Hebrews 5:1-9 For every high priest chosen from among men
is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and
sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself
is beset with weakness.
The role of the high priest in the
Old Testament was to stand between the people of God and the Lord—to be a
mediator who would offer sacrifices for the sins of the people and pray to God
to forgive them.
His very presence was a living reminder that something had
gone very, very wrong between mankind and God—that the perfect fellowship that
God created in the beginning and intended to last forever had been lost along
the way and now there was a distance between God and man on account of sin.
No longer could man come to God on his own—no longer could he
expect to be heard by God—no longer could he live in the presence of a holy
God.
And so God established the priesthood from Aaron’s family and
ordered the worship life of the people of God in such a way that fellowship
could be re-established between God and man by the service of priests.
The priests and especially the high priests would come into
the presence of God and confess the sins of the people of God and sacrifice an
animal whose blood would atone for those sins.
Of course, we know (just like they did) that the blood of
animals could never really pay for man’s sins but only had its power by
pointing to the once for all sacrifice to come-- and so those sacrifices had to
be repeated again and again, countless times over hundreds of years.
That was the job of the priests-- and even though they were
specially chosen for this work, they were still no different than any of the
other people in that they were sinners too.
That gave them some compassion and understanding of the
people’s weakness but it still ultimately left them in the same place—as
needing someone to make things right for them too—someone who would truly
reconcile them to God. The Bible says:
Because of this he is obligated to offer
sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.
Once a year on the
Day of Atonement, this cycle of sacrifice reached its culmination in the
worship life of the people of Israel.
A bull was slaughtered for Aaron’s sin and
its blood was drained into a bowl. He
dipped his hands into this blood and sprinkled it on the cover of the ark and
the front of the ark as a visible sign that it took the shedding of blood for
sinners to come into the presence of the Lord.
And
then two goats were brought to Aaron and the first was killed for the sins of
the people and then he took his bloody hands and laid them on the head of the
second goat and confessed all the sins of Israel and it was led away out into
the wilderness as a visible sign that their sins were taken away.
The Lord demanded that the people were to
worship in this way so that they would learn the wrath of God that demands a
life for sin—but also the mercy of God that provides a substitutionary
sacrifice of one life in place of another.
All of it commanded by God down to the last
detail so that God’s people would believe in the Savior to come who would be
both the sacrifice and the priest who would make it once for all. The Bible says that:
No one takes this honor for himself, but
only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
Aaron did not take
the office of priest for himself—he was chosen and called by God. In the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ, the
true high priest did not usurp an office that did not belong to him but was
chosen by his Father to be the one who would offer up the once for all
sacrifice that atoned for the sins of the world.
As great a man as was Aaron, as important as
was his ministry of setting before the eyes of the people the promise of a
Savior to come, he was only a servant compared to the very Son of God—Aaron was
sinner like all the rest of God’s servants compared to God’s only-begotten Son.
The
Bible says: Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was
appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;
That was who was needed if people were truly
going to be reconciled to God—not the sacrifice of animals—not even the
sacrifice of one sinner for another—but God’s holy, sinless Son going to the
cross as our perfect substitute—able to bear the sins of the whole world and
die for the sins of the whole world and atone for the sin of the whole world
and reconcile the whole world to God because he was God himself.
Such is the incredible love that God has for
us poor sinners that the heavenly Father chose his own Son to be the great high
priest who would offer the sacrifice necessary to pay for our sins and bring us
back to God who said about him: “You are a priest forever, after the order
of Melchizedek.”
Like every other priest before him and every
other priest after him, Aaron served the Lord for a time and then died. His high priestly work came to an end. Jesus’ great high priestly work for us has
not ended and in this he is like Melchizedek.
Melchizedek is a mysterious figure in the
Old Testament. The beginning of his
story is not told nor do we hear of his death.
He reigned as king of Salem during the days of Abraham, the city of
peace that would become Jerusalem.
His name “Melchizedek” means the King of
Righteousness but he was also a priest.
Abraham came to him and bowed before him and offered him a tithe.
In all this, Melchizedek is a picture of the
Savior to come who is the righteousness of God personified-- and who rules a kingdom
of peace-- and who is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham.
Jesus rules the world at this moment for the
sake of his people-- and it is his righteousness that is our right standing
before God-- and his high priestly work of intercession goes on for us every
moment of our life as he lifts up his sacrifice for our sin and beseeches our
heavenly Father for our salvation just as he did during his earthly
ministry. The Bible says:
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up
prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to
save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Throughout our Lord’s earthly
ministry, we see Jesus going about his high priestly work of interceding for
and praying for his people.
Standing beside the grave of Lazarus and praying that people
would believe in him as he gave life to a dead man; interceding for the church
throughout the ages in the Upper Room; crying out to his heavenly Father in the
Garden of Gethsemane as he is about to consume the cup of God’s wrath over our
sins; and especially on the cross as he calls upon his Father to forgive us of
our sins.
The Good News for us is that his heavenly Father heard and
answered these prayers of his Son, our great high priest. And so it continues to this moment and every
moment until he come again as Jesus intercedes for our salvation.
We are part of the on holy Christian church, united in the
body of Christ just like he prayed for in the upper room. We will be raised from our graves just like
Lazarus was for Jesus in the resurrection and the life. And our sins are forgiven just like Jesus prayed
for on the cross, shedding his blood to wash them away.
The Good News for us is that Jesus prays for us and his
Father hears him and we are saved by his holy obedience and innocent
death. The Bible says:
Although he was a son, he learned obedience
through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to
all who obey him,
When Jesus came to be baptized by
John, John was aghast and refused—he knew that Jesus had no sins that needed by
be washed away and Jesus prevailed upon him and said that it was necessary that
all righteousness be fulfilled and he was anointed in those waters by the Holy
Spirit to be our prophet, priest and king.
That was God’s own declaration concerning his Son and yet Jesus
continued to do everything spoken of him in the prophets—giving sight to the
blind, healing the sick, and setting the prisoner free.
He lived a perfectly holy life in our place, doing outwardly
and inwardly everything that God requires of each of us. He was tempted and remained faithful to his
Father’s will. And he suffered under
every bit of his Father’s wrath over our sins and paid for every sin of every
sinner who has ever lived.
As God’s Son he didn’t have to do any of this for himself but
he did it for us, as our substitute, born under the demands of the law as we
all are, making himself subject to it for our sake as one who took himself our
flesh.
He perfectly fulfilled, in his human flesh, everything that
God expects of mankind and he did it so that through faith in him, his perfect,
holy, obedience and righteousness could become our own. That is what is necessary for us to be
saved—to be holy as God himself is holy—and the only way for that to happen is
to receive the holiness of God’s Son as our own through the obedience of faith
that looks to our perfect high priest and trusts in his work on our behalf. God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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