The Suitability of Jesus as Great High Priest (Hebrews 5:1-10)
This sermon was preached on 12/3/2013
The author continues
with his presentation of Jesus as the great high priest of his people. It is
interesting how he comes at his themes from many different angles. We noted how
he had done this when he was explaining how Jesus was superior to angels in the
first two chapters. Then he does something similar in the next two chapters
when he explained how Jesus provides spiritual rest for his people. Now he is
explaining what Jesus does has the great high priest. It is important to note
this use of the adjective ‘great’. The high priest in Israel was not defined as
great. After all, he was the chief priest, but there were reasons why they
could not be described as great, which we will note shortly.
The author begins by
summarizing the role of the Jewish high priest. He says four things about him:
(1) he was a man who represented other men towards God; (2) he sympathized with
those he represented because he was himself weak; (3) he had to make a
sacrifice for his own sins as well as those of the Israelites; and (4) he was
called to this hereditary role through Aaron.
We can note the
description given of those he represented – they are said to be ignorant and
wayward. Those two words say a great deal about us as well because they
describe our needs. The ignorance here is not ignorance in general but
ignorance of the way they should relate to God. The waywardness describes their
determination not to obey God. This is how they lived as sinners and the only
way their sins could be dealt with was by a substitute being offered in their
place. But the Jewish high priest could not take away their sins permanently,
and that is one reason why he could not be described as great.
Of course, the writer’s
aim is not primarily to show the flaws in the Jewish high priest and his
sacrificial work. Instead his higher aim is to remind his readers that Jesus is
a great high priest and he will provide clear evidence for them. He begins by
referring to the call that was given to Jesus to become high priest.
The call that Jesus received
The first detail that
the writer mentions is that Jesus did not decide by himself to become a high
priest. When we think of Jesus, we think of him as divine. Can a divine being
not do what he wishes? So why did Jesus not decide to become a high priest? The
answer to this question is that the Son of God also functions as the mediator
between God and man. In his role as mediator, he is submissive to the will of
his Father. This does not imply that Jesus in his essential nature is inferior
to the Father. But as far as the plan of salvation is concerned, the Father
fulfills the role of giving roles to the Son and to the Spirit. The Father sent
the Son into the world, and the word ‘sent’ indicates authority. Similarly, the
fact that Jesus did not take this honour personally but instead received it
from his Father is another reminder that his role as Saviour involves him
acting as the Father’s servant, both in his state of humiliation and in his
state of exaltation.
The next detail to
notice is how the author describes the Appointer or the Caller of Jesus to this
role. He uses two Old Testament quotations to do so. The first is a quotation
from Psalm 2 and the second is a quotation from Psalm 110. In the quotation
from Psalm 2, two details are mentioned – (1) there is a personal relationship
between a Father and a Son and (2) there is a reference to a time when the
Father begot his Son. The relationship is eternal (without a Son there cannot
be a Father) and loving. With regard to what is intended by the begetting,
there have been at least two views. One is that it refers to an eternal
begetting (something that is always happening between the Father and the Son)
and the other is that it refers to the resurrection of Jesus (which is how Paul
interprets the meaning of the verse of this psalm when he quotes it in a sermon
recorded in Acts 13:33). The interpretation that it refers to the resurrection
would fit in with the emphasis that the author will later make about the
ongoing ministry of Jesus as priest in heaven. Whatever view we take, the point
that the author is making is that Jesus was called to this role by his divine
Father who also had other roles for him to fulfil.
The second quotation is
from Psalm 110 and it concerns an obscure Old Testament priest called
Melchizedek who lived during the days of Abraham. Since the writer will come
back to this individual later in his letter, I don’t want to say too much about
him at the moment. Instead, we can notice what the author stresses, which is
that Jesus has been called to an endless priesthood. So whatever will be involved
for Jesus as the great high priest, there are aspects of his responsibilities
that will continue after the resurrection and the Day of Judgement. Since the
recorded ministry of Melchizedek was mainly one of blessing, we can see how
that kind of activity by Jesus will continue for ever.
So the writer is saying
that Jesus has been called to the role of priest as an aspect of his work as
Mediator, that it involves his resurrection from the dead, and that it will
last forever. Yet in case we might deduce that Jesus’ work as priest began at
his resurrection, the writer brings us back to consider what Jesus did during
his life on earth.
The prayer life of Jesus
What ideas come to mind
when we think of the prayer life of Jesus? We are familiar with the request of
the disciples that Jesus should teach them to pray and with his answer in the
form of what is called the Lord’s Prayer. I suppose we could describe the
petitions in that prayer as the ‘what’ we should pray for – the types of
petitions are suitable to use in prayer. But have we thought of how Jesus
prayed and have we thought of there was an all-consuming feature that dominated
his prayer life as the God/man living here on earth.
The first aspect of
this description of Jesus’ prayer life is that the author says it was Jesus’
regular form of prayer – it was how he prayed during ‘the days of his flesh’.
It may be that the author is contrasting Jesus’ earthly prayers with how he may
have interceded before he became a man or with how he intercedes now as the
risen man in heaven. Perhaps the author had heard eyewitness reports from
disciples and family members who had heard Jesus pray.
Secondly, the author
points out that when Jesus engaged in this regular form of prayer he was
functioning as a priest. We can see that from the verb he uses – he says that
Jesus ‘offered up’, which is priestly language. He offered up prayers and
supplications for himself and for others.
Thirdly, how did Jesus
pray? The author says that the prayers of Jesus were marked by ‘loud cries and
tears’. This description indicates the earnestness, the concern and the agony
with which he prayed. And he did not pray in this way only once, say in
Gethsemane where he did pray like this, but he prayed like this throughout the
days of his flesh. What happened in Gethsemane was more intense, perhaps very
much more intense, than what was normally expressed by Jesus when in prayer.
Maybe this explains why the disciples did not see anything unusual in how he
prayed that night.
Fourthly, why did he
pray like this? Again the author answers our question. Jesus prayed like this
because he was praying ‘to him who was able to save him from death’. This does
not mean that Jesus was praying not to die. Many times during his life he
mentioned that he would die. Rather he was praying that he would be delivered
from all that physical death symbolized – the curse against the sinbearer, the
separation from God’s comforting presence, the awful fullness of divine
judgement against sin. He was continually asking his Father to enable him to
fulfill the mission that he was given, which was to deliver his people from
their sins. And because he loved his Father and wanted to do his will, and
because he loved his people and wanted to deliver them, he prayed regularly in
this way.
Fifthly, he was heard
and delivered from what he was concerned about. There is an interesting debate
about what is meant by ‘feared’. The version that we use translates it as ‘his
reverence’, which would suggest that Jesus was heard because he was holy. It is
the case that he was holy and without sin. It is also the case that he merited
blessings by his beautiful sinless life. But we cannot turn a biblical truth
into the meaning of a passage if the passage happens to be stressing something
different fron that truth. Instead we have to interpret the passage by the
words it uses. And it is possible that what the author means is that Jesus was
heard with regard to what he feared. Consider what John Calvin said about this
reference to Christ’s fear:
And
was heard, etc. Some render the following words, ‘on account of his reverence’
or fears but I wholly differ from them. In the first place he puts the word
alone ευλαθειασ without the possessive
‘his’; and then there is the preposition απο (from), not υπερ (‘on account of), or
any other signifying a cause or a reason. As, then, ευλαθεια means for the most
part fear or anxiety, I doubt not but that the Apostle means that Christ was
heard from that which he feared, so that he was not overwhelmed by his evils or
swallowed up by death. For in this contest the Son of God had to engage, not
because he was tried by unbelief, the source of all our fears, but because he
sustained as a man in our flesh the judgment of God, the terror of which could
not have been overcome without an arduous effort.[1]
There is comfort for
believers afraid of death to know that their Saviour was afraid of aspects of
it as well.
Earlier we looked
briefly at what Jesus prayed as a priest – prayers and supplications that he
offered for himself and for others. Among those petitions, offered with such
vehement concern, were petitions for our salvation. How often did Jesus our
priest fill the night hours in Galilee with such requests? His prayer life is
one reason why he is a great high priest.
The perfecting of the Saviour
The author returns to a
description of the work of the Saviour that he made earlier in his letter when
he says that Jesus was perfected. This does not mean that Jesus had any defects
in his character. Instead it refers to him becoming a complete Saviour by
living a perfect life of obedience and providing atonement for the sins of his
people. So in addition to his intercessions, Jesus lived a sinless life. This
could not be said of the Aaronic high priest even for a second of his life,
which is why he had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins. In complete
contrast, Jesus did not need to offer a sacrifice for himself. Although he came
through many difficult situations, including what happened to him in
Gethsemane, during his arrest and trials, and on the cross, he remained
sinless. He was therefore pure and able to offer himself as a suitable
sacrifice to pay the penalty of our sins. This achievement, obviously, makes
him a great high priest as well.
The source of eternal salvation
Having offered such a
sacrifice, Jesus is now the one who provides salvation for sinners. He achieved
it on the cross and he administers it from heaven. This salvation is eternal
and cannot be taken away from us. Jesus has been appointed to perform this
role. And he will never fail in his administration.
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