because our pastor wants us to remember that a good high priest identifies with the people he represents. He comes from among them. He’s one of them.
But he is also set apart. The clothes that he wore set him apart from all the others. Even the other, regular priests didn’t wear the kinds of clothes the high priest wore on the day of atonement. He was chosen from among the people, but he was also set apart to do a special work. He was chosen from among the people to stand before God on their behalf. He stood there in solidarity with the people he represented, one of them, but also set apart for this special task.
As one of them, the high priest could sympathize with the people, instead of dealing with then harshly in their mistakes and sin. Why? Because he is very aware of his own shortcomings as a human being. Look at Vv. 2-3.
He is beset, or subject to, weakness. He’s aware of human frailty. He gets sick and hungry and tired, just like everyone else. The years took their toll on his body just like everyone else’s. But more than that, he’s aware of his own sin. On the day of atonement, he would choose one young bull and two goats. One goat would be offered as a sacrifice for the sins of the people, and he would pray over and symbolically place the sins of the people on the other goat – the scapegoat – and set if free to wander in the wilderness. This was symbolic of God removing the people’s sins from them. But before he could do that, he had to sacrifice the young bull for his own sins and the sins of his family.
Now, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but a bull, even a young bull, is much larger than a goat, even a large goat. Atonement was made for all the people, including the family of the high priest, but the bigger sacrifice was for the high priest and his family. It’s almost like God wanted the priest to so identify with the people and so closely empathize with them that he considered his own sinfulness as greater than theirs.
We have a tendency to downplay our own sin and magnify the sin of others. God wants us to take the other perspective – not to excuse away the sin of others, but to view our own sinful hearts as worse than others. God wants us to relate to others with humility. That’s why Jesus says, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:3-5). Consider your own sin as a log in your eye, and the other’s sin as a speck by comparison.
The high priest’s sacrifice for himself and his family emphasized the same thing in his own mind. So he was to deal with the sin of others with gentleness and empathy rather than in arrogance and anger. But the sin was still dealt with. It wasn’t ignored. Blood was shed.
The high priest was selected from among the people, but he wasn’t voted on by the people. He was called, appointed, by God. Look at V. 1. And then down at V. 4. This wasn’t something that the people thought was a good idea as a way of staying right before God. This was God, reaching down into human history, initiating a relationship with a wayward people. God is the one acting here. God is the one reaching out to us, and determining the one through whom we come to him.
Aaron, elder brother of Moses, was the first high priest. All future high priests in ancient Israel were descended from him. Exodus 28 tells of Aaron’s selection as high priest. The Bible says, “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL, to serve me as priests” (V. 1). From among the people, but set apart to stand before God on behalf of the people, and deal with the people gently, very aware of his own weakness and sin.
Now, look at Vv. 5-6. No human being exalted himself into the role of high priest. The high priesthood through the line of Aaron was initiated and established by God. And the work of Jesus was initiated and established by the Father. God working to establish relationship with us, wanting us to draw near to him. And God ordaining and establishing the means by which we draw near to him.
We live in a world defined by relativism. Many views of God. Many paths to God. Find the one that works for you, and as long as you’re sincere in your belief, all good. Who is at the center of things in that kind of belief system? I am. I’m supposed to find what works for ME. That’s what makes this kind of thinking so appealing. I get to stay on the throne of my life and decide for myself which path I will follow. Do you see it? That’s the essence of sin. The emphasis on ME. On what I want. On what works in MY life. It isn’t about God at all. It’s about ME. I am shaping God into the image that I would prefer for God, rather than coming to God on God’s terms.
When Jesus says “I am THE way, THE truth, THE life” (Jn. 14:6), he was acknowledging the unique place he holds in God’s plan of salvation, of restoring relationship with us. When God, through the prophet Jeremiah, says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jer. 29:13), he wasn’t saying “You’ll find the me you want me to be.” He was saying, “You’ll find ME.” Me as I am. God as God is. Not a God created in our image. The God in whose image we are created. Yes, sincerity is a component of it. “When you seek me with all your heart.” But that sincere search has to be for God as God is, not as we would have God to be.
Jesus reveals to us the heart of God – God as God is. AND he is the path – the way – to God. The way to draw close to God runs right through the cross of Christ. Jesus is the God-ordained, God-established way. In fact, in Jesus, a new high priestly line is established. Look at V. 10. He is not a high priest from Aaron’s line. He is THE high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Who in the world is Melchizedek, anyway? We’re going to hear a lot about him in the coming weeks. He’s mentioned a total of 10 times in the Bible, and 8 of those 10 times are in Hebrews. The other two times are in the Old Testament.
He appears first in Genesis 14 as the king of Salem, which was likely the city that would become Jerusalem, and also a priest of God, and he blessed Abraham after a victory in battle. Aaron was a priest, the high priest, but not a king. Melchizedek was both priest and king, and as such, he was a shadow of Jesus in the Old Testament, not in any way a savior himself and certainly not divine. He was just a man. But he was a different TYPE of priest than Aaron and his successors would be. He was one who stood before God on behalf of a wayward humanity long before Israel was even a people, and he was also a king.
In that sense, Jesus, ordained by God as the means of salvation and way to approach God, is a new type of high priest, one who stands before God on our behalf, who made atonement for our sin in our place, and who is also king. That’s why we call Jesus our Savior and our Lord.
But he was also one of us, and thus he represents us and can empathize with us. Look at Vv. 7-8. When Jesus prayed, whether it was in the Garden of Gethsemane, or in the wilderness, or up on a mountain on any day of his life when he drew away to pray, there were times when “loud cries and tears” were a part of his prayer. We know that happened in Gethsemane. But the writer of Hebrews doesn’t necessarily restrict us to that. He simply says there were times when Jesus walked this earth when he cried out to God with tears. And yes, God was able to save him from death.
Matthew records the words of Jesus when he was arrested. “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matt. 26:53-54). God COULD save Jesus from death. He had the power to do that. Jesus COULD have asked him to send the armies of heaven to save him. He had the freedom to do that. But he didn’t. He submitted his flesh, which was crying out for rescue and relief, to the will of God in full obedience.
Unlike earthly princes, who gain their titles simply by birth and their lineage, Jesus earned the title Savior by obeying God fully. He obeyed God consistently throughout his life. He was without sin. There was never a point at which he gave in to temptation, in whatever form it presented itself to him. Not as he was growing up. Not as a young adult before his time of ministry when he worked as a carpenter. Not in the wilderness as he was tempted by Satan himself. Not in the Garden of Gethsemane as his flesh cried out for relief. And not on any road that he walked in his life’s journey in this world. He knows how hard it is to obey, because he obeyed God fully. He knows how hard it is to resist temptation, because he refused to give in.
A weight lifter who has lifted 200 lbs knows what it feels like to lift 200 lbs. But he doesn’t know what it is like to life 205 lbs, because he either failed to do it or he didn’t even try. Jesus knows the full weight of obedience to God, and the full weight of temptation, because he never quit and gave in to temptation, and he obeyed God fully.
And that means he gets us, and deals gently with us when we fail. That DOESN’T mean he brushes off our sin or that our sin doesn’t matter. It means that he has atoned for it himself, and that there is absolutely nothing we can face in this life, up to and including death, there is no temptation in this life, there is no resistance we can face, that he cannot sympathize with and give us the grace and strength to face when we need it.
The high priest had to offer sacrifices for himself first. He was as broken as everyone else. Jesus offered himself. He lived in full obedience to God for us and offered that life to God on the cross for us. The high priest was beset with weakness. Jesus experienced the full weight of obedience because he did it. The high priest could only deal gently with people because of his awareness of his own sinfulness. Jesus became the source of our salvation. We cannot separate salvation from the Savior. If we want salvation, we must come through the Savior, appointed by God to that role, becoming the perfect savior in by obeying completely to the end and never sinning as he walked this world like us, and standing with us in the presence of the Father.
Following Jesus is always worth it, no matter what we face. And when we embrace that truth, we’ll find that our lives are filled with a peace and contentment that we cannot fully understand, regardless of our circumstance. As I opened this sermon, I mentioned everything St. Paul went through in this life. As we close, I want us to see Paul’s perspective on all of that. In Philippians 4, he says this, “I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:11-13).
He strengthens me, not to do what I want to do, to do whatever MY HEART desires, but to face whatever circumstances I must face in this life. Jesus is always more than enough. May we never trade that in for something less. Let’s pray.
