March 22, 2015
Obstacles on the Journey: The High Priest
- Hebrews 5:1-10
- Rev Ruth Chadwick Moore
Our Lenten theme is about obstacles on the road to faith – like the twists and turns and challenges a river provides. My obstacle this week was to write a sermon using the Book of Hebrews. My favorite website had no examples of sermons on this chapter in Hebrews. One of the commentators I read said no one in their right mind would preach a sermon from this book because Hebrews is so complex and so politically incorrect. And Chapter 5 talks about salvation and Teri already did an amazing job on that topic last week, so I’m not going there.
So where do we start? I think to begin understanding this passage we need just a bit of bible study so we can understand what is being said.
Do you know what a high priest was and what he did for the Jewish people? Historically – i.e. from an Old Testament perspective – the high priest came from the tribe of Levi. Aaron and his brother Moses were from the tribe of Levi and priests in the ancient Jewish tradition were to be descendants of Aaron. Aaron is described as the first high priest of the Israelites. On holy days, the high priest was to go into the holiest of holy places, the inner sanctum of the temple – where no ordinary person could go – and was to offer sacrifices on behalf of his people. The high priest was the mediator between God and the people. He was to offer sacrifices to God for the forgiveness of his people as well as for the forgiveness of himself and his family. These prayers are still said by our Jewish brothers and sisters on Yum Kipper, the Day of Atonement in the Jewish tradition. These sacrifices by the high priest were blood sacrifices, and an animal of some kind was killed to atone or make amends to God for the people’s bad behavior. Our reading tells us that the high priest was chosen and called by God and put in charge of those things that pertain to God on behalf of his people. He is able to deal gently with his people because just like them he makes mistakes and is subject to weakness and must make sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people.
In the reading for today, the author of Hebrews is claiming that Jesus is the ultimate high priest. He is qualified for this title because he is the Son of God – “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (v.5) – and because he was a high priest like Melchizedek. Melchizedek was the king of Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God around the time of Abraham. So he was a priest of the Most High God before there was even a people called the Israelites. This means Jesus isn’t an ordinary human high priest like those born into Aaron’s line; he is like the super high priest Melchizedek. Recognizing him this way, Jesus becomes our eternal High Priest who is also the king of Jerusalem. The author of Hebrews is telling us that Jesus was chosen by God for this role and is a high priest like no earthly priest could ever be.
So now we know why Jesus can be called a great high priest. So what is he going to do with the title and what does that mean for us – because we always want to know what’s in it for us don’t we? And why would Jesus being a high priest be an obstacle to our faith?
Maybe imagining Jesus as a high priest is an obstacle for us. What do you think a high priest looks like? Is it a somber man with a long beard, white robe, sparkly vestments and a big pointy hat? Is a high priest a mixture of Aaron, Moses, Merlin, the pope or Dumbledore from Harry Potter? In this costume Jesus looks ridiculous. It’s not a very compelling image for him.
I think the real issue, the real obstacle for us, is that Jesus had to suffer, and through his suffering he learned obedience. There is that dreaded word – obedience. And we also hear the word submission. This is getting pretty dicey here. Is that what is expected of us? Are we to suffer? And to whom are we to submit and who are we to obey? Is this what our faith requires? These are some difficult obstacles to overcome!
In our reading, Jesus’ suffering is probably in reference to his agonized prayers in Gethsemane and Golgotha. Although Jesus had known from the beginning what was coming, he cried out for salvation as the horror of God-forsakenness loomed in the darkness. Like us, Jesus knew what it meant to cry out to God in fear and anguish as he faced death. So he becomes fully qualified to be our priest and able to deal with our human emotions, our fears and our weaknesses. Through his own human experience, Jesus learns to understand what it means to be human and to suffer.
Jesus then is fully human as well as divine. And the story of his humanness continues. Hebrews also tells us that “although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” (vs. 8 and 9)
These verses raise all kinds of theological issues so let’s try to unpack them a bit. The Greek word for perfect means to finish or complete. It doesn’t mean that Jesus was morally perfect – he already was as the Son of God. It means that he completed his mission of becoming a perfect human being, thus reversing the course of Adam’s life – you remember that story right – Adam and Eve sinning and getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden and not being the humans God created them to be?
Adam had been perfect, but fell out of perfection due to his sin. In order to fully represent Adam’s fallen race – humankind – the Son of God had to become the perfect man. He couldn’t do that until he had lived in the flesh, faced the rigors of temptation, endured the sufferings that come with sin, and still remain perfectly obedient and reverently submissive through his entire life. Then because Jesus was completely and perfectly human, he could genuinely stand in our place and represent us to God. This is why, according to the writer of Hebrews, God designated him to be a high priest in the order of Melchizedek – perfectly qualified to be the high priest all of us need.
This is the theology of learning obedience through suffering. This is an obstacle – at least it is for me. And this calls for another sermon about suffering and probably another one about atonement for sin. Sometimes our bible readings bring up more questions than they answer don’t they?
But I do want to leave you with another idea. All high priests offer up sacrifices to God and usually what the church is concerned about is Jesus offering up the sacrifice of his life for our sins – he takes the sin of the world on himself and bears it away to God. He makes the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. But that is not what is described here. Instead, what Jesus bears to God, what he offers up as sacrifice, are “prayers and supplication, with loud cries and tears.” (v. 7)
Here is a priest who is not lifting a lamb or a dove, or bread and wine, or even atonement for sin. Into the presence of God, this priest, this Jesus, offers weeping and cries of anguish in the prayers he offers up. Understood as a high-priestly act, Jesus is bearing in his person, all the loud cries and all the tears and supplications of his people. So in this reading at least, his passion, his suffering and death, embodies the grief of the world. This is not Jesus atoning for our sins. This is Jesus embodying human anguish, isolation, longing, misery and rage which is cried out to the heavens. All of this is added to him, borne by him and poured painfully out of him. Certainly the prayers, tears and loud cries are for himself and for his own deliverance. But more deeply, he is a priest, staggering beneath the weeping, groaning supplications of his people.
And it is this – this understanding and taking on the burden of human suffering – that makes me a Christian today. Because in Jesus Christ I have a high priest, a mediator between me and God, who understands everything there is to know about being a human – including the suffering – and who takes my prayers for healing and wholeness to God. Yes I can and do take my prayers to God myself, but because God became human in Jesus Christ, I know that God understands what it means to be human. And I know this is childish, but I feel like Jesus Christ, sitting on the right hand of God, continues to whisper in God’s ear – be gentle with her, she is only human. Help her along the journey of faith and bring her to complete healing and wholeness.
In high school I read Chaim Potok’s novel about a boy growing up in an ultra- Orthodox or Hasidic Jewish family. The boy’s father is the Reb, the revered leader of the community. The Reb is kind to everyone but his son – a wonderfully gifted and intelligent young man who is beloved by all. But the father does not speak to his son for years and his silence causes the young man untold agony. Finally the Reb explains his silence. He could see how gifted his son was and his father knew that someday his boy would become a great leader in the community. But the Reb was afraid that his son’s giftedness might make him haughty and hard. So he said, “I was silent so that you would suffer and would be able to be sympathetic with the suffering of your people.” Thus he would be able to deal sympathetically and gently with the ignorant and wayward, just like Jesus.
And speaking of learning obedience through suffering, just think about your children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews. Most children have some sort of sibling rivalry going on in their relationships with their siblings. And children have to learn obedience – it does not come naturally. It’s easy for a four year to do what his dad says if it’s something he wants to do. “Get in the car; we’re going to the swimming pool.” No problem – the child is in the car before Dad is. It’s easy to obey a command that leads to pleasure. But what if Dad says the child has to share his toys with his little brother. That becomes another matter entirely because sharing toys is still painful for a four year old. What if he doesn’t get them all back or what if his little brother breaks one? It’s when obedience might cause pain that it gets difficult. That’s when obedience is really obedience, not just self service. When we obey in spite of the pain, we mature into complete human beings who live not just for ourselves but for others. That is when we begin to be the human beings God created us to be. May it be so, Amen.
Sources:
www.calvinseminary.edu/sermon-starters by Stan Mast for Lent 5B.
Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 2, Lent 5.