Lent Letters: Hebrews Richmond s First Baptist Church, March 18, 2018 The Fifth Sunday in Lent Hebrews 5:5-10 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, You are my Son, today I have begotten you ; as he says also in another place, You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 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, having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. In the verse just after today s reading the author of Hebrews acknowledges that some of the things in this letter are hard to explain. That s true, and this morning I m feeling it. I m standing in front of you trying to explain a letter that was written by an anonymous author on the other side of the world sometime near the end of the first century, A.D. Some people think that Hebrews reads more like a sermon than a letter, and suggest that it may have been preached by Barnabas, or Apollos, or Priscilla. But it appears to have been written to a group of Jewish Christians who were thinking about giving up on Christianity and returning to their Jewish roots. It is written by an author (some would say a preacher) who is making a passionate appeal for the superiority of Christianity, but in every case he or she is having to compare this new Christian religion with the old Jewish one, and that s hard to explain. It s hard for me to explain: I have never been a first century Jew. I m not familiar with that way of approaching God. And it s hard for me to explain it to Baptists, because in today s reading there is a lot of talk about the priesthood, particularly the high priesthood, which would have been familiar and maybe even favorable to first century 1
Jews, but not to us. We re Baptists. We affirm the priesthood of every believer and we don t put one priest above another. How are we supposed to understand the concept of ancient Jewish high priesthood, and how could it possibly matter to Christians living in 21st century America? That s my challenge, and my hope is that by the time I finish you will say, Dr. Somerville, that was the most relevant sermon I ve heard all day! I can t wait to apply its timeless principles to my everyday life! Is that too much to hope? Well, let s see. And let s begin with that idea that the author of Hebrews is trying to help people understand that the new life they have in Christ is better than the old life they left behind. Now that s relevant, isn t it? Especially to those of you who came into the faith as adults. You ve had an opportunity to compare your former life with your new life in a way some of us haven t. Some of the people in this church have never known anything else. They were on the cradle roll in Sunday school before they were even born. They cut their teeth on a church pew. When I ask them to compare their life in Christ with their previous life they honestly can t remember a time when they didn t know Jesus. But some of you had a different experience. You grew up in the secular world. You ve only come into the church recently. You may be the best qualified to compare this new way of life with the old one, and to evaluate whether or not it is, really, better. I hope you could say yes. I hope you could say it without hesitation. But I don t know; I haven t had your experience. I was talking with one of our members last week who grew up Catholic, and I asked her if she missed anything about her old way of being Christian. She admitted that she did. There was a lot of certainty in that tradition. You kind of knew whether you were 2
following the rules or not. This free church tradition is different. On one hand it s liberating you don t have all those rules but on the other hand it s frightening how do you know that you re right with God? Maybe that s where some of these Jewish Christians were. In the old days if they committed a sin they knew it: they knew exactly which one of the 613 rules they had broken and they knew just what to do: take the appropriate sacrifice to the temple and let the priest offer it up to God in a way that would make things right again. And the role of the priest in that transaction was critical. As it says earlier in this same chapter of Hebrews, Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not presume to take this honor, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. (Hebrews 5:1-4). That reminds me of the pastors I had before I became a pastor myself: those people I would go to when I was wrestling with some problem I couldn t solve on my own. They would listen to me patiently, compassionately, trying to understand the situation in its entirety before offering any counsel of their own. They never offered sacrifices, but they would usually offer to pray, and somehow simply hearing them lift up that problem to the Lord took a load off my shoulders; I knew things were going to be OK. So, imagine yourself as a good and faithful first century Jew who knew you could count on your priest to help you sort out your problems, hear the confession of your sins, and offer the appropriate sacrifices to make things right between you and God again. And then imagine a high priest who was like the best of all those other attributes multiplied by 3
a thousand. You think those other priests were compassionate? This one is compassionate. You think those other priests were understanding? This one is understanding. You think those other priests were wise? This one is wise. And as I read for you earlier, no one takes the honor of high priest for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. And talk about a high priest! I don t know if you ve spent much time reading those chapters in Exodus where Aaron is appointed by God and ordained for the priesthood, but they are impressive. Let me just read the description of his priestly vestments (some of you former Episcopalians will understand). The Lord instructs Moses to make holy garments for his brother, for glory and for beauty, and these are the garments he is to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. Listen to the detail of the breastpiece alone: The Lord tells Moses, You shall make it of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. It shall be square and doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. Under this breastpiece was a linen ephod with epaulets on the shoulders set with precious stones, and the robe of the ephod was blue, with decorative pomegranates all around the hem, made of blue and purple and scarlet yarns with bells of gold between them. As it says in Exodus 28:34: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe. 4
Can t you just see Aaron swishing into the tabernacle in that robe, those golden bells ringing with every step? I m fairly sure that former Catholic I was telling you about can see it. When she closes her eyes she can probably still picture the popes of her childhood, decked out in the most impressive regalia the Catholic Church could conceive in those days (which is saying something). And yet they still would have had nothing on Aaron. Can you imagine the sunlight bouncing off that jeweled breastpiece, sending rainbows out in every direction? Can you imagine the turban on his head, the coat of checker work, the sash around his waist? I wish I could show you a picture! But maybe you can see it in your mind s eye, and maybe you can see how some of those Jewish Christians would think they had come down a rung or two on the religious ladder, worshiping not in the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, but in some poor Christian s overcrowded house, listening to an uneducated preacher drone on and on about the late great Jesus of Nazareth before remembering his death with a scrap of bread and a sip of wine. How could a dead prophet compare with a high priest? Why had they ever left? And that s where the author of Hebrews steps in to tell them what they haven t heard about Jesus: not only is he a high priest, appointed by God, but he is the greatest high priest who has ever lived, greater even than Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a mysterious figure who steps out of the shadows and onto the biblical stage in Genesis 14, in a brief encounter with our ancestor Abram, who was coming home after recovering some of his nephew Lot s belongings from a group of marauding bandits. Here s what the Bible says about Melchizedek, and this is really all it says: And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High). And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most 5
High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:18-20). That s it, and yet the legends that grew out of that single encounter have been endless. People began to ask, Who was this Melchizedek? and others answered: He was the King of Salem, the King of Peace, the Priest of God Most High! Still others said, Abram paid his tithe to Melchizedek, and so Melchizedek must have been even greater than our ancestor Abram! Still others said, There is no mention of his birth or death in the Bible; perhaps he has always been! There are some who think he may have been Christ himself, appearing in another form, at an earlier time. And then, of course, the fact that he offered Abram bread and wine sounds suspiciously like something Jesus did for his own disciples. Melchizedek was the greatest of all the high priests who ever lived, at least that s what the author of Hebrews would have you think. The greatest, that is, until Jesus came along. And Jesus is greater: greater than Aaron, greater than Melchizedek, and, yes, even greater than the Pope (although I really like this new pope). What makes him so great? Well, this: if the purpose of a priest is to mediate between God and us, to be our gobetween, then no one is more qualified to go between us and God than Jesus. Let me give you three reasons: 1. He was fully human. The author of Hebrews makes this clear by saying, We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (4:15). Jesus knows what it s like to be us. 6
2. He was fully divine. If we need someone who can make our case before God it helps to have someone who speaks God s language and who shares God s being. The author of Hebrews says, We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens (4:14). Jesus knows what it s like to be God. 3. He suffered. And it may seem strange, to offer this as a reason that Jesus is the greatest high priest who ever lived, but the one thing that is common to the human experience is suffering. All of us, at some time in some way, will go through it. If you haven t yet, you will. The author of Hebrews comforts us by telling us that, In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 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. I don t really know what all that means, but I think the author of Hebrews is trying to say that when you are suffering Jesus knows what it s like; he feels your pain. And he doesn t only feel a little pain. You could argue that no one has ever suffered more than Jesus, which means that no matter how much you are suffering, he s been there. He has been to the depths of the human experience and then come up out of those depths to stand before the Father. There is no one who knows you better, no one who knows God better, and no one who is better able to represent you before the Father than Jesus. He is our great high priest. 7
I like the way the author of 1 John puts it. He says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father (one who will plead our case), Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:8 2:2). If you were a Jewish Christian, thinking about going back to your old religion, do you think you would give up Jesus for a Jewish high priest, even with his fabulous vestments? Would you give him up for Melchizedek, or even for the Pope? If you were a 21 st century churchgoer, listening to a sermon from Hebrews, could you think of anyone you would rather have representing you before the Father than Jesus, our great high priest? He knows you. He knows your pain. And he knows how to plead your case before God with such tenderness and compassion that when the Judgment finally comes down it will come down on the side of mercy. In the end, could anything be more relevant than that? Jim Somerville 2018 8