Our Merciful and Faithful High Priest

How often do you think about who Christ actually is? We are very familiar with His work for us. But we can be tempted to just think of that as His work as God. Or some sort of God, apart from and above us. A better “human” like that of the Greek and Roman demi-gods. Someone like Hercules.

Hercules was renowned for His might, his strength, and his wit. He was esteemed as the greatest of men. And rightly so, his Father was Zeus. Hercules did many mighty acts throughout his life causing his fame to spread. He helped many people along the way, but he did this because he could, he was better than every other man. He didn’t struggle with weakness as we do. Sometimes this is how we think of Christ.

The passage presents before us a different story to that of Hercules. Rather than being some sort of angelic, demi-god, above the common man as our hero. Christ took upon Himself our complete humanity. He became like us in every way apart from sin, in order that He might redeem us. We do not need a hero; we need a high priest.

This passage before us this evening comes as a transition between Christ’s supremacy over all things and what that means practically in his work for us as High Priest. Previously, we saw solidarity with Christ as our brother in the flesh, before our Father and against death. Here, the author expands further on what this solidarity means for us.

The author does this first, by declaring the trueness of Christ’s flesh, second, he states that this means he can properly be our High Priest, and finally, it means that He can execute His ministry with compassion. These will be our points for this evening: Christ’s true Flesh, Christ’s High Priesthood, and Christ’s Compassionate Ministry.

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It is my aim this evening that you would see from this text, your need for a high priest such as Christ is. One who is merciful towards you in your sin, is faithful in His work before God for you, and because He was made like us, is able to care for you deeply and help you in your time of temptation.

Christ’s True Flesh

Beginning with our first point, Christ’s True Flesh

Read vs 16-17a.

It’s easy to think of someone saving us when they are greater than us. Think of Saul, “a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.” Heroes that evoke power are the ones we desire. For we think it is only through power that enemies are vanquished. This is why stories like Hercules appeal to us. We want someone bigger and better than us in every way to be our saviour.

In order to have the fame and acclaim that Hercules enjoys now, he had to complete 12 seemingly impossible tasks. Each one had a different element of cunning, strength and prowess. The final one is perhaps the best description of all of these bound up in Hercules. He was tasked to capture Cerberus. That awful, terrifying three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades. This is an impossible feat at best, but Hercules was also required to do it without the aid of any weapon. Because of his charm and wit, Hercules used the souls to convince Hades to let him take Cerberus. Using his lion skin as a shield, Hercules managed to subdue and chain Cerberus and thus succeed in his task instilling fear and awe in all those around Him.

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In seeking to save us, Christ did not come as a demi-god or some sort of angelic being, seeking to conquer. Instead, as the Psalmist points out to us, “he was made a little lower than the heavenly beings.” That is, Christ passed below the form of a perfect angelic being and took upon himself the flesh of man, made like us in every respect, yet without sin.

When trying to figure out this mystery of how God can become man there are steep ditches either side of holding this perfect mystery.

On one side, it is tempting to look at the humanity of Christ as merely a mirage. Like the beautiful pond and palm tree in a desert, Christ’s humanity only appears to be real. How could God, almighty and powerful, take upon Himself our true humanity? Surely to overcome this temptation and secure salvation from us, Christ had to have some form of humanity that was apart from ours. Some sort of angelic form.

On the other side of perfect mystery, is thinking that Christ had be less divine. In taking upon Himself human flesh, he ceased to be fully God. How could he relate to us if he was not exactly like us? Including the lack of divinity?

Yet, we see the problem that this text before us solves. On the one hand with the first ditch, if Christ was not fully human, there is no way that this author could say of Christ that he was, “made like his brothers in every respect”.

On the other hand, if Christ were not God in any respect, then there would be no incarnation at all. Jesus as the second person of the trinity nowhere acts distinctly from the rest of the God head. We only have to look at the baptism of Christ where the Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father from heaven proclaims, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” If there is no incarnation, then Christ could offer no atonement, and there is no salvation.

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This text undeniably proclaims to us that Jesus was, “the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man… in all things like us, without sin.” By saying that “he helps us,” it is meant that Christ has laid hold of all of who we are. He does not just aid and assist us but instead, in His love for us and because of our state of sin, has actually taken that upon himself when he laid hold of our flesh.

The particular nature of Christ’s humanity is that of the offspring of Abraham. This is more than just to describe his Jewishness. It is describing the covenantal nature of Christ’s incarnation. This covenant is an unbreakable bond between the Father and the Son in the Spirit. These words unravel a vast story of the work of God for us, His people. In particular, it calls to mind that covenant with Abraham in Genesis.

Physical descent means nothing if one does not also have spiritual descent of Abraham. Here before us in Christ, we have the embodiment of that promise. As Paul says in Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” Abraham believed God, and it was counted to Him as righteousness.

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It is through faith that we too partake with Abraham in sharing in the blessings of Christ. We too believe God and His promises embodied in Christ and have righteousness. Paul goes on in Galatians to say, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.… for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:26-29).

By naming Christ the seed, the author recalls that glorious covenant that is told to us throughout Scripture. Beginning in Genesis 3:15, the promise of a seed who would crush the head of the serpent is realised here in Christ, the seed of Abraham in who you have your life and your being.

This promise is bound up in a covenant between the Father and Son, that the Son would have a people for Himself. Because God does not and cannot change, he is the same yesterday, today and forever, there is no way that that covenant will ever fail. And there is no way that your salvation in Christ will ever fail. It is not your faithfulness that ensures the success of this covenant, but the faithfulness of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Christ’s High Priesthood

This leads me to my second point, Christ’s High Priesthood for us.

Read vs 17

Though Hercules could be considered a great man, he was not one to be crossed. For the same power by which he slew lions and beasts, is also the same power by which he destroyed Troy after he was double crossed. Despite being fully God and fully man, Christ did not seek vengeance, nor his own desires, but through the incarnation sought instead bring about a ministry for us through love that was bound up in mercy.

I’m sure you know, as much as I do, how much we mess up each day. The 1662 Anglican Prayer book describes our state in its confession, “we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us.” It doesn’t leave much to the imagination in terms of the extent of our sin.

Even more than that we feel the depths to which our hearts daily lead us astray. This is why we do not need a hero, but a High Priest. And we need that High Priest to be made like us in every respect in order that He can be merciful and faithful in the service of God, making propitiation for our sins.

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In saying that Christ took hold of our human flesh, the writer says that Christ took our physical real flesh but also all the things that belong to that fleshly existence, our emotions, and feelings. A humanity detached from this emotion and feeling is a cold and harsh humanity. But the writer makes explicit to us that Christ, in all of his divinity, still fulfilled a merciful and therefore faithful priesthood because He took upon Himself all that was common to you and I.

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Christ is not above and beyond us but took upon Himself our flesh and all its infirmities, including temptation, in order that His priesthood would be perfect. It is not that The Son lacked anything in the Godhead, but he took even these things upon Himself that we would be convinced and persuaded that God is merciful towards us. It was mercy born from love that drove the Son to take upon Himself our suffering. It is this love for you and for I that meant He was faithful in all He did.

He was faithful in respect to God.

In everything Christ did for us, He perfectly fulfilled that which He had been tasked to do. He says to us, “I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” And in doing that He also perfectly loved God with all His heart, soul, strength, and mind.

He was faithful in respect to us.

His faithfulness to the Father meant that He perfectly fulfilled the law of God. In doing this as a man, he was then able to be our head and representative before our God.

This qualified Christ to be the High Priest we so desperately need. We cannot do as Christ did. We cannot perfectly love God as we are required to do. We cannot perfectly obey the law. But we need someone who can stand between us and God, someone who is our representative, who is pure and righteous in all He does. We need what Christ gives to us, His priesthood.

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It is in this work of High Priesthood that it can be said that Christ now makes “propitiation for the sins of the people.” We know the greatness of our sin and misery. We know the depths of hearts. We know that we are rightfully deserving of wrath.

Yet it was not that God happened to change his stance on sin, but because of His stance on sin, because of His hatred for it and His love for us, that Christ has made propitiation. For Christ to do this for us, he had to satisfy the punishment due to us.

Just like the lamb in the Old Covenant whose blood was displayed before God on behalf of the people, Christ the True lamb, has given Himself before God for the eternal satisfaction of God’s wrath. In it now, God has met the demands of his own holiness. This is what the author means when he says that Christ is able to make propitiation.

Now we can come to Him in the holy of holies, before His throne of grace because of our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Christ has lived for you. He has died for you. He has drained the cup of God’s wrath that was yours, for you. The full, final payment has been made. As one author beautifully writes, “Our hell he made his, that his heaven might be ours. Never was there such mercy, never such faithfulness, as this!”

Do you believe this and know this? Christ is your High Priest. He is merciful towards you, sinner. He is faithful in His work for you. He will not tire nor grow weary, in His love He has made a way for you to come to Him now.

Christ’s Compassionate Ministry

This leads me to my final point, Christ’s Compassionate Ministry.

Once Christ had made atonement and satisfied the wrath of God for us and claimed His right to be our High Priest, he did not stop His ministry there. In fact, when He left this earth to go ahead of us to heaven he says, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” His ministry of mercy continues on to this day.

Read vs 18.

Hercules was addicted to success and having secured the fair maiden in marriage, continued to engage in many adventures, often away for long stretches of time. His wife, distraught at the neglect of this hero, lamented his coldness of character and aloofness in the relationship.

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Christ’s defeat of death does not lead Him to put His feet up and let us carry on as normal. But as He was made a man and suffered as we suffer, and was tempted as we are tempted, it leads Him to continue his ministry of mercy. As a diligent and faithful high priest, Christ now continues to intercede on your behalf in the throne room of God, day by day.

He is perfectly suited to do this because he took upon himself our full humanity, our emotions, temptation and suffered even to the point of death. When he rose again, He still bore upon His body, the scars He gained in this work. This means that we do not have a High Priest who is apart from and greater than us, who looks down upon us. Instead, Our High Priest continues in the work that He started.

Some may be tempted at this point to say that Christ cannot truly know what we go through because He never sinned, he was only tempted. But I say this, Christ knew far greater the depths of temptation than we ever could. We sin because we give into temptation, our bodies are weak and so we stumble and fall. But Christ never stumbled and fell. He endured, far beyond anything you or I could ever endure. For this reason, He is able to sympathise with you in ways that you could not even begin to imagine. Because we fail and are failures, we need someone who can sympathise and was tempted yet is victor. He is actually able to help us. He knows, and has overcome.

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Are you hesitant to bring your sins, your temptations, and your misery to Christ because you think in some way you have to get it all together first? Dear sinner, Christ bore all that and more so that you can know His gracious, kind, merciful ministry each day. He tells us, “Come to me all you who weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Indeed, He can give you rest because He bore your sins in His body.

It is only in Him, that the dominion of sin can longer reign. It is only in Him, the True seed of Abraham, that you have life. And because He took upon Himself your flesh, your emotions, suffered as you suffer and was tempted as you are tempted, yet without sin, he is able to be compassionate and merciful to you as you deal with your sin and weakness.

This is greater than any hero of old could ever offer. It is far greater than one who vanquishes. Instead, we now have a merciful and faithful High Priest who cares for us, who is able to sympathise with us and intercedes for us in His body, having offered Himself as our atoning sacrifice. This High Priest is your God, gracious and merciful is He.