Jesus our High Priest, the Anchor for our Soul (notes on Hebrews 5-6)
Presbyterians don't believe, unlike our beloved Anglican cousins, that it is right to ordain priests into the church. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t think that we need a priest. On the contrary, we most desperately need a priest! Not a mere human priest, however, but the one great High Priest Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 5:1-4 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
First, what is a priest? A priest is a go-between, someone who represents God before humanity, and humanity before God. A go-between is needed because God is holy, and we are not.
The Holy God hates sin with a passion, and breaks out against it with fierce anger (remember the Flood, the Ten Plagues, the Exile...) But we are sin-full. In the West Australian town of Greenough constant strong winds have bent the trees to grow right-angled to the ground. We are bent by sin to do what God has forbidden, and to fail to do what God has commanded.
That is why Isaiah said “Woe to me! I am ruined!” when he found himself in the presence of the “Holy! Holy! Holy! LORD Almighty!” (Isa 6:1-5). That is why the Beloved Disciple, confronted by the Holy Son of God, fell at his feet “as though dead” (Rev 1:17).
Sinful humanity must come to God to plead for His mercy and blessing. But how can we? He isn’t safe! We would be destroyed in his presence like a tissue in a bonfire, like a comet straying near the sun, disintegrated to ashes by the nuclear heat.
God on his side longs to bring us grace, forgiveness, and blessing. But how can he? His holy presence would destroy us: we who are fouled black by sin to our very core.
Two nations are at war, trying with might and main to obliterate one another. If there is to be any dialogue, any hope of reconciliation, a go-between is needed: traditionally, someone from neutral Switzerland. We need a Switzerland: a go-between to approach God on our behalf, to plead for his mercy and blessing; and someone who can come from God to us, to bring mercy and blessing. That is what a priest is. He represents sinful humanity before Holy God, and Holy God before sinful humanity.
A priest must have two qualifications. First, in order to represent humanity he must be one of us. He must know what we know, he must have felt and experienced what we have felt, to plead for us from a place of personal knowledge and encounter. Yet, though human, he must be sinless, so that he can enter Holy God’s presence without annihilation. Second, in order to represent God, he must himself be divine. A true mediator between God and man must himself be... a God-man.
And in order to reconcile Holy God and sinful humanity, the priest must satisfy God’s demand for the execution of just punishment upon human sin. God can no more overlook and disregard sin than a human justice can overlook premeditated murder. If God and humanity is to be reconciled, human sin must be dealt with.
How can God bless sinful humanity, when he must punish us? God in his wisdom and grace has provided sacrifice: a means by which our sin can be punished in another, in a substitute.
Just punishment for our sin can be executed upon the substitute, so that we may instead be blessed. The priest can make this sacrifice, and then bring evidence to God that the sacrifice has been made, and that sin has been justly punished. The priest brings the blood of the slain victim: “Look, here is the evidence that this person’s sin has been punished, that justice has been administered.”
God sees the blood of the substitute, and his holy justice is satisfied. The person for whom the sacrifice was made is no longer the object of his wrath: for his wrath has already fallen upon the sacrificial victim.
Then God sends the priest back to the people he represents: to pronounce God’s forgiveness and favour, God’s promises and reassurance.
This was the awesome office and duty of the Old Testament priest: he was a mutual representative of Holy God and sinful humanity; he brought bloody evidence to God that Israel’s sin had been justly punished; he took God’s blessing to Israel, whose sin had been lifted.
The singular magnificence of the dress of the high priest showed that he was actually Israel’s only priest—the other “ordinary priests” merely served as his assistants. He wore a linen turban, with a gold plate engraved with the words “Holy to the Lord.” Over his heart he wore a breastpiece, set with twelve precious jewels each engraved with the name of a tribe of Israel. On his shoulders he bore two stones engraved likewise with the names of the twelve tribes. Thus he bore the nation upon his heart and shoulders, and the hope of all Israel rested upon him.
And once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he entered into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed—between whose golden cherubim God was enthroned. He came on behalf of all Israel, bringing the blood of a sacrifice, a goat slaughtered on behalf of the people. Thus he communicated to God:
“The sin of the people has been paid for. Your holy justice is satisfied. Forgive your people, and fulfill your covenant promises to them.” From God’s presence he returned to the people, to declare them “clean from all sin” (Lev 16:30).
Though this ritual was spectacular, Hebrews says that Israel’s high priests were only a picture and shadow of the one true and heavenly High Priest: God’s Son Jesus Christ.
How do we know that the Old Testament high priests were not the true and actual High Priest?
Firstly, because they did their job not in God’s true throne-room, but in an earthly tabernacle, a mere picture and representation of the heavenly reality.
Second, because the high priests offered the blood of sacrificed animals to God, and the blood of animals can never pay for the sins of a human being. Thus the sacrifices they brought were pictures of a coming future reality.
Third, because these high priests were themselves sinful! They could never safely enter the true presence of God.
Jesus, however, is the true High Priest:
Hebrews 5:5-6 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” 6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
The full significance of “the order of Melchizedek” will be explained later in Hebrews. Suffice to say that the true High Priest would have to come from an order quantumly different to that of the sinful earthly priests, and Jesus comes from this different order, the “Order of Melchizedek.”
And Jesus proved himself to be a perfect representative of humanity:
Hebrews 5:7-10 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus prayed for us: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35).
He brought petitions on our behalf: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name” (John 17:11). “Protect them from the evil one…. Sanctify them by the truth” (17:15-17). “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory” (17:24).
Jesus prayed for us, “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). And even while they pounded spikes through his hands and feet, he cried: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
And Jesus learned to be obedient to God: he “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). He suffered—not least in the crucible of his desert temptations—and his suffering taught him obedience and dependence upon God.
And so he became a High Priest perfectly equipped to represent us: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
If, as I believe to be true, Hebrews is a recorded sermon, the preacher seems conscious right here that what he is saying is quite challenging. Perhaps the congregation was beginning to fade, thinking, “This is all so theological and theoretical: can’t we just get back to the simple basics!”
And so he says:
Hebrews 5:11 – 6:3 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 6:1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God,2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.
If we are not going to fall away from Christ, if we are going to make it, then we need deep and wide knowledge.
The reason is this: we are attacked on a hundred fronts with a hundred brutal weapons—untold trials and temptations attacking the mind, soul, and spirit. We can only resist these attacks if we know how to answer them.
If we feed on milk, we will remain defenceless infants, gurgling and kicking helplessly with our fat little legs. My son plays Rugby Union. It is a tough game, and he would never last if he lived off milk and baby-food. He needs meat and solid food if he is going to survive the scrum, if he is going to tackle his opponents into the ground, and if he is going to break through to the try line.
That is why Sunday preaching is so important, and Bible studies, and reading, and self-feeding. That is why I am so encouraged by the healthy attendance at our theology course. I see Christians hungry for meat and solid food!
Are you falling prey to discouragement and temptation? Are you falling over at every struggle? This is the meat you need, to know that Jesus is your great High Priest:
Hebrews 6:19-20 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
We are ships in a black and towering gale. With Jesus as your High Priest, you have a firm and secure anchor for your soul, anchored behind the veil into the presence of God himself: anchored to his forgiveness, and anchored to his blessing, favour, and love. You are anchored there because Jesus is standing right there, representing you. He brings the blood of a sacrifice—his blood—evidence that your sins have been punished and dealt with. With Jesus as your High Priest you have absolute assurance that you are free from condemnation. And he brings to you, from God, abundant mercy, forgiveness, and life.
And because he knows you—for he himself endured trials and temptations—he brings you exactly the help you need for each and every daily trial. Every trial. How can we fall away from a High Priest like Jesus?