Sermon from April 30, 2006
The Bible says, the Church teaches, and Christians believe that God saw the death of Christ as a necessity. What made it a necessity? Is there something in the human situation or in the nature of God or in both that required Jesus' death and nothing else?

The Bible says, the Church teaches, and Christians believe that humanity was in some kind of bondage from which it could not free itself, and that made the death of Christ necessary in the eyes of God for setting man free. What dreadful bondage was it?

The Bible says, the Church teaches, and Christians believe that Jesus' death has released humanity from its dreadful bondage. But how did His death accomplish that?

The Bible answers these questions. The apostles expressed those answers in a variety of ways, all of which they learned from the Old Testament. As a gift of the Holy Spirit, "the Old Testament furnishes the essential thought-forms, and the essential language too, for conceiving and expressing salvation," (C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 66).

Last Sunday, we acquainted ourselves with one of those thought-forms along with its essential language. We looked at the ancient Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On that day alone, only one man in only one room of the temple and there only with blood, with his vision obscured by the smoke of incense, and feeling his way toward the most holy place on earth, the high priest made atonement for the sins of Israel.

In the New Testament the letter of Hebrews makes maximum use of the institution and the language of the Day of Atonement. If we want to understand the death of Jesus, this institution and this language are indispensable. What happened on the Day of Atonement gives our mind and imagination a way to get into words the true meaning of Jesus' death.

So, we must come to terms with three Jewish ideas: the high priest, his sacrifice, and his access into the presence of God. Today, we discover what it means to call Jesus our High Priest. Look first at Hebrews 4:14.

The Person of Our High Priest
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. This must have been stunning to the recipients of this letter. They were Jewish Christians (all the first Christians were Jews!), and they knew what the high priest did in the temple on the Day of Atonement. To call Jesus a great high priest signaled a new way to understand Jesus of Nazareth.

Most but not all of us here (thank God!) are Gentile Christians. Nevertheless, we must allow this reference to Jesus as a high priest to shape our mind and imagination. So, we wil consider the matter under three headings: the person of our High Priest, the purity of our High Priest, and the permanence of our High Priest.

The person of our High Priest calls for worship. The first three verses of the letter mark Christianity out as dangerously different from all other religions on earth. In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Who is this Son, God's final word to mankind, this heir of all things and creator of all things? Of what kind of person can it be said that he is the exact representation of God's being? If words have not lost their cunning, we must know that we have come where there is no neutral ground.

All of chapter one applies to the Son one majestic reference of the Torah after the other. Verses 8-9 will suffice as one example. But about the Son he says,

"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever
     and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
     therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
     by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Like the darkest of nights, the opening chapter of this letter serves as the backdrop for the lightning that strikes down into our humanity in chapter two. After opening, cautionary words the writer quotes from Psalm eight in verses 6-8.

"What is man that you are mindful of him,
     the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the angels;
     you crowned him with glory and honor
     and put everything under his feet."

In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. We feel the power of that last statement. Our greatest scientific and technological achievements carry so many unintended consequences that our greater ease and health now live with greater peril than ever before. But that was not the writer's theme, nor is it mine. Verse nine continues.

But we see Jesus. For the first time in the letter, a proper name is given to the Son, God's final word to mankind, this heir of all things and creator of all things, this exact representation of God's being. His name is Jesus, and once again, we must know that we have come where there is no neutral ground. We have also come to an unprecedented, unrepeatable marriage of meekness and majesty.

Verse nine continues: But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Verse ten deepens the humility and the mystery of Jesus, the Son of God. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. God's final word to mankind is made a little lower than the angels. The Heir of all things tastes death for everyone. The exact representation of God's being is made perfect through suffering. Where is this leading?

Verses 14-15 tell us. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Verse 17 brings our theme back into focus. He had to be made like his brothers in ever way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. Is it not a joy too deep to fathom that the exact representation of God's being would call us His brothers? Aren't we getting close to answers for our guiding questions? Why was His death necessary? How did His death liberate us? But I tell you: even deeper answers lie ahead.

The person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Brother, established His credentials as a great High Priest. What He did came seamlessly from what He was. And there is more, as we see in the purity of our High Priest.

The Purity of Our High Priest
Chapter four speaks of the purity of this High Priest, who shared in our humanity. Look at Hebrews 4:15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.

Hebrews 7:26-27 makes the same point. Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people.

Look at one other passage in Hebrews 10:5-7. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
     but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
     you were not pleased.
Then I said, 'Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll –
     I have come to do your will, O God.'"

The Church prays, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus fulfilled that prayer under adverse human circumstances. In Jesus we see that kind of person God intended, when He created humanity in His image. The purity of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Brother, established His credentials as a great High Priest. What He did came seamlessly from what He was. And there is more, as we see in the permanence of our High Priest.

The Permanence of Our High Priest
This theme takes us to Hebrews 7:1-2 and to a figure named Melchizedek, whose story comes in Genesis 14. This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham in recognition of his superiority gave him a tenth of everything. He was both king and priest.

The Genesis story might have been the end of it, except that Melchizedek reappears in the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament, Psalm 110. Psalm 110:4 says: 

The Lord has sworn
     And will not change his mind:
"You are a priest forever,
     in the order of Melchizedek."

The example of Melchizedek doesn't resonate with us. It is too foreign to our thought patterns. But the point of this example should resonate deeply with us. Verse 15-16: And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. Verse 24 is even blunter. Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.

Next Sunday, we will consider the sacrifice that Jesus, our High Priest, offered. Its value is rooted in who He is. His person, purity, and permanence establish His credentials as a great High Priest for the human family. They also win our affection.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
There is much here that we do not understand, but we know enough to say, "What a Creator that He would choose to taste for Himself the temptations that mar our happiness and the death that none of us escapes!" The shared tug of evil on our hearts and the shared grave establish God's eternal pity toward humanity's plight.

That pity is central to the meaning of Jesus Christ. It offers the first answer to the question: why was it God's set purpose and foreknowledge that Christ had to die? The answer? It was fitting that He did so. Look again at Hebrews 2:10. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

It is a bold statement to say that it was fitting for Christ to suffer. But it fit the human condition, like Cinderella's foot fit the glass slipper. We are tempted. We suffer. We die. We are trained by our suffering to share the holiness of God. It was fitting that Author of our salvation should share our lot in life, not only to make us feel closer to Him, but also to show us by His example what suffering in faith leads to.

It was not only fitting that He suffer; it was also necessary. Verses 14-15: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power to death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

And there is more. We need to read the rest of Hebrews 2:17. He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

As great as is His pity toward our plight and as deeply as He has shared it, His high priesthood rests on something deeper, whose ancient name is atonement. His person, His purity, and His permanence credential Him not only to help us in our weaknesses but also to do for humanity what humanity cannot do for itself.

Whether we feel trapped or guilty or dirty because of our sins, our emotions bear witness to the gulf between God and man that cannot be bridged by human ingenuity or human effort. Sin alienates the human family from God. We need a Savior, a Mediator, who can atone for our sins and open for us the way back to God. Jesus our great High Priest accomplished that.