The Great High Priest

Hebrews 4:14-5:10 14
Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 5:1 Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; 3 and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; 6 as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
If I were to ask you, “What does God look like?” what would you say? Perhaps you’d point to the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and say, “Well, God looks like that, with flowing white hair and beard, a stern expression of power on his face as he tells the moon and the sun where to hang in the sky, and with outstretched arm touches off the spark that would jump start humankind. Yeah, that’s what God looks like.” Or would you look to the popular images of God, like those illustrated by the likes of Monty Python, a God with an overwhelming ego, a crown upon his head, fire flashing from his eyes, and the booming voice of one irritated with humanity? Of course there are always those wonderful Sunday school pictures of God in Jesus with his disco-era feathered hair and sparkling blue eyes, looking like one of the lost members of the Bee Gees. I wonder what God looks like to you.
What if I asked you: “What does God sound like?” I have a feeling you haven’t been asked that question near as many times as the other. Well, what does God sound like to you? Is his voice found in the ground-shaking boom of a thunderstorm? Or does his voice carry softly on the wind? Does God have an accent, or when he speaks is it even with words? I wonder what God sounds like to you.
Well, let me ask you a different question. How do you think God feels? I’ll ask you again (just in case you didn’t quite catch it the first time): how do you think God feels? Is he a proud, divine engineer, rocking back in his chair, propping his feet up as he watches the mechanisms of creation running like clockwork? Is he standing on the floor of heaven, shaking his head with the look of a disappointed father as his children continue to disobey him? Or, perhaps, is he filled with the arrogant power of a divine dictator, casually flicking the unsuspecting sinner into the great, eternal chasm of hell? I wonder how you think God feels.
Try this out: what if God feels the way you feel? What if God experiences the great cocktail of emotions you experience day in and day out: your pain, your joy, your depression, your loneliness, your excitement? What if God actually feels hungry, tired, thirsty, or well-rested? I suppose that isn’t the easiest pill to swallow, or the easiest story to buy, considering you may have an image of God as an aloof deity with his eternal throne somewhere among the stars in the universe. It isn’t necessarily easy to think of God as being sympathetic when you see him as some removed, all-powerful being that dresses in dazzling white robes and floats on the cloud covered streets of heaven. But just imagine it, God feeling the way you feel, able to actually sympathize with you in the midst of wherever you may be. Perhaps your ordinary image of God makes it difficult to find such a connection of feeling with the Almighty.
Well, does the image of a high priest help in making such a connection? Honestly, it doesn’t for me...at least it doesn’t at first. I’m a Baptist, and even though I know better, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the words “high priest” is an image of a man in excessive clerical garb with a pointy hat and possibly a bedazzled walking stick. The image comes to my mind of one who wears a white collar on a black shirt or one who recites words from an otherwise forgotten language as he breaks an oversized wafer over a goblet of wine. When I hear the words “high priest” my mind immediately flashes to those days of studying ancient Judaism and the elaborate process of cleaning and dressing of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, and how this one individual had to slaughter a bull and a goat and sprinkle the blood in various places in the Tabernacle. It’s honestly an image I can’t relate to anymore than the image painted in plaster and pigment on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. However, it is just the image that our author chooses here in our passage this morning from this sermon to the Hebrews.
It’s the first image we get 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 to our confession.” Despite our unfamiliarity with the image of a high priest, the author’s original audience would have been quite familiar with the office and all of its practices: the vestments, the offerings for sins, etc. The image of Jesus, therefore, as a great high priest, is actually quite powerful, at the very least, from a religious point of view for the author of our text today. In fact, the author is so familiar with the office of the high priest, that he or she goes on to give us a few of the qualifications of a high priest.
In verses 1 and 4 of chapter five the author describes how the high priest was chosen and what he was chosen to do: “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins… And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.” So the high priest was chosen (as opposed to himself choosing the profession at a job fair), and his primary role was to serve as a mediator between God and God’s people: he had the responsibility of making sacrifices on behalf of the people and mediating forgiveness to the people on behalf of God. Of course, since the high priest himself was a mere mortal, he too had to make sacrifices for his own sins: (verse 5:3) “and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.”
Now, one could imagine that the person chosen to be high priest could have a tendency towards arrogance, seeing as how he and he alone would have exclusive access to God. In fact, however, the high priest had to be able to sympathize with the people for whom he made sacrifice—his was not an office to lord over the people. Our author says in verse 5:2, “He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness.” So, in short, according to the author of Hebrews, the high priest was one who acted as a mediator between God and his people while sympathizing with the people—in other words, he felt what the people felt. With that in mind, we see how the author begins to use such an image to describe Jesus.
In chapter 4, verses 15 and 16 he says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” The author of Hebrews makes the claim that we have in Christ a high priest who is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses.” Christ, the Son of God is able to sympathize with us? He’s actually able to understand where we come from, where we are, where we’re headed? Scripture responds with a resounding “Yes!”
Of course, there is more to it than that. The author tells us in chapter five, verses five and six, “So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’; as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.’" In other words, this was not something Jesus jumped at the chance to do simply for the glory of it all; Christ became our great high priest as God, his father, had appointed him. He has “been designated by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (5:10).”
Christ is able to serve as our great high priest because he has actually walked in our shoes! That’s what the Incarnation—God becoming flesh in Christ—is all about! When the Bible says in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us,” it is saying that God has indeed become like you. He looks like you, sounds like you, feels like you. And because the Word has become flesh in the Son Jesus, he is able to serve as your great high priest, offering prayers and supplications on your and my behalf just as he did “In the days of his flesh…with loud cries and tears (5:7).” Of course, our text goes on to tell us in verse eight that “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” Christ, in the flesh, learned what it meant to be obedient to God, even to the point of death! Therefore, Christ as our high priest is not only able to sympathize with us in our temptations and grief, he is able to make total absolution on our behalf in his perfection.
The author tells us in verse nine, “and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Unlike the mortal high priests of old, Christ had endured the temptations of sin and evil and had been made perfect; therefore, there was no need to make atonement for his own sins. Furthermore, the sacrifice that Christ offered was not the blood of bulls or goats, but his very own blood! Christ, having become the perfect high priest, became the perfect sacrifice—the ultimate sacrifice—for all of creation. This Son, God Incarnate, our savior who looked like us, sounded like us, and felt like us, gave his very life for us.
That’s what God looks like! Like a great high priest who lovingly sacrifices himself in his perfection to atone for my and your imperfections. That’s what God sounds like! Like the eternal Word made flesh interceding on our behalf before the Almighty. That’s what God feels like! Like one who has walked on the hard roads of this world, who’s felt the pain of heartbreak and a sore back, like one who knows the threat of sin and the peril of evil. Christ, your great high priest, the one who has made a way for you in his perfection, knows your every feeling—because he has felt them. That is why he is our perfect high priest; that is why he is our ultimate sacrifice; and that is why he is a savior deserving of your love, your worship, and your very life’s devotion. That, my friends, is truly what God feels like!
Let us pray…