Hebrews: The Daily Discipline of a Devoted LifeSample

Recently I was visiting a friend in hospital whose family were not churchgoers. When I arrived at the bedside, my friend said, ‘There’s my priest!’ It was the only way he could think of to explain to his family what I did for a living. I’m not a priest (at least not in the sense that he meant); but who a priest is and what a priest does is at the heart of Hebrews, and this passage teaches us three things about Jesus the Priest:   

1. He sympathises with us. Jesus ‘has been tempted in every way, just as we are’ (4:15). He is not some shadowy figure we venerate on stained-glass windows; he literally experienced humanness as fully as we do. Luke tells us he had to grow ‘in wisdom and stature’ (Lk. 2:52) in the normal human way. He was tired and hungry, hurt by Judas’ betrayal, and wept deep tears at Lazarus’ tomb. Christ faced loneliness having ‘nowhere to lay his head’ (Lk. 9:58), and never married. He was tempted repeatedly by Satan, and went through psychological turmoil followed by physical agony on the cross. So there is nothing you will or have ever passed through that he doesn’t understand and feel deeply about. He became flesh not just to save you, but to understand you, and to be your inspiration in every triumph and trial of life.   
2. He was chosen for us. The tribe of Levi was appointed by God to be high priests over Israel in perpetuity. That appointment was challenged by Israel, as Aaron showed his weakness in building the golden calf. But God has chosen Christ to be our High Priest forever. Unlike every human leader, Christ is the perfect representative to bring us to God, as he has never sinned or buckled to human pressure. Ultimately, all human leadership will let us down, but Christ never will.   
3. He has power to save us. Jesus our Priest is the ‘source of eternal salvation’ (5:9). That salvation was won through power manifested in weakness: ‘During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears’ (5:7). He’s not a priest who sits in a confessional booth or waves incense around. His eternal priesthood was sealed in the sweat of Gethsemane and the blood of Calvary. As Michael Card’s song ‘El Shaddai’ puts it, God’s ‘most awesome work was done through the frailty of [his] son’.* It is a consistent truth in scripture that God’s power is most manifest in our weakness. 

Reflection

Think through Peter’s instruction: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you’ (1 Pet. 5:7). 

*Card, Michael, ’El Shaddai’, Legacy (Milk and Honey records, 1983)