Introduction
It has been a bit of a difficult week church. We have a large chuck of our people still displaced from regular life and living out of a hospital watching their child, grandchild, and nephew fight to recover. We have people who are recovering from a fall not long after struggling through their own extended fight for their kids life. We have people who can’t be here, struggling with various illnesses and pains. People whose eyes are giving them problems. People whose personal lives are giving them problems. People who are struggling with varied degrees of emotional issues, anxieties and depression. People who struggle with varied degrees of constant pain both from known and unknown reasons. People who were sick, are sick, fighting cancer, seemingly fighting everything. Naming myself, church, people who struggle with the pressures of ministry and life, the struggle to hold the anchor when the varied storms try to toss you about.
In short church, we are exposed as a weak and struggling people. For someone to come into this place and get the impression that this body has everything figured out is to be blind or to be in the wrong building. Church I confess to you this morning, as our text says, that I am one who is beset with weakness standing amongst a people beset with weakness. Praying that through tears we may see more clearly a saviour who himself offered up loud cries and tears in prayer and supplications, to him who was able to save him from death. That we may see that it was his suffering through which he learned obedience so that being made perfect, he could become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Church we need a priest this morning. One who knows our weakness and our sufferings and will intercede for us, who will pray for us, but we also need a priest who has the authority to actually do something about and something through our weakness and our sufferings. Praise be to God, we have such a priest and such an authority. Jesus Christ, the Priest King.
We began last week to try and answer the question as to “what” is this confession that the word tells us to hold fast to. This week, God willing, we will try to consider more fully the “why.” Not just considering the benefits of holding fast this confession, though those benefits are great, but peeling it back one more layer to see why our confession of Christ is so necessary. What makes Christ , the man, so different? Why Christ?
May it please the Lord to open our hearts this morning to receive his word. Please stand with me as we read our text this morning.
Hebrews 5:1–10ESV
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. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. 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”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” 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. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Priests and Their Imperfections
We must being then with a bit of exegesis as we consider the calling of the office of high priest prior to Christ. Every high priest was chosen from among men. Such a statement, on the surface seems obvious enough but bears more careful consideration. The ones whom God the father chose to mediate for the people, that is to offer up gifts and sacrifices on behalf of the people, were themselves of the same people who they were mediating for. God did not choose angels, for instance, to mediate on behalf of men. Heavenly beings who being in the presence of God could perhaps communicate more clearly and directly to God.
Maybe we have even been tempted in our minds to desire some angelic mediation. As strange as it may sound, there are many who do pray for angelic visitations that they may be comforted, encouraged, or to even relay some message to someone “on the other side”. This has been a focus for much of this letter so far is to communicate the supremacy of God’s specific design and his will of mediation and of his source of salvation. It will become clearer in a moment but the point of God’s design in providing mediation through man is so that his mediators can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since they themselves are beset with the very weaknesses that they are pleading with God about.
How could an angel or any other heavenly being relate to man in a way sufficient to plead with the father on our behalf. How could any but a man himself who has experienced ignorance and felt the pull of waywardness be able to offer the gentle care, and relatable intercession that God requires? And because this chosen high priest is man, beset with all the weaknesses of man, he must offer sacrifices for himself as well as the people. In that we see a great humility given to the high priest.
There is perhaps something more for us here that I won’t venture deep into this morning but the word demands that we see the priests of God as equal to man in every way but their office. Far too often, the Papacy not withstanding, the priest is elevated to an almost infallible position that he is considered to have achieved some greater degree of Christian experience but doing so robs God of this beautiful illustration that we will see this morning. The priest, in his humanity, is not successful in his mediation because he is better than you or more holy than you, even if he is, but rather he success in mediation is because he is like you in every way. As such, his offerings and his prayers come from one who knows, experientially, what he is interceding for. Perhaps you are beginning to see where we are going.
The other point to note from our text is that such a calling and such an office is an honor given by God and can never rightly be taken for oneself. This priestly office was never and can never be a self call. It must be by divine appointment only. As with the previous points, there is a greater reason for this and that is what we will dive into next.
Proclamation of Priesthood
Verse 5 tells us that in the same way as we just discussed, Christ himself did not claim his priestly office on his own authority but rather was appointed to this honor by God the father. This of course displays the humility of Christ in that even though he was himself God, in his human nature, he did not exalt himself to this honor. Rather the priesthood of Christ was appointed to him by the father. We are going to talk a little more about what the means but I want to zoom into these Old Testament texts to clearly define to full nature of Christ’s priesthood. This is where we will somewhat finish the conversation we started last week with respect to the levitical priesthood vs. a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek.
Turn back to
for just a moment and look with me at verse 4.
(ESV)
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.”
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
This priesthood that Christ is called to is far more than a simple mediation or offering sacrifices for sin. By referencing
the author to the Hebrews is showing us that this priesthood that Christ is called to includes a kingdom with him as King. This one who is making intercession for us is also the one who all the nations are his heritage and all the Earth is his possession. This priest is a King.
Turn also now to
. We see in verse 2 that the Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter to rule in the midst of your enemies. Further in verse 5 we see that the Lord is at your right hand, he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. I don’t need to mention again the place where Christ is presently sitting in relation to Father, do I? This priestly office of Christ has many similarities to that of the levitical high priests but these passages also demonstrate that it is also of a much different kind. It is not after the levitical order but rather after the Melchizedekian order which is one of both a priest and a King. Even more it is a priesthood that has no end. Christ’s priesthood is eternal and as a result offers to us an eternal mediation and an eternal path of salvation. A salvation that is once for all and forever.
Perfection Through Suffering
Now we come to what is perhaps one of the more commentated on passages in Hebrews and maybe even the new testament. In relation to Christ as priest King, how are we to understand the idea that Christ learned obedience and that he was made perfect. I read and listened to varied comments on this passage over the past week and I do think what I am going to say is as faithful an explanation of the text as I can offer.
I am guilty of this too church, but far too often when we consider Christ in our minds we tend to focus on his divine nature at the expense of his human nature. We think of Christ as God in flesh but we gloss over the reality that he was truly in flesh. This is what verse 7 says from our text. “In the days of his flesh.” Our confession of Christ as both fully God and fully man means that we must confess that he really was fully man. I think the best way to think about this is to consider the season that we just came out of which was the Christmas season. In that season we remember the reality that Christ began his life as an infant child.
He did not come down from heaven knowing the fullness of God’s word already in his brain, like it was downloaded to him prior to his conception. Christ couldn’t even talk at first. Imagine that, the incarnate word of God, didn’t even know how to speak when he entered our world. The word, had to learn, just like us, how to speak. He came to earth in that sense then, weak and dependent. He had to learn, just like us, through suffering. We are not doing God, or ourselves for that matter, any favors when we neglect the fact that the incarnate Christ was truly a man, a human, just like us.
This is most evident in the reference made in the rest of verse 7 which is almost certainly a direct reference to the Garden of Gethsemane . Turn with me back to
Matthew 26:36–46ESV
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Some of you may not have to imagine this because you have experienced it but imagine being so sorrowful, that is being so overwhelmed with grief, that it feels as though that sorrow will surely kill you. Imagine being so troubled and so burdened that you literally feel like you are going to die. That was the experience of our Lord. So real was his humanity that three times in the garden, sweating profusely as though he was bleeding through his pores, fell on his face and he pleaded with God to spare him the cup he was to drink.
Consider what it was that this man, Jesus, was to endure. The painful torture would surely been enough to cause any of us to despair. The betrayal, the mocking, the slander, the ridicule, surely that would have been enough to break anyone of us. But none of those things even compare to the real source of sorrow and that was him drinking the cup of the full measure of the wrath of God. Christ our priest did not impute the sins of the people onto a goat and send him off into the wilderness, no he took upon himself every sin that had ever been or will ever be commited by those who the father had given him and on that day the man who was the pinnacle of humanity, the pure and perfect man, the spotless and blameless one, became the most vile person to ever walk the earth. The sorrow of my own sin is enough to cripple me, I can not fathom to weight of all the sin. To have the fullness of the fury of God’s wrath laid upon you.
We must grasp that it was Christ the man who did this. Yes he was God and because he was God such a sacrifice was effective and it was eternal but he was (and still is I might add) a man, just like us, it was he who endured this.
Hebrews 2:17ESV
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Because of his piety, or reverence as my translation has it, the prayer of Christ in the garden was heard and him who was able to save him from death did indeed save him from death. His prayer was heard and was answered by a faithful father in that the grave did not hold him very long but his humanity must have first been perfected through his sacrificial death. The perfect high priest who took with him all our sins to grave not only perfected his humanity but through that suffering and death became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. That is all who trust him and the perfect mediation that he offers as the great high priest will find that on the other side of the veil of death is a resurrected, perfected humanity.
We often find every way possible to avoid suffering, don’t we. I certainly can blame anyone for that, I don’t want to suffer and when I do I certainly want to get out of it if I can. The perspective that the text gives us is that the model of Christ is not to be perpetual comfort seekers in life or maintain a constant state of suffering avoidance as though such things and the emotions they bring are signs of disobedience but rather through we life and certainly through suffering learn obedience to the will of God.
So when we read that Christ has to learn obedience, it isn’t as if Christ was a disobedient person and needed to suffer so that he learned to obey. Rather, in his humanity, it was through what he suffered that his obedience to and dependence upon the will of God was honed to perfection or rather confirmed as perfect. And because through that suffering he proved himself to be perfectly obedient he became the source of our salvation. Jesus the man, suffered in order to perfect humanity, so that he could offer such a perfected humanity to you by faith in his work. To that we can certainly say Amen.
Conclusion
Providentially, today is the church liturgical day of “Candlemas” and it just so happens to fall on the Sunday where our theme is the priestly mediation of the incarnate Christ. Candlemas is a remembrance of the consecration of Christ to God as a first born son. We won’t turn there but
and
are the references to the law we read about in Luke’s Gospel. Essentially, first born males were brought before the priest and a sacrifice was made on their behalf which also included a purification for the mother. This sacrifice was to include a lamb and a pigeon or a turtledove. In the event that the parents could not afford a lamb for the offering a provision was made by God in Leviticus to use two turtledoves or two pigeons instead.
We read in
that it is implied that the sacrifice that was offered on behalf of Christ was a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons which would indicate that Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb for the offering. Certainly a bit poetic on God’s part that the lamb of God could not afford a lamb for his own consecration and the purification of his mother. As though even here there is a foreshadowing of the reality that Christ himself would be the sacrificial lamb which consecrated his people and purified them from their uncleanliness.
So on a day in which we read about and give thanks to Christ for suffering on our behalf and being obedient unto death to be made perfect so that we too might receive his perfected salvation we have the opportunity to light a candle to remember his sacrifice for us. To light a candle and give thanks that though we suffer we have a priest king who has also suffered with us. One who became like us, entered into our flesh, died our death that we may, through our suffering, learn to trust in him to cling to the faith given to us from him who became the source of our eternal salvation.
We have a small candle for each family to take home today and I would encourage you to light it this evening and as a family gathered around the light it provides may you offer up prayer to and remember your brother, your friend, your prophet, your priest and your king. Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, our Priest King.
I will close then with the words of Simeon when he beheld our Lord on that day of purification.
Luke 2:28–32ESV
he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
May the light of his revelation and salvation shine in us today. Amen.
The Wicket Gate 
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