Sermon – Hebrews 5:5-10 – Jesus Our High Priest

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Hebrews 5:5-10 – Jesus Our High Priest

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

Lent 5

March 25, 2012

Why did Jesus have to die such a humiliating death on a cross? This is a question we have as we approach Holy Week. It was also a question facing the early church which the evangelists had to answer. Peter told the churches that Christ had to enter into our suffering to find us and bring us to God. Paul told the church of Rome that Jesus died on the cross to justify us so that we fit together in a right relationship with God and with each other. And Paul told the Corinthian church that Jesus died a shameful death on the cross to demonstrate God's power to find us in our shame and redeem us. Today we will hear as the author of Hebrews tells Jewish Christians that Jesus died in order to serve as our High Priest. We will look at this further but first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Hebrews 5:5-10 ⁵ So Christ also did not take upon 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." ⁷ During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰ and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

The Jewish Christians faced a problem. They were no longer welcomed in the Jerusalem Temple. We know that persecution had started against the Christians. Paul had been arrested went he tried to enter the Temple. And the new Gentiles in the church were unable to go into the Temple at all. The importance of entering the Temple was related to the forgiving of sin. It was thought that the Temple was the earthly home of God. And so you were expected to make a pilgrimage to the temple, at least once in your life to present a sacrifice and receive forgiveness from God.

The process of forgiveness worked this way. Since God is holy and you are not you are unable to approach God yourself. Someone who is holy needs to be the intermediary. This person, or priest, would listen to your prayers, learn about your joys and concerns, and offer your prayers to God, asking God to bless you by forgiving your sins and giving you what you need for life. This priest was expected to remain holy in order to approach God with your prayers. And this priest was expected to know you and what was happening in your life in order to take your prayers to God.

This function of a priest is similar to what I do as a preacher, but there are some major differences. Like a priest, I need to know you. I need to know your joys and concerns. I need to know what's bothering you. I need to know the questions you have for God. I take all of this and hold it in my mind and heart while I study the scripture passage assigned for a Sunday. I try to see how the Bible passage answers your questions and deals with the problems you face. Then I put together a sermon which talks about the scripture and how it intersects with your life. And I pray that whatever I say in my sermon can be used by the Holy Spirit to do something for you. So as a preacher I take your joys and concerns, bounce them off the Bible and tell you about it. The Holy Spirit then takes whatever my mouth says and transforms it into whatever your ears hear. And you are transformed. So the difference between a preacher and a priest is that I do not deliver your prayers to God. Rather I take your prayers, pass them through scripture, and send them back to you.

But if I don't take your prayers to God who does? Who is your priest who knows you, and is holy enough to approach God on your behalf? This is a problem facing us as it was a problem facing the early church who found their path to the temple and the priests barred by their faith in Jesus Christ.

We don't know who the author of the Book of Hebrews was. We do know that he was a preacher, Hebrews is most likely a sermon, and he was speaking to a group of Jewish Christians. He told them that they did have a high priest, someone holy enough to come into God's presence and someone who knew their joys and concerns, heard their prayers and understood their experiences. This priest was none other than Jesus Christ, who had lived with them, experienced what they had experienced, including suffering and death, and had ascended to be with the Father. Jesus Christ is the high priest who hears our prayers and delivers them to God.

But it was difficult for the Jewish Christians to believe this. Yes, Jesus was the Christ, the anointed one. He was from the tribe of Judah, so he was anointed as King, a descendant of David. But everyone knew that the high priest must be from the tribe of Levy and a descendant of Aaron, Moses' brother. Jesus was not from the tribe of Levy and not descended from Aaron. So Jesus could not be the high priest. And the Jewish Christians worried about who would intercede for them with God as their priest.

The author of Hebrews, like any good preacher, took this concern to scripture to see what the Word of God had to say about it. He searched the Hebrew Bible and found this.

Genesis 14:18-20 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Psalm 110:4 4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."

Melchizadek literally means, “king of righteousness”. He would be a king who would free the prisoners, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, and deliver people from grinding poverty. We are also told that he was also the king of Salem, or Shalom, which means “peace”. So he would be a king who delivers us from war and violence. And Melchizadek was a priest of God Most High. A priest? He was not of the tribe of Levi. Levi was still three generations away. He was not a descendant of Aaron, Aaron would not be born for centuries. But Melchizadek was a priest. And in fact he was a priest not just in Abraham's time but forever.

And so too is Jesus because Jesus just like Melchizadek, is the king of righteousness and peace, and just like Melchizadek Jesus came with gifts of bread and wine. Just like Melchizadek, and unlike all the descendants of Aaron, Jesus lives forever. The unmistakable conclusion is that just like Melchizadek was a priest of the God Most High, so too Jesus is our high priest. The reason Jesus suffered on the cross was to know us, to know our suffering, to know what it is like to die. Jesus knows who we are, what we think and feel, and our joys and concerns. So like a good preacher, or a good priest, he listens to our prayers and knows what they mean. Jesus is also holy. He is sinless and so as our high priest has the ability to be in the presence of God. Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God where he can whisper our prayers, our joys and our concerns, directly into the Father's ear. So Jesus takes our prayers and gives them to God as our eternal high priest.

As I have already said, I am not your priest, rather I am your preacher who takes your prayers, your joys, your concerns to scripture to see what it says and report back. But are there priest here in the church? Are there priests who experience what we experience and holy enough to talk with God on our behalf? In the protestant tradition the answer is yes. There are people who know us and what we are going through and are holy enough to bring this to God. Who are these people? They are all of us. All of us who profess our faith in Jesus Christ. By confessing our sin and repenting we are made holy so that we can pray for one another bringing each other's joys and concerns to God. This comes to us as a gift from our great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

So I urge you to talk with each other, and with your families, and with your friends and learn about their joys and concerns. Learn about what they are thinking and feeling. Be with them through times of joy and sorrow. And be their priests offering up prayers to God on their behalf. The world desperately needs priests of the Most High God to minister to our needs and intercede on our behalf with our Father in Heaven. You as the followers of our Great High Priest, Jesus Christ, are the priests the world needs now. Priesthood is your calling as children of God.

Lord Jesus, we have assembled today as priests of the Most High God. We are forgiven sinners made holy by your blood. We are here today to offer our prayers and prayers of others to God. We ask that you hear our prayers as you always have. Since you were with us you know what we experience, our joys and our concerns, and we ask that you explain our prayers to the Father and ask Him to intercede on our behalf. We acknowledge you as our great High Priest who lives forever as King of righteousness and peace. Amen.