What is my attitude to my Christianity?
Hebrews 10:11-25 & Mark 13:1-8
Christ as High Priest Hebrews 10.11-25
I sometimes wonder how much people take in of what I say, I mean, to talk about Christ the high priest probably has the effect of putting you to sleep as your reaction could well be “I don’t see that it is very relevant whether we say Christ was high priest or not.”.
Firstly, let me say it is relevant, in fact it is more than relevant it is important, but it is only important if you first ask yourself this question and answer it right.
What is my attitude to my Christianity?
Is my Christian faith something that I try to give some time too, alongside other things that I am involved in or is my Christian faith the springboard for everything that I do. The word Christian could be deemed to mean “Christ in” and if Christ is to be the springboard for our living then surely we should want to know all we can about him. You see if Jesus was God’s Son, then there is no way an attitude of oh well I’d better give a little time to him each week can be seen as fulfilling what he expects us to be. An understanding of the threefold Messianic Christ, Christ the Prophet who came to fulfill all prophecy, Christ the priest who made the one perfect sacrifice and Christ the King who has won victory and claimed it for those who will accept him, repent of their sins and follow him.
Why Does the writer of the letter to the Hebrews make so much of the claim that Christ was not only the long- awaited messiah but he was also to be seen as the High Priest who was superior to any who went before him.
Let me begin by going back to a few basics. The Jewish people in the time of Christ had the scriptures we now know as the O.T. and clearly to them God had revealed himself in a progressive fashion and the messiah that they awaited was a key to their understanding of that revelation of God in the future. God to the Hebrew was to be feared, You could not hope to look upon God and live. This was born out in the structure of the temple, the holiest of holies, the inner sanctum, was tabu, except on the day of atonement, that day and that day only was the only day that anyone could enter and even then it had to be a high priest and even for him it was dangerous. He did what he had to do and he left as quickly as possible. From this comes the O.T. understanding of a priest. He was one who mediated before God on behalf of the people.
The other thing we need to note at this point is the covenant relationship that the Jewish people had with God. It was a special relationship and it is important that we understand it. It must not be thought of as an agreement, or an arrangement that is entered into by two parties. The supreme characteristic of a covenant relationship is that one party offers the other a special relationship that they could not otherwise acquire and the second party has only to accept and take. So in this covenant God spontaneously of his own free will entered into a special relationship with Israel, not because Israel specially merited it, but simply because God in his plan and purpose desired to offer it.
However the covenant was not without conditions. The covenant relationship between Israel and God, depended on Israel’s acceptance of and obedience to the Law of God. This is where the problem comes in.
Man in his sinfulness and weakness is unable to perfectly fulfil the law of God, he is bound to break it. and if the law is broken the covenant relationship is broken. What then is to be done. When the law is broken, appropriate sacrifice had to be made in the temple along with a penitent and contrite heart, and thus the covenant relationship was restored. With this being the case it is no wonder that the temple became the most important place and the high priest the most important person in the world of Jewish religion.
The problem with this system is that in the first place the priest to was human he had first to offer a sacrifice for his own sins, before he could proceed to offer sacrifices for the people. The other problem was that the sacrifices had to be made continually if a person was to be right with God. They had to be endlessly made and re-offered. Thus the necessity for a new covenant, a new sacrifice, a new high priest. That Jesus brought the new covenant is exactly what the church claimed as we read in 1 Corinthians 11.25: ‘In the same way after supper he took the cup and said, This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood, whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me.’ and this was fulfilling what Jeremiah prophesied, and I quote from Jeremaiah 31.31-34.
Read............
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
The old covenant was deficient in two areas, in its sacrifices, and its priesthood. The writer to the Hebrews claims that in the new covenant, Jesus is both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest. Thus, when Jesus hung on the cross at the moment of death, the curtain in the temple that separated the holiest of holies from the people was torn down the middle. No longer was there that struggle needed to be at one with God. The perfect sacrifice had been made by the perfect priest once and for all the great chasm between man and his maker had been bridged. Christ the high priest sits now by his father interceding for you and me. Oh how he yearns for us to stop playing around with our faith, of seeing it as an appendage to everything else, instead of seeing it as that which offers life. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Let us thank God for that, let us take seriously our walk with him, and begin by praying earnestly that he will show us his will for us. Amen
Revd David Hastings