Sermon Preached September 15, 2024

_{When I prepare a sermon, I flesh out my outline in long-form to help me organize the details, work on flow, and commit the main points to memory. I preach from the outline and often adlib the examples, which means the spoken sermon often varies somewhat from the written sermon. Below is the written version.}

Main Text: Hebrews 4:15-16

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.

HIGH PRIEST

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.”

The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, once said that “the Creator of the world had designed and carried out his work according to an unchangeable and eternal pattern of which the world is only a copy.” According to Greek thought, everything on earth was a mere shadow of the original.

An example of a shadow of the original would be the Jewish high priest. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the Jewish high priest entered the Holy of Holies, the western end of the Temple where the real presence of God was believed to dwell. No one ever entered the Holy of Holies except for the high priest and only for a brief time on the Day of Atonement. Jewish law warned that to linger in the presence of God was to die.

The Jewish high priest was a symbol representing the real God.

JESUS THE PERFECT HIGH PRIEST

Then Jesus enters human history as the real deal – the Perfect High Priest – no symbol, no shadow, but the original.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The Perfect High Priest must both know perfectly what it is to be human and perfectly know God. This is what the Book of Hebrews claims of Jesus, that He is perfectly man and perfectly God.

The Book of Hebrews is believed to have been written sometime in the mid to late first century.

The Nicene Creed, a later version of the Apostle’s Creed, was not written until the 4th century, but it is clear that the words written in the Book of Hebrews influenced the writings of the early church fathers:

“I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

WITHOUT SIN

“. . . but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin.”

We may say we believe that Jesus, our Perfect High Priest without sin, can sympathize with our weaknesses, but a lot of us, if we are honest with ourselves, will admit that we find it difficult to believe that Jesus could really, truly identify with and understand us. I understand the fully God and fully man theology in theory, but in reality? If I am honest, it makes no sense how this is humanly possible. How can God – in Jesus Christ – a man without sin, be able to fully relate to my pain, my temptations, my struggles, my hurts?

William Barclay, a well-known New Testament scholar put this truth in perspective for me. In his commentary on the Gospel of Mark, he wrote, “yes, Jesus was without sin, but he knew and suffered and experienced temptation on a deeper level than any human being ever could. How? Precisely because he was without sin.”

Think of it this way, you and I, sinners by nature, mere human beings, tap out long before temptation has a chance to do any real testing. This is especially true of those of us who live here in the good ol’ USA, the most overly medicated country in the world.

When I feel a headache coming on or when my back starts to act up, I quickly reach for the Aspirin before it gets any worse. In the hospital, when a patient is dying, that dying person is pumped full of morphine to keep them from having to experience the pain associated with dying.

Whenever we feel anything we don’t want to feel, we numb out with all kinds of legal and illegal activities and substances: drugs, alcohol, food, sex, fill in the blank. We will do anything to not feel the bad stuff, to not have to deal with anything unpleasant.

If we neglect to reach for that numbing substance as soon as the bad feelings begin, the pain – whether physical or emotional – progressively gets worse.

Is it a sin to take Aspirin to relieve a headache or to medically comfort a dying patient? Of course not. The point I am making is that, as Barclay suggests, Jesus knows temptation.

However, unlike sinful humanity, Jesus never took the easy way out. Jesus never sinned. Since he never reached for the easy fix the way we do, His temptations became more and more intense. Still, He never gave in.

Can Jesus relate to socially acceptable sins such as gluttonous eating?

Luke 4:1-4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

Jesus knew hunger, yet He did not give in to the tempter.

Can Jesus identify with “victimless” sins such as greed or addiction? Without a doubt.

Matthew 26:39 Jesus fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus had the power and opportunity to give into His temptation. Instead, He submitted to the will of His Father.

What about the big ones like murder? I have no doubt.

Mark 15:29-32 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!” In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

Jesus had just cause to save Himself and take the lives of others. Instead, He looked ahead to you and to me and humbled Himself on a cross.

Whether our temptations and sins are socially acceptable, victimless, or horrendous, He can sympathize with our weaknesses and forgive us. After all, one of his followers pilfered from their money box, AND handed Him over to His enemies. Almost all of His most beloved friends and followers turned their back on Him and ran away when He got arrested. His enemies tried to stone Him, tried to throw Him off a cliff, and finally succeeded in having Him crucified.

Still while hanging on the cross, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

Was he simply responding to the soldiers responsible for carrying out His execution? Doubtful. I believe Jesus prayed for them all – the soldiers, Pilate, the crowd, the Jewish leaders, His friends, and – even for Judas. I have no doubt that if Judas would have kneeled at the foot of the cross and asked for forgiveness, Jesus would have forgiven him. I think, in His final prayer, Jesus had already forgiven him. It is a shame that Judas never understood that.

EFFECTS OF THE CROSS

Because of God’s love for us and Jesus’ humble obedience to death on a cross, we are blessed with a High Priest who truly gets us . . . and loves us still.

Jesus’ experience on the cross gave us the gift of sympathy. Before Jesus, God was viewed as either different, emotionless, or detached. In other words, unapproachable. Jesus became one of us and identified fully with all human experience, making Him, and thus, God, approachable.

The cross gave us the gift of mercy and understanding. It is extremely difficult to understand someone else if we have never experienced their situation. People who do not suffer from mental illness have no idea what it is like to have to live with and how much work it takes to manage.

People who have never wondered when they would eat again, or where they would sleep – people who have never known the agony of addiction or the grief of disease can empathize, but they can never fully understand. But Jesus can. He understands and suffers with us.

The cross gave us the gift of help. There is a saying that “hurt people hurt people,” but the reverse is also true. Hurt people can help people. Oftentimes, the best person to help another is someone who has been through it – whatever “it” is – before. For example, the most effective addiction therapists are often former addicts. I believe that what makes me a great chaplain is my cancer experience and mental health challenges. Jesus has been through it – all of it. There is no depth of human experience which Jesus has not experienced which makes Him our ideal helpmate.

The cross gave us the gift of adoption. One of the most troubling scriptures to understand is:

Mark 15:33-34: At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Theologians throughout history have struggled to make sense of this passage. Many excuse it, claiming that Jesus must have meant something else or that He quoted scripture for our benefit.

William Barclay has another idea. He writes:

“Jesus had taken this life of ours upon him. He had done our work and faced our temptations and borne our trials. He had suffered all that life could bring. He had known the failure of friends, the hatred of foes, the malice of enemies. He had known the most searing pain that life could offer. Up to this moment, Jesus had gone through every experience of life except one – he had never known the consequence of sin. Now if there is one thing sin does, it separates us from God. It puts between us and God a barrier like an unscalable wall. That was the one human experience through which Jesus had never passed, because he was without sin. It may be that at this moment that experience came upon him – not because he had sinned, but because in order to be identified completely with our humanity he had to go through it.”

By experiencing the kind of abandonment brought on by sin, Jesus could then, and only then, truly identify with the entire realm of human experience.

Jesus is the perfect high priest because He is perfectly God and perfectly human. Because He has experienced human life, He can give us sympathy, mercy, and power to overcome whatever challenges we face. Because of Jesus, we have become sons and daughters of God. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He brought God to us, and He can bring us to God.

TORN VEIL

Luke 23:44-47: It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Because of what Jesus did for us, we no longer have to rely on shadows, copies of the real thing – no more secrets, no more fear. We are no longer separated from the Holy of Holies. Because of the Cross we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”

THE PARADOX OF BLESSEDNESS

There is nothing more gratifying than loving Jesus and knowing that He loves me back and loves me more than I could ever love Him. This blessing, however, comes with a cost. Those who preach a prosperity gospel offer a dangerous lie. They set people up for failure and end up causing division between God and humanity rather than nurturing strong and healthy relationships. Anyone of faith who has lived any length of time on this planet can tell you that bad things happen sometimes, no matter how strong our faith. What we believe and what scripture tells us is that no matter what life throws at us, we can overcome because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is the paradox to our blessedness.

We see this most clearly in the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was granted the blessedness of being the mother of the Son of God. Paradoxically, this also meant that one day, she would have to witness her son mocked and beaten and left to die hanging on a cross.

Once again, I turn to William Barclay for insight into this paradox of blessedness:

“To be chosen by God so often means at one and the same time a crown of joy and cross of sorrow. The piercing truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all the head and heart and hand can bring to it. God chooses us in order to use us . . . One great preacher said, ‘Jesus Christ came not to make life easy but to make men great.’”

CONCLUSION

Hebrews 4:15-16:

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”

Only two verses, but it tells us so much and gives us so much hope. In it, we are assured that:

A. Jesus is our Perfect High Priest

B. Jesus is without sin but . . .

C. Jesus still understands us.

D. Jesus is approachable.

E. Jesus can help us weather any storm.

F. Jesus gives us mercy and grace in our time of need.

G. Jesus brought God to us and he can bring us to God.

H. All because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

INVITATION

If you do not know Jesus, the Perfect High Priest, or if it has been a long time since you approached His throne (prayer), I invite you to do so now. I urge you not to waste your opportunity or think of yourself beyond hope like Judas did. Instead, kneel at the foot of the cross and ask for forgiveness and be restored.

There are various prayers of repentance and salvation out there. The words are not as important as the faith behind it. To help you get started, consider the words of King David in Psalm 51:

“Have mercy on me, O God,

according to Your unfailing love;

according to Your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in Your sight,

so that You are proved right when You speak

and justified when You judge.

Surely I have been a sinner from birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me…

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me and I will be whiter than snow…

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from Your presence

or take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.

Then will I teach transgressors Your ways,

and sinners will turn back to You.

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Worship Songs played before the sermon.