Pastor Scott
Jonas
Glendale
Lutheran Church
Hebrews 4
Jesus>
The High Priest
We continue
through the book of Hebrews, discovering all the ways Jesus is Greater. He is greater than Angels, greater than
humanity, greater than Moses and today, greater than the High Priest.
So first,
let’s understand who the High Priest was.
The high Priest was the top of the pyramid of priests created by our
Lord under Moses. The tribe of Levites
were set apart as priests who would attend to the House of God, the Tabernacle. God gave specific instructions on how the
Lord’s tent was to be built and the Levites oversaw the construction and the
maintenance. Aaron was the brother of
Moses. From his line and his line only,
they would be the priests responsible for the sacrifices at the altar. Aaron himself was the first high priest. He represents the people as a whole. He alone can enter the innermost part of the
tabernacle, the holy of Holies, and that once a year to make atonement for the
nation’s sin. The pyramid is as
follows: The Levites, Aaron’s family
line, the High Priest.
The High
Priest served as a mediator of the covenant between God and the Hebrews. It is through the priesthood that a purified
and sanctified Israel is able to serve God and receive his blessing. The high priest is the holiest of
positions. It is the greatest honor a
Jew can imagine, even greater than the King.
Imagine the responsibility that comes with the position. You are the ambassador for God. You are the representative of his people on
earth.
The thing about a mediator is that he
is stuck between two worlds. He has two
constituencies. He has to keep those
above him happy and those below as well.
If he cares only about one of the constituencies then he can not do his
job. A High Priest is like a teacher who
must identify with both his students and her principal. A High priest is like a manager who needs to
cherish the customer and her boss. A
high priest is like a doctor who has to fight for both the patient and the
principles of the administrator.
There is a famous story about Ronald
Reagan and his ambassadors. Whenever he
recruited a new one he would call him into the oval office and point to a
globe. “Point to your country” the gipper would say. The nervous would be ambassador would look
for his outpost wherever it was around the world and point. Reagan would shake his head and say no, “Try
again.” The country we send you to is
not your country. The United States of
America is your country. The President
was above the ambassador and the American people were below.
There are so many way a mediator or a
high priest can fail. Imagine a high
priest who loves God but not his people.
He is devoted to the Lord but he doesn’t care if the people perish. He offers personal prayers but not communal
ones. He makes sacrifices for himself
but not the nation. That is a high
priest fail. Or it can go the other way,
a high priest who loves the people but not the Lord. All of his actions towards those under him
would be in vain because he had no faith.
Another high priest fail.
High priest fails are throughout the
history of Israel. Aaron oversaw the
Golden calf debacle. It seems like he
was scared of the people so he allowed them to go against God’s specific
worship instructions. When Moses came
down off the mountain he shared the Lord’s displeasure. The Idolaters died but Aaron was spared.
Years later in the time of Samuel the
Prophet, there was a high priest named Eli.
He failed because he allowed his sons to abuse their position as
priests. There was a specific procedure
how the priests received their food.
They were to take a fork and stick it into a pot that was boiling a
sacrifice, whatever came up with it was their food for the day. Instead they forced worshippers to give them
whatever they asked. They were using the
priesthood as a way to get fat and rich.
Their father even said to them, “If someone sins against a man, God will
mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for
him?” High Priest Fail.
Going from the Tabernacle to Solomon’s Temple made the high
priest position even grander and more lucrative. By the time of the Greeks it had become a
prize sought after by unscrupulous men.
In 174 BC, you could buy the office of high Priest. By the time of Jesus, the high Priest had
become at best bureaucratic and at worst an abomination. Just as Luther discovered 1500 years later. Absolute power corrupts men and positions.
Hebrews
4:14 “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. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of
grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
You and I
need someone who loves the Father Whole heartedly and loves us just as
much. Jesus is the only one who knows
God perfectly and you just as intimately.
He trusts the Lord and he trusts you.
He is fully committed to his heavenly Father and he is fully committed
to you. He is the greatest mediator
between the Father and man.
Jesus is not
the middle manager that we are used to.
We are used to middle manager’s like Michael Scott of the Office, who
put their own needs ahead of the customer and their boss. Isn’t that what we are used to? In fact, when you experience something
different it flabbergasts you.
I’ve told
you about my friends Linda and Daryl.
They lost their job in Wisconsin and have to travel back to
California. They are physically,
emotionally, financially and spiritually spent.
Last weekend they rented a UHaul trailer and started to our house 7
hours away. Right away there was
problems. Despite the fact that they
packed the trailer according to instructions, it swayed violently at 35 miles
per hour. At 11 oclock at night they had
to stop call UHaul and ask for help.
There is no way they could drive to California like this. They were at the mercy of their customer
representative. I don’t know who this
person was but I love them. She had pity
on them, sent a mechanic who got them on the road. More than that, they allowed them to trade up
their trailer for a much bigger van at no cost.
And they offered to pay for their gas for the trip. That representative cared about them and they
represented their company excellently.
Linda cried at the grace and goodness.
How much
greater is Jesus than that. He loved his
father so much that he offered to leave his side to come to earth. He loved us so much that he became a
baby. We have Babies here Monday through
Friday. I would not want to be a baby
given the choice. Jesus did that for
you. So that 30 years later when the
time was right he sacrificed himself on the cross. What high Priest sacrifices himself on the
altar? Only one!
Therefore we
can approach the heavenly Father with Jesus by our side. We are the student approaching the
principal’s desk with our favorite teacher holding our hand. We are the customer approaching the owner of
the company with a rep who knows our misery.
We are the patient approaching the hospital administrator with the
loving doctor who delivered us when we were born.
Even those
do not quite express Hebrews chapter 4.
Try this. We are sons and
daughters approaching our Father with our brother by our side. Our Father loves us, Our brother, Jesus loves
us. Have confidence in that!