The Weak Link

Introduction

Hebrews 5:1–10 ESV

1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

My ministry work requires a significant amount of travel. A benefit of this is compiling lots of rewards miles from airlines. I will sometimes use these miles to upgrade my seat to first class, especially when I’m tired and want to lean into the introvert side of my personality. That was my plan on a trip to Florida during the Fall of 2019. As you might imagine, I’m telling you this story because things did not go according to plan!

I took my seat and proceeded to put my over-the-ear headphones on as non-verbal communication of a desire to be left alone. The gentleman sitting next to me ignored my cue. “I’m John,” as he reached out his hand to shake mine. I slipped one side of the headphones off my ear and said, “I’m Irwyn. Nice to meet you.” I still had hope of disengaging, but he asked a follow up question. “What do you do?” Internal dread came over me, expecting that my answer was going to set up further conversation. “I’m a pastor.” “Oh,” he said, “I’m a minister too!” This led to an extended conversation from DC to Florida.

John was returning home from a visit to the White House for a round table discussion between several evangelical leaders and President Donald J. Trump. John was a big fan of President Trump. He sang the President’s praises to me regarding policies he believed were being implemented that made life better for Christians in the U.S. I asked whether he had any concerns about the President’s moral life and behavior. His response was, “We need a lion in the White House!” He said, “It’s no coincidence that Donald Trump is the 45th president. In Isaiah 45 God calls Cyrus his anointed. God can use anyone to bless his people!” Of course, the last part of John’s response is true. The first part is biblical gymnastics and utterly ridiculous.

If you are sitting there thinking that I’m trying to make a partisan point, you’re missing my emphasis. This isn’t about your political preferences. The primary emphasis of John’s argument was the need for Christians to have a seat at the table, a position of influence in the halls of power to protect our interests. My primary emphasis was the regular message of Scripture that Christians bear witness to the power of God through our weakness.

Christians live a cross-bearing life as we follow our Lord, demonstrating our need for his strength. The risen and ascended Christ tells the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Verse 2 of our text in Hebrews 5 says, we are beset with weakness. We don’t consider weakness a virtue. No one is striving to become weak. We want to be strong. I don’t go to the gym and lift weights to be weak. But the fact of the matter is that weakness infiltrates all of our lives. So here’s the deal. Our only hope in dealing with weakness is to follow Jesus Christ. He embraced our weakness and has become perfectly qualified to serve as our great high priest (the man in the middle). The writer to the Hebrews, who I simply call the Pastor, brings these points to our attention by making a comparison. We’re situated in the section of Hebrews that is focused on Jesus’ role as our unique, Great High Priest. And in this text he compares the priests of OT Israel with Jesus Christ. So we’re going to look at two things; The Weak & Sinful High Priest, and The Weak & Reverent High Priest.

The Weak & Sinful High Priest

In the verses immediately before our passage, the Pastor says to his congregation that for Christians God’s throne is no longer a scary place. In fact, they are invited to boldly draw near to God’s throne with confidence.

I live in Washington, DC; in close proximity to the White House. I can get close enough to see it. But without security clearance and a personal invitation I’m not getting anywhere near the front door. You and I have no access to the highest seat of power in the United States. But the God who sits on his throne as ruler of the whole creation has a smile on his face as he says to those in Christ, “Come near with no fear.”

His throne is no longer a throne of condemnation or judgment for you. It’s the throne of grace for the Christian. That’s because Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest. He’s our Man in the Middle.

Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV

15 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. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

So we were told to keep on coming to God’s throne of grace with confidence, with boldness; so that we would find God’s mercy and his grace to help us.

Now that he’s kind of whet our whistle about how much our minds should be blown by the fact that we have Jesus Christ as our High Priest, he kind of backs up and starts working through it in a detailed way.

He says in vv. 1-4…

Hebrews 5:1–4 ESV

1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

There have been high priests for generations. They were appointed by God, and they were weak and sinful. Here’s what’s interesting. The priests of ancient Israel came from the tribe of Levi. They were Levites. Moses and his brother Aaron were from that tribe. God selected Aaron to be the first high priest, and came from his lineage. They were descendants of Aaron. So, the priests came from a specific tribe out of the 12. Then it was further specified to a particular clan or family within that tribe.

With all that specificity, we would expect the Pastor to say in v. 1, “every high priest chosen from among the sons of Aaron.” But he says, “every high priest chosen from among men.” What he means is chosen from humanity, chosen from people. He’s not focusing our attention on the gender of the priest, even though every high priest was male. He’s not focusing on the tribe of the high priest, even though were all sons of Aaron. The reason he’s being so general and generic is because what he wants to focus our attention on is our common condition. The high priest was a human being. And every human being shares a common condition. That common condition is weakness and sin. What’s underlying this whole discussion in our text is the problem and seriousness of sin.

The only reason he has to talk about the priesthood at all is because sin is a problem. Not only is it ‘a’ problem, it is ‘the’ problem. Sin, transgressing God’s law, not trusting God, disobeying God’s righteous rules, it is the problem for individuals, for groups, for institutions, for cultures, for societies. You might think that’s an oversimplification, but God doesn’t. The reason why people, institutions, societies and cultures are separated from God is because of sin.

The Pastor says in v. 4, no one takes this honor of being a high priest for himself, but only when called by God. No one steps up to the plate and says, “I’m appointing myself as high priest. I’m taking over this position because I’ll do a better job.” Of course he doesn’t. You know why? Because the priesthood wasn’t his idea. We didn’t come up with the idea of the priesthood, God did. The Pastor says that the high priest is appointed to act on behalf of people in relation to God. God appoints him to make sacrificial offerings, for what purpose? In order to deal with sins. The gifts and sacrifices offered to God by the high priest were not done because they thought that God was such a great guy. It’s not like folk were sitting around thinking, “you know, God is really great. Let’s sing For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow, and bring him some gifts.” No. The gifts and sacrifices were for sins, and it was God’s idea.

The Pastor says that the high priest is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and go astray, since he himself is beset with weakness. This is why he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sin, just as he does for the sins of the people. We see this laid out for us in Leviticus 16. The Lord told Moses in Lev. 16:2-3,

Leviticus 16:2–3 ESV

2 and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

Then the Lord says in v. 11 that Aaron is to offer the bull as a sin offering for himself to make atonement for himself and his household. He’s got to cover the mercy seat that’s in the Holy Place of the tabernacle with smoke from burning incense and sprinkle the mercy seat with the bull’s blood so that he will not die. Then, after that, he can kill the goat as the sin offering for the people. Israel’s high priests should have compassion for those who sin in ignorance and go astray. That’s because every time they went into the Holy Place they were reminded of their own sin. Do you remember what Aaron did? When Moses was up on Mount Sinai meeting with God the people got tired of waiting for him to come down. They came to Aaron in Ex. 32 and said, “Get up and make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

Of course, Aaron said,

“Y’all are crazy! What are you thinking, rebelling against the Lord? We are people who wait on the Lord. After he’s done so much for us you’re going to try and make your own way, to make gods you think you can control? The Lord is God. We’re under his control. He’s not under our control. We follow him. He doesn’t follow us. Go back to your tents and relax. What’re y’all thinking bringing that foolishness to me?”

That sounds great, but you know that’s not what he said. He told the people to bring him all their gold. He made a golden calf and said, “tomorrow we’re going to make a feast to the Lord. The Bible says, “And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play” (Ex 32:6).

Every time Aaron took the blood of the bull to the mercy seat he must’ve remembered how God didn’t kill him for his own sins. As he sprinkled the blood of that bull on the mercy seat, it must’ve been on his mind how merciful the Lord had been to him. So the Pastor says that the high priest deals gently with the ignorant and wayward because he himself is beset with weakness. That literally means that he is wrapped, he is clothed, with weakness. He is a weak but sinful high priest.

That’s why the priesthood from Aaron’s line could only be temporary. It could never fully and finally deal with sins. For Aaron and every high priest that came from him, their weakness is directly correlated to their sin. That’s the reality of our condition.

We’re all weak and it so permeates our condition that for us weakness spiritually speaking is synonymous to sin. And we all know it. We might try to act like we’re not weak, but it comes out. Why are folk so quick to say, “You know, I’m not perfect.” “Listen, that’s just me. That’s just how I do.” “Get used to it.” In other words, I’ve embraced my weakness, I’ve embraced my sin, and you should too.

In order to deal fully and completely with the problem of sin, there was need for a high priest who was greater than Aaron or any of his sons. There was need for a high priest whose weakness was unassociated with sin. There was need for a high priest who could make offering for the sins of the people without having to make an offering for his own sin first. We don’t have to guess at who that is. It’s Jesus Christ, the weak and reverent High Priest.

The Weak & Reverent High Priest

The Pastor loves to quote from the Psalms to point us to Jesus. In 1:5 he quoted from Psalm 2:7,

Psalm 2:7 ESV

7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

Hebrews 1:5 ESV

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?

and in 1:13 he quoted from Psalm 110:1.

Hebrews 1:13 ESV

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

There he was focused on Christ’s divinity and his superiority over the angels. In our text he quotes from Psalm 2:7 again, and again from Psalm 110:4 to show us that Christ is a superior high priest. After saying that no high priest takes the honor of the priesthood to himself, he says so it is with Christ in v. 5. Christ did not exalt himself, he did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by God the Father, who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;

Hebrews 5:6 ESV

6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

Aaron and his descendants were high priests who identified with the people because they shared in their sin, Christ is a high priest of a different magnitude. He’s greater because he is able to identify with the people through suffering, but without sin.

He’s a priest after the order of Melchizedek. The Pastor is not going to leave them hanging. He’s going to give a full explanation of what he means by calling Christ a priest after the order of Melchizedek in chapter 7. For now, it’s enough to point out that Melchizedek is only mentioned two times in the OT, Genesis 14:18 and Psalm 110:4. In Genesis 14, Melchizedek is called priest of God Most High. He pronounces a blessing on Abraham in that chapter. Melchizedek appears in the Bible a priest without any reference to a beginning or an end. The point of the comparison is that Christ is like that. He is the eternal Son of God. He never had a beginning and he doesn’t have an ending. And because the God designated him to be a High Priest, he embraced human weakness.

How do we know that? Listen to what the Pastor says in vv. 7-9…

Hebrews 5:7–9 ESV

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

In the days of his flesh, that is, in the days of his life here on earth, a distinguishing characteristic was that he lived a life of prayer. And the description of his prayer life is vivid. He describes Jesus as offering up prayers and supplications. To make supplication is almost to beg. It has that type of humility associated with it. His prayers were not meek, quiet, or soft. It says they were offered up with loud or strong cries with tears. When was the last time your prayer life could be described like that? A lot of people naturally think that the Pastor is simply referring to Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his arrest and crucifixion. That’s where we see the most striking example of it. But the Pastor doesn’t say that Jesus offered up one prayer on one day with loud cries and tears. In the days of his flesh he offered up prayerS and supplicationS.

What we are seeing described is perfect human weakness unmixed with sin. Jesus had a weakness unassociated with sin. What do I mean? Jesus was born in a manger. He needed protection. He needed nurturing. He needed to be provided for. So, his weakness is in regard to the limitations of what it means to be human. His weakness is all the more prominent because it is in regard to the frailty and limitations of his human nature compared to his all powerful and unlimited divine nature.

That’s how Jesus could tell his disciples when they asked him about the end of time and his return he could say, “no one knows the day or the hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” In his humanity he didn’t know everything. The Pastor says that he learned obedience through the things he suffered. Even though he was a Son, even though he was without sin, throughout his life he grew in his understanding of what it means to obey God in everything. Every challenge, every temptation to turn away from his mission, every accusation and attack was met with obedience.

The point is that we are not to be fooled into thinking it was easy for Jesus. The point of talking about his prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears is so that we’re not deceived into thinking that the suffering were no problem for him… No. He knew that his human weakness needed to be countered by his Father’s strength. And he was desperate for it. He knew that his Father was able to save him from death; not save him from dying. That “from” in v. 7 means “out of” death. He knew that his physical death would not be the end. His Father was able to deliver him from it, back to life. So he pressed his Father for strength. The Pastor says, because he prayed like that, because he was so reverently dependent on his Father, he was heard.

This is the thing that makes Jesus the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. We’re not being called to simply pattern our prayer life after Jesus. The text is not telling us, “make sure that you get all emotional and teary-eyed when you pray. That way you’ll know that God is hearing you.” The point of conviction is not, “am I crying when I pray?” The point of conviction is, “am I following Jesus?” Again, in the verses right before our passage we’re told in 4:14 & 16 “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God… therefore, let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence.”

If we follow Jesus, we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence because the Father still listens to Jesus. Jesus was heard because of his reverence, and the Father still hears him. It’s not your tears that gets God to hear you. It’s Jesus who gets God to hear you.

The fact that out weakness is still linked to sin means that we need someone whose weakness wasn’t linked to sin. If we are following him, what we know for a fact is that our link to God is eternal and unbreakable. This is important because we will always have limits in how righteous, how all-encompassing, how capable our individual selves, systems, structures, and institutions are in bringing about righteousness, justice, and peace.

The importance of my multi-hour conversation with John was not to make a case one way or the other about the appropriate ways for Christians to engage in politics and with politicians. It was about strength and weakness. Jesus, while we were still weak, died for us (Romans 5:6). And the call to embrace the reality of our weakness takes a particular shape in our lives. It looks like bearing reproach for the sake of others.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We would much prefer to have hope from a position of strength, not weakness and limits. But our hope in this life is the strength of our great high priest who delights to demonstrate his power through our weakness for his glory.