Hebrews 4.14-16
Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The dictionary defines a priest as “a mediatory agent between humans and God.” To be a mediator is to negotiate between two parties who have a disagreement. Throughout history priests have represented the gods’ displeasure with human beings. Since many of the gods were incarnate in Pharaohs and Caesars, priests served to tell the people what to do if they wanted to receive the bounties (including a possible afterlife) from these “gods.” Hebrew religious figures were a little different. Do you remember Moses begging God to forgive the people who had worshipped the golden calf? How about Abraham pleading with God to spare Sodom if there are just ten righteous people in the city? Or what about the time when God is more generous than his messenger Jonah, and spares the people of Nineveh?
The relationship of this Hebrew God with his people and his mediators is a lot different than those of the gods incarnate in the Pharaohs and Caesars that the world was used to. This God cares for people even people who have no power, even people who sin, even for people who have not mediator to truly represent them. “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.” – Psalm 145:9
But we still don’t get it. We think God ought to favor our family, or our country, or our values, or our religion. And we think God is all about isolating and punishing the people who don’t measure up. And so, we will only help those who are “truly deserving.” And just like the people of old we are fascinated by wealth and fame and power. We respect empire. We want a god like Pharaoh or Caesar who is awesome and bigger than those other peoples’ gods.
So God, to get his point across, has to become incarnate for real this time – not in a mighty warrior, or a great judge, or a superman with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. God comes to us in Jesus, a helpless infant, born of parents so poor they must find shelter for him in a stable, in an occupied country which has little chance of throwing off the oppressor’s yoke. Here is one who can understand our weakness. He has been there. And he has drawn upon the God within him for such strength that he can empower our poverty, heal our weakness, and even forgive us as we crucify him. Here is the perfect priest, tested as we are, yet responding to life and to us only with compassion, nurture and healing, for he represents a God whose steadfast love endures forever, a God from whom we will always receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Prayer: God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, thank you for showering us with mercy and grace. Thank you for showing us that you are for us and with us even in our weakness. Fill us with your strength, that your steadfast love might surround us and flow through us. Make us agents of your mercy and grace that we might help those around us in their time of need as you have helped us in ours. We pray this in the name of the one who lived to demonstrate your way of peace on earth, good will to all, Jesus, our priest and our king, forever. Amen.
Rev. Tom Downing, Minister to Senior Adults
