What a Priest We Have in Jesus

Hebrews 5: 1-10

Fifth Sunday in Lent 

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen.  The sermon text for the fifth Sunday in Lent is the epistle reading Hebrews 5.  We all have our favorite ways of referring to Jesus.  We often describe Jesus using titles that are comforting to us.  We often refer to Jesus as our Lord.  He is our Savior and Redeemer.  Jesus is our Friend.  He is the Great Physician.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He is our King.  Each of these titles highlights a different dimension of our Savior’s service and sacrifice for sinners.  But one of His titles that is not used very often by us is Jesus as our Priest.  It is not a title we use very often and yet it is what He is called in our epistle reading from the book of Hebrews.  In our reading the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our perfect High Priest.  The whole book of Hebrews explains how Jesus fulfills the priestly office. 

The book of Hebrews provides some history concerning the high priesthood.  Priestly service was part of the Lord’s design for the life of His Old Testament people.  He specifically selected the sons of Aaron to provide this priestly service for His people. They served on behalf of their fellow Israelites, regularly offering gifts and sacrifices to God – both for the sins of the people and for their own sin.  God Himself appointed them for priestly service.  Because the priesthood was reserved for those who were chosen by God, the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus, too, was appointed to priestly service.  Jesus priestly appointment was made public in a big way at His Baptism.  There Jesus was anointed and set apart to serve as our great High Priest.  The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and the voice of God the Father was heard announcing that Jesus was His Son for whom He is well pleased.  

God anointed Jesus as our great High Priest so that He can serve us and save us.  Jesus is qualified to do this because He is the Son of God.  He became a man in order to walk among us.  Indeed Jesus is human just like us accept without sin. Because Jesus is one of us, He knows our weaknesses and frailties.  In the passage immediately preceding today’s text, the author of Hebrews spells out the comfort we have in Jesus as our High Priest.  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:5).  Jesus willing accepted our human weakness to suffer temptation, hunger, fatigue, sadness, loneliness, rejection, and persecution.

Because Jesus knows our every weakness, He deals with us with compassion.  He gives His care to those who are ignorant and wayward.  That’s us, by the way – ignorant and wayward.  Unlike Jesus, we are not without sin.  Temptations tangle us up.  Sin clings closely to us along every step of the way.  We often stray from our Lord’s plans and purposes.  We deviate from His Word, always seeking to serve ourselves rather than those around us.  We see an example of this in our Gospel reading.  James and John were seeking worldly glory.  They wanted to climb over the other disciples to get to the top.  When the other ten disciples heard about this power play, they were angry.  The disciples started to argue with each other. 

Jesus, dealt gently with his wayward disciples. He corrected them with great patience. He reminded them of His priestly purpose.  “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  James and John wanted earthly glory.  Jesus reminded them that the glory of God is found at the cross.  In the time of the Old Testament the appointed priests offered sacrifices to God.  Jesus our High Priest is the sacrifice.  Jesus kept the Law in our stead and then He laid down His life for us at the cross. Jesus suffered the punishment which incurred because of our transgression of the Law of God.  Because of Christ’s death, God’s wrath against all people was appeased, in other words, His judgment of condemnation was set aside. Because of Christ, God does not condemn us, but He forgives us.  We have been made right with God not based upon our merit but through the intervention of Jesus.  He is our High Priest.  As our High Priest, Jesus continues to intercede for us.  He takes all that He has won for us at the cross - forgiveness, life, and salvation - and gives it to us.  He also prays for us and guards us. 

Jesus is our High Priest and because of that we have great comfort.  We know that He deals with us with compassion.  He knows our weaknesses.  He knows our temptations.  He knows our struggles and our suffering.  Jesus knows these things about us not merely as facts, knowledge, or data.  He knows these things because He is a human being like us in every way yet without sin. Our Lord who suffered greatly is the One who is with you in the time of your suffering.  Not only does our great High Priest know and feel our weakness, but He alone did something about it.  He laid down His life and offered it as a ransom for us all.  He laid down His life for you.  And then He rose from the dead.  What a priest we have in Jesus. 

There is one final thing concerning the priestly work of Jesus.  He invites all of us to be part of the priesthood of all believers.  We are also priests called to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).  Peter said it this way in 1 Peter 2:9-10.  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  As part of the priesthood of all believers we do indeed confess Christ and share with others the Gospel.  We are merciful to others as Jesus is merciful to us.  As God’s baptized and holy people, we have priestly prayers to offer and priestly service to render to those around us. 

To be a priest is to serve.  That is what Jesus teaches us in our Gospel reading for today.  “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.  But it shall not be so among you.  But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  We turn away from the temptation to lord over each other.  We instead pray that the Lord would work through us to serve our family, to serve the church, and to serve our community. 

As priests we do indeed suffer that is we bear our cross, and we follow our great High Priest.  When we seek to be served, we sin.  When our prayers for others falter, we sin.  But our Lord’s perfect priestly service counts for us.   His obedience counts for us.  And so by the power of the Holy Sprit we turn from sin. We repent and we look to our Great High Priest and trust in Him.  The Lord Jesus has saved us, and He is the one who is restoring us.  He has begun a good work in us and will bring our restoration to completion on the Last Day.  He promises to perfect our lives through His perfect forgiveness and love. He is the giver of eternal life. And so we can say, What a priest we have in Jesus.  Amen.