A High Priest Brought Low

Hebrews 5:5-10

Introduction

What is Jesus like? For Christians, this is one of the most important questions we can ask. Think of it in these terms: When you picture Jesus in your head, which hymn seems most appropriate? What a Friend We Have in Jesus or Crown Him With Many Crowns? One focuses on the intimacy we have with Jesus and the other focuses on the majesty of Jesus. Both are true and are appropriate in our contemplation of Christ. I simply ask, which one are you drawn to?

The truth is that there are many titles given to Jesus in the New Testament. Like a diamond with its many facets, each title shares something different about who Jesus is. We are likely drawn to one or a few of those titles.

One title that we might not think of when think of Jesus is a high priest. Part of the challenge for us as Baptists is that we do not think about the idea of a priesthood, at least not in the traditional way. We believe in the priesthood of all believers, meaning that we all have direct access to God without a human intermediary like a priest.

Now for myself, growing up Anglican, I did not think of priests the way we think of pastors. I did not see them as just people trained in theology and Bible who happened to be ordained by some organization. The robes and the rituals had a mystique about them. They were able to perform special duties beyond just the legal stuff of performing weddings.

So when we think of Jesus as a high priest, that seems to deepen the sense of otherness. This is especially true when we think of the Old Testament context. Not anyone could be a high priest. You had to be of a certain tribe, that of Levi. And not just any member of Levi, but a descendant of Aaron. And not just any descendant but through a certain line of the family. And even if you met all that criteria, only one person could be a high priest at a time. And the high priest was the only one considered holy enough to go into the most holy place and offer sacrifices on behalf of the people, and even that only on one day, the Day of Atonement.

So with all that, Jesus as high priest does not necessarily make us feel a connection with him. We may respect his office as high priest and appreciate what he does on our behalf but not feel a sense of intimacy with Jesus.

That would make sense except that Jesus was a different kind of high priest.

A Different High Priest

Having given some of the requirements to be a high priest, you might have noticed a problem. Jesus does not meet the family qualifications. Jesus is not a descendant of Aaron and he is not even of the tribe of Levi. Jesus is a descendent of David and was of the tribe of Judah, which qualified him to be king, but seemed to disqualify him from being any priest, much less the high priest. And yet the author of Hebrews knew that Jesus had acted in the role of the high priest when he died for us on the cross. So did this work?

The author of Hebrews offers a brilliant solution. Jesus may not have been a Levite but the Levitical priests are not the only priests mentioned in the Old Testament.

Back in Genesis 14, there is an interesting story about Abraham. Abraham had just rescued some people who had been kidnapped by the bad guys. After, Abraham encounters the mysterious figure, Melchizedek. He is described a priest of the most high God. Abraham respects this priest enough to tithe to him. And this was well before the Levitical priests as Abraham was the great grandfather of Levi. So why did the author of Hebrews make a connection between Melchizedek and Jesus? Well Melchizedek actually means king of righteousness and he is described as king of Salem, which is related to peace. That sounds very Jesus-like. Also Melchizedek, in his one priestly role in the passage, offers bread and wine, sounding very much like communion. Plus you have a person acting in a priestly role without having that Levitical tribal identity. This provides the biblical basis for Jesus to be the high priest.

While this is of great interest to the author of Hebrews, he also sees something else. The kind of high priest that Jewish sis was was very different to the traditional role, even beyond the tribal differences. The high priest was someone who lived with great privilege. The high priesthood existed even before there was a king of Israel. They could do things no one else could. Now Jesus would seem to be similar being the Son of God.

But what does the author say in this passage? The focus is on the suffering of Jesus. The suffering! There is nothing like that in the Old Testament about high priests. If the people in ancient times were suffering, the high priest would normally be the last to feel it. And Jesus suffered and that suffering was central to his high priestly role. The traditional high priest sacrificed an animal on behalf of the people. Jesus was both high priest doing the sacrifice and that which was being sacrificed. The traditional high priest wore a special costume that is given in detail in the Old Testament. Jesus was garbed in his obedience in the face of suffering. While we may think of suffering as failure, it was in the suffering of Jesus that victory was won. It is because Jesus was obedient in that suffering that we have salvation.

A High Priest For the People

This should help us as we try to understand who Jesus is to us. Yes Jesus is a high priest, in fact a great high priest than any descendant of Aaron ever was. Yes Jesus performed a sacrifice that defeated the powers of sin and death for that we should worship Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

But Jesus is also a high priest that lowers himself rather than exalts himself. Listen to some of these other passages from Hebrews:

Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

For 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 tested as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

We would expect a high priest that would want to differentiate himself as much from the common folk as possible and yet our high priest is one who embraces us not from afar but on our level. As we approach Easter, we think of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and we should. That is a vital part of Jesus being our high priest. But there was another sacrifice that we often forget: the incarnation. Try to imagine what it was like to go from the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God to being localized in one human being living in Galilee. The truth is that we really cannot imagine it because it is far beyond what are human brains are capable of. And yet that is what Jesus did. We can look at this in terms of how this allowed Jesus to procure our salvation. But we can also look at this also in terms of our ongoing relationship with Jesus. When we begin to back off of Jesus because of the prestige of his position as the great high priest, Jesus reminds us that he is not that kind of high priest. This is Good News.

Conclusion

Many people see Christianity as participating in an organization called the church or as obedience to certain rules of behaviour or as being involved in certain religious rituals. Ultimately Christianity is about being involved in a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There are things about Jesus and about us that might make us feel unworthy. But it is not about whether we are worthy or not, it is about the great high priest coming to us, becoming like us, so that we can be adopted into God’s family. Jesus is worthy of our worship. But Jesus is also worthy of our love. We can love Jesus because he first loved us.