A Better High Priest

You can often tell how serious something is by how people react to it. A student might think his misbehavior in school isn't a big deal. But when the principal marches into the classroom to pull the kid into his office, he realizes he made a big mistake. When the authorities put down the gates to shut down Hwy 25, you know there are high winds and snow along that stretch of road. When Adam and Eve sinned, God demonstrated its seriousness by cursing all creation and kicking his children out of paradise. Sin is serious!

Sin remains serious. That's why we offer special midweek worship services during Lent. The mood is solemn. The hymns are somber. The color is purple. There are repeated calls for repentance. There are continual cries of "Lord, have mercy!" Sin is serious.

It's so serious that it needs a serious solution. Sin can't be fixed with nice intentions or good works or lots of guilt. The solution to sin requires death. Only death can fix the seriousness of sin. But not a normal human death. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 2, [The Lord] said to me: "You are my Son. Today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7). The Lord requires the death of his only-begotten Son. Sin requires a Better Savior than we can provide. These Wednesdays in Lent we contemplate our sin and then turn to our better Savior by meditating on descriptions of him from the book of Hebrews.

The book of Hebrews was written because there were Jewish Christians in the first generation after Christ who were starting to slip back into Judaism. They were abandoning their new Christian faith because they wanted to go back to the old ceremonies and laws. The author of this letter -- we don't know who it was --wrote to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament laws and ceremonies. Tonight, we examine how Jesus is better than the Old Testament high priests.

The position of high priest in the time before Jesus lived was an important one. The high priest was the one who went to God on behalf of the Jewish people. He was the go-between. The author explains, "To be sure, every high priest is chosen from the people and is appointed to represent the people in the things pertaining to God, so that he may offer gifts, as well as sacrifices, for sins" (Hebrews 5:1). The offering of gifts and sacrifices happened especially once a year on Yom Kippur -- the Great Day of Atonement. This feast was the heart of the Old Testament law. This was the only day anyone was allowed in the Most Holy Place where God was present above the ark of the covenant. Only the high priest could enter, and only on this day.

On the Great Day of Atonement, the high priest would first put on plain-looking robes and sprinkle the blood of sacrifices throughout the sanctuary of the tabernacle to cleanse the place of worship and the people who served at worship. The high priest then ceremonially carried the sins of all the people and transferred them to a goat -- the scapegoat -- by confessing those sins over it. The goat was then released into the desert -- so far away that it could never return. It would die in the desert. Symbolically this meant the sins of the people would never return. Finally, the high priest would change into the elaborate high priestly robes to offer a second goat on the altar outside the tabernacle to atone for the sins of the nation.

The sprinkling of blood, the scapegoat, the goat as sacrifice -- all these actions underscored the seriousness of sin. This was the Great Day of Atonement. The high priest performed all these actions as the intercessor, the mediator, the go-between for the sinful people and their holy God. The sprinkled blood purified the people and the place of worship. The scapegoat was sent into the desert so the people could remain in communion with the Lord. The blood of the second goat was shed to atone for sin, so the blood of the people would be spared. The high priest is the one who did these things for the people.

Things have definitely changed. We don't bring goats to church with us. We don't release a goat into the desert to die. PETA would be pretty upset with us. We don't burn the other goat as a sacrifice. The wind might put out the fire. We're not sprinkling blood on the altar or the people. That would be gross.

The reason we don't do any of this is because your pastor isn't a high priest. He doesn't have to be. We have a much better High Priest.

The seriousness of sin hasn't changed. Even if the world's view of sin has changed. The world tends to minimize sin. The world thinks it's doing people a favor by normalizing every kind of deviant behavior. First, the behavior is tolerated, then accepted, then promoted, and finally opponents of the behavior are persecuted. We're told to "follow your heart." Martin Luther said that our heart is an idol factory. The prophet Jeremiah wrote, "The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is beyond cure. Who can understand it" (Jeremiah 17:9)? Jesus taught, "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19).

Sin begins in the heart. But it doesn't stay there. It leaks into our minds. It spills out of our mouth. It flows out in our actions. It wrecks relationships. It ruins careers. It destroys lives. It condemns souls. Sin is just as serious as it was in the Garden of Eden when the Lord killed the innocent animals to create clothing for his naked children. Sin is just as serious as it was on the Great Day of Atonement when the Lord's high priest killed the innocent goats to atone for his sinful children.

Despite how we and our culture treat sin, God treats sin seriously. He condemns sinners to eternal damnation in the fires of hell. But God is equally serious about providing a solution for sin. That solution is found in Jesus Christ, a better high priest.

On the Day of Atonement, the Old Testament high priest put on plain clothes to show he was representing the people to God. Later, he changed into the elaborate high priestly robes to show that he was representing God to the people. Our better High Priest didn't just put on clothes; the only-begotten Son of God put on human flesh and blood. As our High Priest, Jesus serves as our mediator, taking our place under God's law and God's judgment. The Old Testament high priest offered up earthly gifts and sacrifices. Jesus, our Great High Priest, offered up divine prayers and intercessions for us, and then offered up himself as the ultimate sacrifice.

The Old Testament high priest took blood and sprinkled it upon the Most Holy Place to purify it from sin and sanctify it for the Lord. As our Great High Priest, Jesus has sprinkled his blood upon us to purify us from sin and sanctify us for the Lord's good purposes.

The Old Testament priest symbolically placed the sins of the people upon the scapegoat. The scapegoat would die in the desert, symbolizing that sin was gone forever. Jesus is the Great High Priest who is also the perfect Scapegoat. He takes our sins away, so they never return, for they are removed as far as the east is from the west.

The Old Testament priest sacrificed the second goat for the sins of the people. Jesus Christ is the Great High Priest who is also the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We'll examine Jesus as the Better Sacrifice next week.

While Aaron, the first high priest, needed to be replaced by one of his sons, and he by one of his sons, and on down the line, our Great High Priest serves for us in that position forever. Forever and ever, Jesus holds before his Father his all-sufficient sacrifice for our salvation. Forever and ever, the Father accepts the sacrifice and is pleased with his priestly Son. The Father is then pleased with us when we accept the Son's sacrifice. This is how Jesus serves as our intercessor as High Priest.

The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 110, "You are a priest forever, like Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5:6). Jesus is better than Aaron the high priest. He's more like Melchizedek the priest. Melchizedek is a mysterious figure in the Bible. He lived during the time of Abram. In Genesis 14 we hear how Abram's nephew Lot was caught in the middle of a war and carried off by a conquering king. Abram gathered 318 of his men, defeated that army, and rescued Lot.

On his way back home, with no introduction, out of the blue we read, "Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High. He blessed Abram and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." Abram gave him a tenth of everything (Genesis 14:18-20). That's it. That's all the Holy Spirit thought we needed to know about this mysterious king and priest. No background. No more explanation. He shows up, blesses Abram, and receives a tenth of the spoils of war. Then he's gone. The only other time Melchizedek is mentioned in the Old Testament is when the Holy Spirit inspires David to compare the Messiah to Melchizedek in Psalm 110.

The inspired author of this letter to the Hebrews pulls it all together for us in chapter 7. He really wants his readers to know that Jesus is better than Aaron and all the other high priests. He writes, "First, Melchizedek means "king of righteousness," and then "king of Salem," which is "king of peace. He is without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, and resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever" (Hebrews 7:2-3).

It's as if Melchizedek is eternal. At least, he appears that way in the pages of Scripture. He was so great that Abram gives him a tithe of his spoils of war -- just like the Jews would give a tithe of their possessions to the Lord. Yet our High Priest is even better than Melchizedek. Jesus, our Great High Priest, doesn't just appear eternal. He is eternal. He doesn't just have a name that means king of righteousness and king of peace. He is our King who gives us his righteousness and a peace that we will find nowhere else.

Jesus is God's serious solution to our serious sin. He gives us a Greater High Priest, who cleanses your heart from the sin that infects you. He washes your mouth. He purifies your mind. He changes your actions.

You can tell how serious our sin is because how God reacted to it. Jesus became our Great High Priest who offered himself as the serious solution and the serious sacrifice for that serious sin. You know how serious this is by how you react to it. Amen.