The Right Person For The Job
Sermon
Ashes To Ascension
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
Consideration is being given today to the teaching sermon. By the nature of certain texts a specific sermon can have both teaching and learning as its fundamental purpose. (See Ronald J. Allen's The Teaching Sermon, Abingdon Press, 1995.) The reason that this text lends itself to teaching and learning is the result of two ideas that we are introduced to by the writer of Hebrews, namely the high priest and the person called Melchizedek. The broadening of our understanding of these two subjects will enrich and deepen our understanding of Jesus' life, teaching, and death during our Lenten pilgrimage.
Jesus As High Priest
The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus is now the great high priest. He claims that Jesus is the kind of great high priest who carries our deepest sorrows and most earnest prayers to the very throne of God. He points out that Jesus is the only great high priest because he is without sin (14:15) and Jesus does for us what we cannot attain for ourselves. Although Jesus was without sin, the writer points out that it in no way took away from his humanity, but rather it affirms that Jesus experienced the full ambiguity and uncertainty, the weakness and the vulnerability, the temptations and the suffering of life without compromising his humanity. Thomas Long points out that those who listen to the writer of Hebrews are well aware that Jesus died on the cross, and the question for them was whether this weak and suffering Jesus is also the divine Son of God. "They are well aware that Jesus was a fellow sufferer in ways the eye cannot see, and stands in graceful glory at the beginning and end of time, and even in the middle of time and is even now redeeming the creation and bringing the children of God home" (Thomas J. Long, Hebrews, p. 65).
The writer of Hebrews ( I say writer because only God knows who wrote Hebrews) is well aware that the people knew about Jesus' suffering and death on the cross. The question for them is: "If he is the high priest, what kind of high priest must he be?" Long suggests that the author approaches this dilemma by giving them the "right person for the job" speech. He presents the provisions for the job description and shows how Jesus meets the qualifications perfectly and that Jesus is indeed the great high priest. Jesus not only fulfills the qualifications but he exceeds them. The point for the writer is: "Jesus is not just the high priest, he is, in fact, 'the great high priest' " (Long, Hebrews, p. 66). Notice how the writer lists the three basic qualifications for the ancient high priest, then in reverse order reveals how Jesus exceeds each one of them.
The high priest:
1. Function of the high priest (v. 1).
2. Person of the high priest (vv. 2-3).
3. Appointment of the high priest (v. 4).
Jesus as high priest:
1. Appointment of Jesus as high priest (vv. 5-6).
2. Person of Jesus as great high priest (vv. 7-8).
3. Functions of Jesus as great high priest (vv. 9-10).
Therefore, as we approach our text as one that lends itself to a teaching and instructional sermon, let us consider the following.
The Function Of The High Priest
The function of the high priest was to serve as the go-between, the mediator between God and the people. He is appointed on behalf of the people to deal with the things concerning God. For Israel the high priest had one primary function: to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people (5:1). The sacrifice made by the high priest is meant to restore the relationship between God and the people, which had been broken by human sin. The high priest is the messenger of salvation, carrying on behalf of the people symbols of repentance to God and returning to the people with the assurance of divine forgiveness. Scholars point out that Jesus exceeds the ancient high priests in at least two ways. First, he is not just mediator, but he is the source of salvation (5:9). Second, the old high priest had to keep coming back time and again to the altar -- new sins, new sacrifices -- but the salvation provided through the high priestly ministry of Jesus is eternal (5:9). The New Testament message is that Christ offered himself "once and for all" for the sins of all people (1 Peter 3:18).
The function of the high priest is to stand before God with his back to the people. Then he comes before the people with his back towards God, facing the people on behalf of God. "The priest represents God's holy presence among the people" (Long, Hebrews, 65). When Jesus the great high priest stands before the people, what do the people see? In the face of Jesus "is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being ..." (Hebrews 1:3a). Jesus puts a face on God, "for in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Paul states this so eloquently: "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). When Jesus stands before the people as the great high priest, the people see in his face a God who stoops down from the holy heights to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are made whole" (Isaiah 53:5). In the face of Jesus, the high priest, the people see a God to whom they can pray freely and confidently so that we can "receive mercy and find grace in the time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
The Person Of The High Priest
The person who functions as the high priest in ancient Israel was a person who needed to possess certain qualities of personality and compassion. They were people who needed to know about the pain and struggles of human life and to be sympathetic to human weaknesses. When they were making a sacrifice for someone, it meant that they were aware of the deepest secrets of life. They were confronted with confused and sinful people and they needed a sympathetic and loving heart so as to minister to them with gentleness and understanding. A high priest was a very special person in the Jewish religious community. The high priests were every bit as sinful as their flocks, and as they approached the altar, they did so carrying the sacrifices for their own sins as well as for the sins of others (5:2-3).
It is necessary for the high priest to know the experiences that the people have gone through. He needs to be aware of the deep secrets of life: the sin, guilt, fear, disappointment, hope, and hunger for salvation that was so much a part of the masses. The priest must be one with the people. Barclay points out that "the priest must be bound up with men in the bundle of life" (Barclay, Hebrews, p. 46). The priest needs to possess the ability to bear with people without getting irritated; it means the ability not to lose one's temper with people when they are foolish and will not learn and do the same things over and over again (5:2). Through sympathy and understanding the high priest is a person who constantly and patiently seeks to lead the people back to the right way.
The author of Hebrews, after giving the qualifications of the high priest, states: "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' " (v. 5). The author now points out how Jesus fulfills the great conditions for the priesthood. He came from among the people and knew and experienced every aspect of human life. If the high priest is one who should know his people, then Jesus through the incarnation is the epitome of what a high priest should be. Through Jesus God comes to us where we are.
Jesus labored as a tradesman in his father's carpenter shop, he knew firsthand about irritable customers and at times found it hard to collect his bills and make ends meet. He shared the anguish of parents over the death of their child; he suffered in the despair of the unemployed in the marketplace. He knew the plight of the poor and the shame of the outcast. He identified with the "undesirables." He grieved over the stubbornness of men and women. He laughed with little children. He died bleeding, but not before he had felt our ultimate doubt when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He was "crucified, dead, and buried" -- a phrase which is the blunt statement of the creed regarding his humanness. That Jesus came to share our lives there is no doubt. The Jewish requirement of a high priest is that he must be a person who knows and represents the people -- Jesus far exceeds the qualifications. There is no doubt that he is the right person for the job.
The Appointment Of The High Priest
No one in ancient Israel would be so presumptuous as to volunteer for the position of high priest. No one would ever appoint himself to the priesthood. It is not a position that a man takes; it is a privilege and a glory to which he is called. Barclay points out that "a ministry of God among people is neither a job nor a career, but a calling" (Barclay, Hebrews, p. 47). This is even true for Jesus; he did not choose his task. God chose him for it. At his baptism there came the voice to Jesus saying, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).
The author of Hebrews is convinced that Jesus is well prepared to be the great high priest, because he has gone through the most bitter experiences of men and women and he understands, as no other, the human family's strengths and weaknesses. It appears that in verses 8-9, the author is reflecting upon Jesus' experience in Gethsemane. Scholars point out that the words that are used in verse 7, "loud cries," come from the Greek that refers to a cry which a man does not choose to utter but which is wrung from him in the stress of some tremendous tension or searing pain. The author indicates in verse 8 that Jesus "learned obedience through what he suffered," pointing out that Jesus learned from all of his experiences because he met them all with reverence. By these experiences of pain and suffering "having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." (vv. 8-9). The writer of Hebrews is saying that all the experiences of suffering that Jesus experienced prepared him to become the great high priest, the Savior of men and women. Jesus is not a high priest for a lifetime, but forever, and not according to the regular orders of the priesthood, but "having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." Again, Jesus exceeds the job description of the high priest and is no doubt -- the right man for the job.
To both the author's congregation and our congregations the people are not certain about what the references to Melchizedek are all about. Both his congregation and our congregations need an explanation. The point that the author of Hebrews makes regarding Melchizedek is clear. He states that way back in the days of Abraham before the Levitical priesthood, there appeared a foreshadowing of Jesus becoming the great high priest. This foreshadowing was Melchizedek. He was the King of Salem, meaning "king of righteousness" and "king of peace." This anticipates Jesus' messanic role as the king of righteousness and peace (7:2).
According to the author of Hebrews, Melchizedek further anticipated Jesus by the fact that he had no mother or father, thus no genealogy. He was totally without beginning and end in time (7:3). "The main point in all of this is not really about Melchizedek, but rather how the qualities seen in him -- righteousness, peace and timeless -- point forward to the nature of Jesus, the true and perpetual great high priest. The author sees Melchizedek as a signpost planted in the old order indicating that the good gifts given to humanity in Jesus were there in God's mind from the beginning" (Long, Hebrews, p. 85).
Through the incarnation Jesus knows the pain and ambiguity of human life. The difference between the high priests and Jesus the great high priest is that Jesus reveals a God who cares desperately, a God who, through Jesus, is involved in every aspect of human life. Barbara Taylor Brown reminds us that "when you look at him (Jesus) you see God. When you listen to him, you hear God. Not because he has taken God's place, but because he is the clear window that God has glazed into flesh and blood -- the porthole between this world and the next, the passageway between heaven and earth" (The Preaching Life, p. 23). By Jesus, the high priest, offering himself as "ransom for many" the human family is healed, and men and women, though ravaged and broken, now can become what God intended at creation, free and joyful -- at one with oneself, with one another, with creation, and with God.
Jesus As High Priest
The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus is now the great high priest. He claims that Jesus is the kind of great high priest who carries our deepest sorrows and most earnest prayers to the very throne of God. He points out that Jesus is the only great high priest because he is without sin (14:15) and Jesus does for us what we cannot attain for ourselves. Although Jesus was without sin, the writer points out that it in no way took away from his humanity, but rather it affirms that Jesus experienced the full ambiguity and uncertainty, the weakness and the vulnerability, the temptations and the suffering of life without compromising his humanity. Thomas Long points out that those who listen to the writer of Hebrews are well aware that Jesus died on the cross, and the question for them was whether this weak and suffering Jesus is also the divine Son of God. "They are well aware that Jesus was a fellow sufferer in ways the eye cannot see, and stands in graceful glory at the beginning and end of time, and even in the middle of time and is even now redeeming the creation and bringing the children of God home" (Thomas J. Long, Hebrews, p. 65).
The writer of Hebrews ( I say writer because only God knows who wrote Hebrews) is well aware that the people knew about Jesus' suffering and death on the cross. The question for them is: "If he is the high priest, what kind of high priest must he be?" Long suggests that the author approaches this dilemma by giving them the "right person for the job" speech. He presents the provisions for the job description and shows how Jesus meets the qualifications perfectly and that Jesus is indeed the great high priest. Jesus not only fulfills the qualifications but he exceeds them. The point for the writer is: "Jesus is not just the high priest, he is, in fact, 'the great high priest' " (Long, Hebrews, p. 66). Notice how the writer lists the three basic qualifications for the ancient high priest, then in reverse order reveals how Jesus exceeds each one of them.
The high priest:
1. Function of the high priest (v. 1).
2. Person of the high priest (vv. 2-3).
3. Appointment of the high priest (v. 4).
Jesus as high priest:
1. Appointment of Jesus as high priest (vv. 5-6).
2. Person of Jesus as great high priest (vv. 7-8).
3. Functions of Jesus as great high priest (vv. 9-10).
Therefore, as we approach our text as one that lends itself to a teaching and instructional sermon, let us consider the following.
The Function Of The High Priest
The function of the high priest was to serve as the go-between, the mediator between God and the people. He is appointed on behalf of the people to deal with the things concerning God. For Israel the high priest had one primary function: to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people (5:1). The sacrifice made by the high priest is meant to restore the relationship between God and the people, which had been broken by human sin. The high priest is the messenger of salvation, carrying on behalf of the people symbols of repentance to God and returning to the people with the assurance of divine forgiveness. Scholars point out that Jesus exceeds the ancient high priests in at least two ways. First, he is not just mediator, but he is the source of salvation (5:9). Second, the old high priest had to keep coming back time and again to the altar -- new sins, new sacrifices -- but the salvation provided through the high priestly ministry of Jesus is eternal (5:9). The New Testament message is that Christ offered himself "once and for all" for the sins of all people (1 Peter 3:18).
The function of the high priest is to stand before God with his back to the people. Then he comes before the people with his back towards God, facing the people on behalf of God. "The priest represents God's holy presence among the people" (Long, Hebrews, 65). When Jesus the great high priest stands before the people, what do the people see? In the face of Jesus "is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being ..." (Hebrews 1:3a). Jesus puts a face on God, "for in him the whole fullness of the deity dwells bodily" (Colossians 2:9). Paul states this so eloquently: "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). When Jesus stands before the people as the great high priest, the people see in his face a God who stoops down from the holy heights to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are made whole" (Isaiah 53:5). In the face of Jesus, the high priest, the people see a God to whom they can pray freely and confidently so that we can "receive mercy and find grace in the time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
The Person Of The High Priest
The person who functions as the high priest in ancient Israel was a person who needed to possess certain qualities of personality and compassion. They were people who needed to know about the pain and struggles of human life and to be sympathetic to human weaknesses. When they were making a sacrifice for someone, it meant that they were aware of the deepest secrets of life. They were confronted with confused and sinful people and they needed a sympathetic and loving heart so as to minister to them with gentleness and understanding. A high priest was a very special person in the Jewish religious community. The high priests were every bit as sinful as their flocks, and as they approached the altar, they did so carrying the sacrifices for their own sins as well as for the sins of others (5:2-3).
It is necessary for the high priest to know the experiences that the people have gone through. He needs to be aware of the deep secrets of life: the sin, guilt, fear, disappointment, hope, and hunger for salvation that was so much a part of the masses. The priest must be one with the people. Barclay points out that "the priest must be bound up with men in the bundle of life" (Barclay, Hebrews, p. 46). The priest needs to possess the ability to bear with people without getting irritated; it means the ability not to lose one's temper with people when they are foolish and will not learn and do the same things over and over again (5:2). Through sympathy and understanding the high priest is a person who constantly and patiently seeks to lead the people back to the right way.
The author of Hebrews, after giving the qualifications of the high priest, states: "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' " (v. 5). The author now points out how Jesus fulfills the great conditions for the priesthood. He came from among the people and knew and experienced every aspect of human life. If the high priest is one who should know his people, then Jesus through the incarnation is the epitome of what a high priest should be. Through Jesus God comes to us where we are.
Jesus labored as a tradesman in his father's carpenter shop, he knew firsthand about irritable customers and at times found it hard to collect his bills and make ends meet. He shared the anguish of parents over the death of their child; he suffered in the despair of the unemployed in the marketplace. He knew the plight of the poor and the shame of the outcast. He identified with the "undesirables." He grieved over the stubbornness of men and women. He laughed with little children. He died bleeding, but not before he had felt our ultimate doubt when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He was "crucified, dead, and buried" -- a phrase which is the blunt statement of the creed regarding his humanness. That Jesus came to share our lives there is no doubt. The Jewish requirement of a high priest is that he must be a person who knows and represents the people -- Jesus far exceeds the qualifications. There is no doubt that he is the right person for the job.
The Appointment Of The High Priest
No one in ancient Israel would be so presumptuous as to volunteer for the position of high priest. No one would ever appoint himself to the priesthood. It is not a position that a man takes; it is a privilege and a glory to which he is called. Barclay points out that "a ministry of God among people is neither a job nor a career, but a calling" (Barclay, Hebrews, p. 47). This is even true for Jesus; he did not choose his task. God chose him for it. At his baptism there came the voice to Jesus saying, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).
The author of Hebrews is convinced that Jesus is well prepared to be the great high priest, because he has gone through the most bitter experiences of men and women and he understands, as no other, the human family's strengths and weaknesses. It appears that in verses 8-9, the author is reflecting upon Jesus' experience in Gethsemane. Scholars point out that the words that are used in verse 7, "loud cries," come from the Greek that refers to a cry which a man does not choose to utter but which is wrung from him in the stress of some tremendous tension or searing pain. The author indicates in verse 8 that Jesus "learned obedience through what he suffered," pointing out that Jesus learned from all of his experiences because he met them all with reverence. By these experiences of pain and suffering "having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." (vv. 8-9). The writer of Hebrews is saying that all the experiences of suffering that Jesus experienced prepared him to become the great high priest, the Savior of men and women. Jesus is not a high priest for a lifetime, but forever, and not according to the regular orders of the priesthood, but "having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." Again, Jesus exceeds the job description of the high priest and is no doubt -- the right man for the job.
To both the author's congregation and our congregations the people are not certain about what the references to Melchizedek are all about. Both his congregation and our congregations need an explanation. The point that the author of Hebrews makes regarding Melchizedek is clear. He states that way back in the days of Abraham before the Levitical priesthood, there appeared a foreshadowing of Jesus becoming the great high priest. This foreshadowing was Melchizedek. He was the King of Salem, meaning "king of righteousness" and "king of peace." This anticipates Jesus' messanic role as the king of righteousness and peace (7:2).
According to the author of Hebrews, Melchizedek further anticipated Jesus by the fact that he had no mother or father, thus no genealogy. He was totally without beginning and end in time (7:3). "The main point in all of this is not really about Melchizedek, but rather how the qualities seen in him -- righteousness, peace and timeless -- point forward to the nature of Jesus, the true and perpetual great high priest. The author sees Melchizedek as a signpost planted in the old order indicating that the good gifts given to humanity in Jesus were there in God's mind from the beginning" (Long, Hebrews, p. 85).
Through the incarnation Jesus knows the pain and ambiguity of human life. The difference between the high priests and Jesus the great high priest is that Jesus reveals a God who cares desperately, a God who, through Jesus, is involved in every aspect of human life. Barbara Taylor Brown reminds us that "when you look at him (Jesus) you see God. When you listen to him, you hear God. Not because he has taken God's place, but because he is the clear window that God has glazed into flesh and blood -- the porthole between this world and the next, the passageway between heaven and earth" (The Preaching Life, p. 23). By Jesus, the high priest, offering himself as "ransom for many" the human family is healed, and men and women, though ravaged and broken, now can become what God intended at creation, free and joyful -- at one with oneself, with one another, with creation, and with God.
