Jesus, the Great High Priest - Hebrews 4:14-5:10
So this morning - I want to talk to you all about Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Just kidding. I’m not going to do that, but I have your attention now.
This text that we’re looking at in Hebrews focuses on the priesthood of Jesus Christ. And in order to appreciate what the author of Hebrews is saying here you really have to understand what the role of a priest was in Old Testament Israel. One way to think about the priesthood is men who would represent the people to God.
They would make sacrifices on behalf of people to God in order to make atonement for their sins. In order to have their sins taken away, forgiven. And what you quickly realize as you read through the Old Testament is that the priests often failed to adequately represent the people to God.
They were supposed to be these incredible representatives that would bring the people of Israel into the presence of God, but they consistently failed. They didn’t uphold the standards that God required of sacrifices. And they failed to instruct the people in the way of the Lord.
They were inadequate representatives.
Isn’t this why we’re so often frustrated with politicians? Hopefully, what I said earlier makes sense now. A politician is supposed to be one of us. And because he or she is one of us they should understand our needs and the problems of our communities and advocate for us to the legislative body.
That’s the way it’s supposed to be, but we all know that’s not really the way it is.
Politicians often live a lifestyle that is foreign to the people they represent. The people that are supposed to be representing us have very little in common with us. There’s a growing disparity between those who represent and those who are being represented. I think we’d all agree that our political representation is often inadequate. This is what happened in Israel with the priests, except the priests were responsible for representing the people to God.
Old Testament believers longed for a better high priest that would perfectly represent them before God. And in order to be our perfect representative, we see in this passage that the Great High Priest must have three specific qualities. The first is that the He must be like us.
The Great High Priest must be like us (vv. 4:14-5:3)
Verse 14 begins by telling us: “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
Previously in chapter 4, the writer of Hebrews tells us that the Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword and that God’s Word leaves us naked and exposed in our sin. Left in our sin, we are hopeless, but he picks up in verse 14, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”
The writer states that Jesus is our great high priest, and we should cling to this truth. However, there are requirements one must fulfill in order to be a high priest. Not anyone can show up and say, “I’m here to be trained as the great high priest.”
The first qualification is, the high priest must be like us. He must be a person. Jesus had to be like us in order to be our perfect high priest. He had to know what it was like to be human, to be tempted and tried - so that he could sympathize with us.
And that’s exactly what he did when he took on flesh and became man. An angel could never represent us before God. An angel doesn’t know what it’s like to live in this fallen world.
But Jesus knows what that’s like. He can sympathize with us because he has been tempted in every respect as we are, sinless, and still so gracious toward us. Couldn’t Jesus look at us and say, “what’s wrong with y’all? Try harder! I avoided sin, why can’t you?”
But he doesn’t do that - he’s gracious toward us. Because he knows what it’s like to live in a broken world. And it’s because of his perfection and sinlessness he is able to stand before God. It’s because of him, it’s through him, we have access to God.
That’s why we pray in and through the name of Jesus. Because we can’t come to God on our own merit, we have to approach God through a sinless mediator, Jesus Christ.
And that, at its core, is what a priest does. A priest brings people near to God. The writer of Hebrews defines a priest in chapter 5 verse 1 in this way.
He says, “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
It was through the representation of the priest and the sacrifices offered that a person’s sins were atoned for.
Really, it doesn’t take much thought to realize how inadequate the Old Testament sacrificial system really was. Often the sacrifices themselves weren’t on par with what God wanted and then you have the overall sinfulness of the priest making the sacrifice on your behalf. Wouldn’t it be easy to wonder… is this good enough? Are my sins really forgiven?
Also because of the sinfulness of the priests, they had no choice but to treat people with gentleness. Both those who violated God’s law unintentionally and intentionally. Priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sin like everybody else. They should have been just as aware of their sin as everyone else.
This is why humanity was required of the priesthood. Only a human can adequately sympathize with another person.
But what helped the priests serve in that role, their humanity, was also their downfall. Would you want a grievous sinner offering sacrifices to God on your behalf? Therein lies the problem with the priests. The priesthood cried out for a truly great high priest.
The Great High Priest must be chosen by God. (vv. 4-6)
Not only did the high priest have to be like us, he had to be chosen by God. The brother of Moses, Aaron, was chosen by God to be the first High Priest of Israel.
Aaron never asked for an application to be high priest. One of the tribes of Israel, the Levites, were designated by God to be priests - and Aaron was a Levite. God determined where the priests came from. No one volunteered. God chose them.
The same is true for Jesus. God appointed him to be the great high priest, when he said, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you,” God said this at Jesus’ baptism, which is a quotation of Psalm 2:7.
The writer of Hebrews is making the point that God appointed Jesus as high priest, just as he had done with Aaron.
But there’s a major problem with Jesus fulfilling the role of a priest. Jesus didn’t come from the tribe of Levi, he came from the tribe of Judah. How could God appoint Jesus into a priestly role if he wasn’t related in any way to the tribe of Levi?
The author of Hebrews solves that problem in verse 6, by telling us that Jesus isn’t a Levitical priest, rather, he’s a priest from the order of Melchizedek.
The Scriptures, particularly Psalm 110 makes it crystal clear that the Messiah, the one who would save people from their sins and offer a perfect sacrifice, would not come from the Levitical priesthood. Rather, he’d come from a higher, a better priesthood from the order of Melchizedek.
In Genesis 14, the priest/king Melchizedek blesses Abraham. And the Jewish tradition was that only the greater could only bless the lesser. A son could not bless his father. Only a father could bless his son. You see, only the greater could bless the lesser.
And therefore, the priesthood of Melchizedek is greater than the Levitical priesthood that came through Abraham’s family. In chapter 7 the writer of Hebrews goes into detail and explains how the order of Melchizedek is a better priesthood.
The biggest takeaway that we should see from this is that the priesthood that Jesus comes from is a higher and better priesthood than the one established in Aaron - the first high priest of Israel. In order for there to be forgiveness of sins through Jesus, all of these little details had to come together.
These are the details that we often overlook. These details that we tend to shrug at. Because this is a pretty complex argument that the writer of Hebrews is making.
I think there’s a major temptation to shrug our shoulders and make no effort to understand, because we think, Jesus did it, he was the perfect sacrifice, what else do I need to know?
But God thought it was important enough to preserve it for 2,000 years so that you can hold this in your hand. If these technical arguments are important to God they should be important to us. He’s communicating something of value to us.
Understanding what the author of Hebrews is saying here will only enrich your faith. Why would you not want that? It’ll only make you appreciate the cross even more.
You will have to work to mine the riches of this passage but the treasure you’ll find will be worth it. In order for Jesus to achieve our redemption he had to be a perfect priest.
And despite the insurmountable obstacles God made a way to achieve our redemption. It would seem on the surface that Jesus didn’t have the right ancestry to fulfill the role of a priest, but the truth is God had established a way for him to fulfill this role in an even greater way thousands of years prior.
The Great High Priest must be sinless. (vv. 7-10)
Despite the priesthood being an office created and ordained by God, the priesthood was marred by sin. Sin contaminated the priests ability to give a truly blameless sacrifice to God.
Aaron, the first high priest, created an idol for the people of God to worship. Nadab and Abihu were killed by God for offering strange fire to him.
Priests were deeply marred by their own sinfulness. And it would follow logically that a sacrifice would be tainted by the sinfulness of the person offering it.
There was a clear need for the high priest to be sinless. That was why Jesus had to be the high priest. We often take the sinlessness of Jesus for granted. Jesus was sinless, but he was tempted to sin.
The greatest temptation that Jesus was faced in his humanity, in his flesh were the days leading to his suffering and dying on the cross. In the Garden of Gethsemane he was crying out to God to remove this cup, to take the suffering he was going to face away.
Ultimately Jesus had to conquer the suffering and death that awaited him at the cross.
The pain, the agony that Jesus endured as he prepared to go to the cross are the “days of his flesh” that the writer of Hebrews is referring to. Isn’t the fear of death the most basic fear we all have? Jesus even experienced it. We take our lives for granted. We assume we’re going to wake up tomorrow. But what if we don’t? That’s not guaranteed.
I read an article from the Huffington Post titled, “6 Positive Ways To Overcome Your Fear Of Death.” Here are the six tips the author gave: “Take Control of Your Life, “Learn to Accept that Death is Natural, Adopt Rituals and Explore Spirituality, Focus on Living, Well, Plan for Your Passing.”
Can you get any more generic? Is focusing on living well really going to help you overcome your fear of death?
Jesus overcame his grief and agony and went to the cross not by focusing on living well or adopting rituals. Instead Jesus overcame the grief he felt by trusting God and lifting up his pain to God.
And here’s what’s incredible: God answered Jesus’s prayers and helped him conquer suffering and dying not by allowing him to avoid the cross - but by raising him from the dead. Jesus didn’t simply conquer the sorrows that awaited him at the cross - he conquered death itself.
It was going through this, experiencing it all, that Jesus learned obedience by actually following through on God’s plan of redemption, even though in his flesh, he wanted another way.
Obedience is hard because we know what the right thing to do is, but often we have a difficult time actually doing it.
Walking in obedience, following through is so much harder than simply knowing what we’re supposed to do. You see Jesus knew what God wanted him to do and he did it completely. He did it fully.
He faced the mocking, the beatings, the hatred, the pain, the suffering, and death in order to accomplish salvation. He didn’t do any of it halfway. He didn’t skip any details.
And it was through this he was “made perfect” or finished the course of suffering that was set before him.
And it was his death that demonstrated that he was fit to be our high priest. A perfect high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Why does the writer of Hebrews go to such lengths to make the point that Jesus is our great high priest?
In order for your sins to be taken away, a perfect sacrifice had to be made, and in order for a perfect sacrifice to be made, a perfect priest had to offer it.
Jesus is both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest offering it. Doesn’t knowing this add weight to Jesus’ words in John 10 when he says, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord”? He offers his life as a sacrifice, no one takes it from him.
And Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father and continues to minister as our high priest. Only a perfect priest can adequately represent us before a perfect, holy God.
Considering Jesus as our high priest reminds me in some ways of the miranda rights a police officer reads when he puts someone under arrest.
“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.”
We’ve probably all heard those words at some point… hopefully it was on TV! Jesus is advocating, interceding, pleading to God on behalf of believers. You might even say he’s representing believers to God.
Everyone will be represented before God. Either Jesus represents you or you will represent yourself.
And the verdict of your eternal soul rests on who is representing you. Do you really think you can adequately represent yourself before a perfect, righteous, God? If you stand before God on your own before him, you’re carrying the weight of your sin.
But if Jesus is your high priest you can cast all your sin on him. Your guilt, your shame, bitterness, whatever it might be. But Jesus says, my burden is easy and my yoke is light.
There’s forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. There’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ. There’s hope in Jesus Christ. And if you put your sin on him, he’ll put the beauty of his righteousness on you.
Jesus is the great high priest we all need.