OPENING COMMENTS
- ON THE AGENDA
- Theme for the coming week
- Speaking of Life video … Mark 10:37, 43-44
- Lectionary Notes … Hebrews 5:1-10
- Reflection on Point intended for last Sunday’s interactive sermon … Hebrews 4:12-16
- All human beings have suffered, including Jesus, and we can respond to it many ways: anger, rage, disbelief, guilt, doubt, and discouragement. To process suffering, we need to make sure we are not telling ourselves false stories about suffering, such as “I must not have enough faith” or “God promised protection, health, and wealth to believers.” A loving God does not desire our suffering. It is, however, a part of our universal human condition.
- Our theme this week is learning through suffering, and as we will see, even Jesus learned during suffering.
- The author C.S. Lewis writes, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
- The readings this week closely connect the quality of humility with the ability to be transformed by suffering.
- Our sermon text, Hebrews 5:1-10, helps us understand what made Jesus the right human for the job of our high priest, enabling him to offer comfort to us when we need it the most.
FIRST MESSAGE
Main point intended for last Sunday’s interactive sermon
Hebrew 4:12-16 NRSVue
12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
14 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. 15 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[a] as we are, yet without sin. 16 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.
SECOND MESSAGE
- Upside-Down Selfie with Jesus
- Greg Williams
From the Program Transcript …
The selfie is the new autograph. Armed constantly with our phones, if we run into a famous person or even go to a famous place, we can snap a picture instantly. It’s better than the old, impersonal autograph. Here you are in the presence of a celebrity for a moment—with your arm around a millionaire like you are old friends.
For about a second, it’s like you’re one of them.
Like every other commodity, selfies have now become big business too. How about a selfie with Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)? That will run you almost $200. Take a snap with Sly Stallone? That’ll be $445. It can become an expensive moment, but it’s worth it for the big fans.
James and John make a kind of “selfie request” of Jesus in Mark 10:
And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Mark 10:37 (ESV)
This is a bold request; they are asking for the seats of honor, to the right and left of the king. They are hoping to bask in the presence of glory and power—to sit for a moment on near-equal footing with royalty. In a sense, to take a selfie with him.
Jesus turns the conversation on its head quickly:
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
Mark 10:43-44 (ESV)
As he often does, Jesus turns the dynamic of the culture—and human culture in general—on its head. If you would be great, you must be a servant. There is no vying for the center stage; there’s no elbowing your way in for a photograph with fame. Jesus calls us away from these status symbols and trappings of identity into true freedom where the last are first and the humble great.
When Jesus finally was crowned here on earth, he did have someone on his right and someone on his left. But his crown was of thorns and he was nailed to his throne, and at each side of him were criminals.
So can we take this upside-down selfie with Jesus? If we’re going to snap a pic at his side, we won’t find him at the autograph table. We’ll find him serving not being served. Taking that selfie—standing next to him in that moment—is much more costly than taking one with any celebrity, but worth every penny.
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Somebody Who Understands
Hebrews 5:1-10 (NRSVUE)
There’s a story about a farmer back in the 1900s who had some puppies for sale. He had just put up the sign on a post at the edge of his yard advertising the pups when a small boy appeared. “I want to buy one of those puppies,” he told the farmer. “Well, you know, these puppies are pretty expensive,” said the farmer. The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out several coins. “I’ve got 39 cents,” he said. “That might just work,” the farmer told him. “Let’s go take a look.”
They walked out to the doghouse surrounded by a chicken wire fence, and the farmer whistled. The mother dog came running out of the doghouse and down the ramp, followed by four black and white balls of fur. The boy pressed his fingers through the fence, and the puppies licked every one of them. But then the boy looked back to the doghouse, and there at the top of the ramp stood another smaller ball of black fur. It stumbled down the ramp, only to tumble into a heap at the bottom before trying to catch up with its siblings.
“I want that one,” the boy said, pointing to the smallest puppy. The farmer told him, “No, you don’t want the runt. That puppy won’t be able to jump and play with you like the others.” The boy reached down to pull up his pant leg, revealing a brace that ran down both sides of his leg and attached to his shoe. “I don’t run too good myself,” the boy told the farmer. “He’ll need somebody who understands.”
As we continue our study of the book of Hebrews, we’re learning about Jesus, his deep understanding about being human, and why he was qualified to be our high priest. Let’s read together Hebrews 5:1-10.
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness, 3 and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not presume to take this honor but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed by[a] the one who said to him,
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you”;
6 as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus[b] offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
The context of Hebrews 5:1-10
The fifth chapter of Hebrews begins to logically and methodically address why Jesus is our high priest. The writer of Hebrews is laying a foundation for his audience – Jewish converts – which will enable them to understand they are now a part of a better hope and a better covenant, a point which he will continue to argue in the remaining part of the letter. According to Barclay’s Commentary, this is Hebrews’ “special contribution to Christian thought – the doctrine of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ.”
Verses 1-4 (Heb.5:1-4) discuss the qualifications of the Aaronic priesthood, and verses 5-10 (Heb.5:5-10) show how Jesus meets those qualifications though not necessarily in the way most Jewish Christians would expect. The writer of Hebrews, who is never identified, must “establish beyond question that Jesus is a great high priest or the whole plan of salvation comes to nothing” (Barclay’s Commentary).
The role of the high priest is described in v. 1:
Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins (Hebrews 5:1, NRSVUE).
The high priest represented the people, and to do that, the high priest had to fulfill three conditions: experienced human life, be put in charge by God, and offer gifts and sacrifices. We will look at each one, comparing and contrasting how Jesus fulfilled or exceeded the Aaronic priestly requirements.
Experience human life
Hebrews 5:2-3 specifies that the high priest must be human:
He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness, and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people (Hebrews 5:2-3, NRSVUE).
If the high priest were not human and faced with the same temptations and sin as others, then he could not represent fellow human beings before God. In fact, the Aaronic priesthood had to first offer a sacrifice for themselves before offering sacrifices for the people because they were prone to sin. Notice that Hebrews 5:2 highlights this empathy for human weakness:
He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness (Hebrews 5:2, NRSVUE).
A good high priest would identify with the weaknesses of those he represented. In the case of Jesus, though, he suffered with the multitude he represented (i.e., all of humanity), as shown in Hebrews 4:15. Aaronic high priests did not suffer with those for whom they presented sacrifices, so their ability to empathize would have been limited.
Be put in charge by God
Hebrews 5:4 explains that the role of high priest requires a calling by God:
And one does not presume to take this honor but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was (Hebrews 5:4, NRSVUE).
One only has to think about what happened to the family of Korah who disputed the priesthood and its role in mediating between humans and God, arguing that the priesthood was Aaron and Moses’ plan to grab power (Numbers 16:1-35). While the Aaronic priesthood began with God’s selection of Moses’ brother, Aaron, as high priest (Exodus 28:1, 40:12-15), by the time of Jesus, the office of the high priesthood had become politicized and corrupt. The emphasis on power removed any chance that humility might work transformation in the priesthood or those it served.
Jesus’ appointment by God as high priest is further explained in verses 5-6:
So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed by the one 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, according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:5-6, NRSVUE).
In these two verses, the author of Hebrews quotes from two psalms, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, which were known by the original audience as messianic prophecies. Later in Hebrews 7, the author addresses the character of Melchizedek as an alternative priesthood since Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi, but from the tribe of Judah. Gardner-Webb University Associate Professor of Religious Studies Scott Shauf summarizes it this way:
Melchizedek is an obscure figure who appears in the story of Abraham in Genesis 14:17-20. He is said to be both a king and a ‘priest of God Most High.’ He appears nowhere else in scripture until his name shows up in this psalm, where the addressee of the psalm — understood by Jews of this period to be the Messiah — is said to be a priest in his order. Hence, we have the basis for the Messiah to be identified as a high priest, despite the non-Levite ancestry. Particularly important for Hebrews is that he is said in the verse to be a priest ‘forever,’ which connects nicely to Christ’s immortal post-resurrection status, and which provides a contrast with the mortality of the Levitical priests.
In comparing Jesus to Melchizedek, the author of Hebrews is saying that Jesus’ priesthood was superior to the Aaronic priesthood.
Offer gifts and sacrifices
The high priest’s role was to offer gifts and sacrifices, and Jesus fulfilled this role as explained in Hebrews 5:7-10:
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:7-10, NRSVUE).
While human, Jesus offered fervent prayers “with loud cries and tears,” possibly referring to the Garden of Gethsemane. Wheaton College Associate Professor of New Testament, Amy L.B. Peeler, writes that Jesus’ fervency in prayer would have been viewed as a strength, not weakness, to the Jewish Christian audience and that the ability to pray honestly and passionately spoke to the efficacy of those prayers:
At the first part of chapter 5, the author has said nothing about the effectiveness of the priests’ offerings, but he does say that Jesus’ offering of prayer was effective. God heard Jesus because of his reverence. He was not … delivered before his death but after it. He experienced what he knew was true about God’s ability to rescue out of death.
Verses 8-9 can be difficult because of the translation of the word “perfect:”
Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Hebrews 5:8-9, NRSVUE).
Hebrews’ author uses a literary device or a “play on words” with “learned” (emathen in Greek) and “suffered” (epathen in Greek), suggesting a “no pain, no gain” meaning.
If we look back to Hebrews 4:15, we can see that despite the author’s assertion that Jesus learned obedience and was made perfect, it’s clear that Jesus’ life experiences didn’t compromise his sinlessness. The phrase “made perfect” (teleioo in Greek) is better translated as “a sense of finished or completed” rather than moral perfection. Jesus had completed his mission as a human being, living a perfect life while being subject to all the human temptations. Some scholars believe that these verses show that Jesus became equipped for his role as high priest through living a perfect human life.
By suffering the physical and emotional pain of wrongful execution at the hands of the empire, thanks to those who wanted power more than they wanted to be transformed, Jesus identified with the suffering of marginalized people. He understood the way they had been treated by those in power and the burdens they bore because of the human systems in place. And by willingly enduring similar mistreatment even to death, Jesus became our high priest. He “learned obedience through what he suffered” (v.8) so that he could understand the human experience and bring us into relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit. And Jesus doesn’t merely understand and empathize with our humanity, his obedience and suffering healed our humanity.
In the same way the boy in the opening story understood the pain of living within the limitations of his disability and thus understood the limitations the runt of the litter might have, Jesus learned through his suffering as a human being the struggles we face living within our human systems. Therefore, when we face difficulties, we know we have a high priest who has felt the way we feel and will support us as we work through it.
Call to Action: This week, when facing a difficulty, contemplate how it helps you cope, knowing that Jesus fully identifies with us and our suffering. Consider how you can offer that same support to someone else who is facing a difficulty that you’ve experienced before.
From Barclay’s commentary on Hebrews …
Heb.5:1-10
Every high priest who is chosen from among men is appointed on men’s behalf to deal with the things which concern God. His task is to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, in that he himself is able to feel gently to the ignorant and to the wandering because he himself wears the garment of human weakness. By reason of this very weakness it is incumbent upon him, just as he makes sacrifice for the people, so to make sacrifice for sins on his own behalf also. No one takes this honourable position to himself, but he is called by God to it, just as Aaron was. So it was not Christ who gave himself the glory of becoming high priest; but it was God who said to him: “You are my beloved Son; today I have begotten you.” Just so he says also in another passage: “You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.” In the days when he lived this human life of ours he offered prayers and entreaties to him who was able to bring him safely through death with strong crying and with tears. And when he had been heard because of his reverence, although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the sufferings through which he passed. When he had been made fully fit for his appointed task, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, for he had been designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Now Hebrews comes to work out the doctrine which is its special contribution to Christian thought–the doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. This passage sets out three essential qualifications of the priest in any age and in any generation.
(i) A priest is appointed on men’s behalf to deal with the things concerning God. A. J. Gossip used to tell his students that when he was ordained to the ministry he felt as if the people were saying to him: “We are for ever involved in the dust and the heat of the day; we have to spend our time getting and spending; we have to serve at the counter, to toil at the desk, to make the wheels of industry go round. We want you to be set apart so that you can go in to the secret place of God and come back every Sunday with a word from him to us.” The priest is the link between God and man.
In Israel the priest had one special function, to offer sacrifice for the sins of the people. Sin disturbs the relationship which should exist between man and God and puts up a barrier between them. The sacrifice is meant to restore that relationship and remove that barrier.
But we must note that the Jew was always quite clear, when thinking at his highest, that the sins for which sacrifice could atone were sins of ignorance. The deliberate sin did not find its atonement in sacrifice. The writer to the Hebrews himself says: “For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins” (Heb.10:26). This is a conviction that emerges again and again in the sacrificial laws of the Old Testament. Again and again they begin: “If any one sins unwittingly in any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done…” (Lev.4:2; Lev.4:13). Num.15:22-31 is a key passage. There the requisite sacrifices are laid down “if you err unwittingly.” But at the end it is laid down: “That person who does anything with a high hand…reviles the Lord…shall be utterly cut off: his iniquity shall be upon him.” Deut.17:12 lays it down: “The man who acts presumptuously…that man shall die.”
The sin of ignorance is pardonable; the sin of presumption is not. Nevertheless we must note that by the sin of ignorance the Jews meant more than simply lack of knowledge. They included the sins committed when a man was swept away in a moment of impulse or anger or passion or mastered by some overmastering temptation and the sins followed by repentance. By the sin of presumption they meant the cold, calculated sin for which a man was not in the least sorry, the open-eyed disobedience of God.
So, then, the priest existed to open the way for the sinner back to God–so long as he wanted to come back.
(ii) The priest must be one with men. He must have gone through men’s experiences and his sympathy must be with them. At this point the writer to the Hebrews stops to point out — he will later show that this is one of the ways in which Jesus Christ is superior to any earthly priest — that the earthly priest is so one with men that he is under the necessity of offering sacrifice for his own sin before he offers it for the sins of others. The priest must be bound up with men in the bundle of life. In connection with this he used a wonderful word — metriopathein (GSN3356). We have translated it “to feel gently”; but it is really untranslatable.
The Greeks defined a virtue as the mean between two extremes. On either hand there was an extreme into which a man might fall; in between there was the right way. So the Greeks defined metriopatheia (the corresponding noun) as the mean between extravagant grief and utter indifference. It was feeling about men in the right way. W. M. Macgregor defined it as “the mid-course between explosions of anger and lazy indulgence.” Plutarch spoke of that patience which was the child of metriopatheia. He spoke of it as that sympathetic feeling which enabled a man to raise up and to save, to spare and to hear. Another Greek blames a man for having no metriopatheia and for therefore refusing to be reconciled with someone who had differed from him. It is a wonderful word. It means the ability to bear with people without getting irritated; it means the ability not to lose one’s temper with people when they are foolish and will not learn and do the same thing over and over again. It describes the attitude to others which does not issue in anger at their fault and which does not condone it, but which to the end of the day spends itself in a gentle yet powerful sympathy which by its very patience directs a man back to the right way. No man can ever deal with his fellow-men unless he has this strong and patient, God-given metriopatheia.
(iii) The third essential of a priest is this — no man appoints himself to the priesthood; his appointment is of God. The priesthood is not an office which a man takes; it is a privilege and a glory to which he is called. The ministry of God among men is neither a job nor a career but a calling. A man ought to be able to look back and say, not, “I chose this work,” but rather, “God chose me and gave me this work to do.”
The writer to the Hebrews goes on to show how Jesus Christ fulfils the great conditions of the priesthood.
(i) He takes the last one first. Jesus did not choose his task; God chose him for it. At the Baptism there came to Jesus the voice which said: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Ps.2:7).
(ii) Jesus has gone through the bitterest experiences of men and understands manhood in all its strength and weakness. The writer to the Hebrews has four great thoughts about him.
(a) He remembers Jesus in Gethsemane. That is what he is thinking of when he speaks of Jesus’ prayers and entreaties, his tears and his cry. The word he uses for cry (krauge, GSN2906) is very significant. It is a cry which a man does not choose to utter but is wrung from him in the stress of some tremendous tension or searing pain. So, then, the writer to the Hebrews says that there is no agony of the human spirit through which Jesus has not come. The rabbis had a saying: “There are three kinds of prayers, each loftier than the preceding–prayer, crying and tears. Prayer is made in silence; crying with raised voice; but tears overcome all things.” Jesus knew even the desperate prayer of tears.
(b) Jesus learned from all his experiences because he met them all with reverence. The Greek phrase for “He learned from what he suffered” is a linguistic jingle–emathen (GSN3129) aph’ (GSN0575) hon (GSN3739) epathen (GSN3958). And this is a thought which keeps recurring in the Greek thinkers. They are always connecting mathein (GSN3129), to learn, and pathein (GSN3958), to suffer. Aeschylus, the earliest of the great Greek dramatists, had as a kind of continual text: “Learning comes from suffering” (pathei mathos). He calls suffering a kind of savage grace from the gods. Herodotus declared that his sufferings were acharista mathemata, ungracious ways of learning. A modern poet says of the poets:
“We learned in suffering what we teach in song.”
God speaks to men in many experiences of life, and not least in those which try their hearts and souls. But we can hear his voice only when we accept in reverence what comes to us. If we accept it with resentment, the rebellious cries of our own heart make us deaf to the voice of God.
(c) By means of the experiences through which he passed, the King James Version says that Jesus was made perfect (teleioun, GSN5048). Teleioun is the verb of the adjective teleios (GSN5046). Teleios can quite correctly be translated “perfect” so long as we remember what the Greek meant by that perfection. To him a thing was teleios (GSN5046) if it perfectly carried out the purpose for which it was designed. When he used the word he was not thinking in terms of abstract and metaphysical perfection; he was thinking in terms of function. What the writer to the Hebrews is saying is that all the experiences of suffering through which Jesus passed perfectly fitted him to become the Saviour of men.
(d) The salvation which Jesus brought is an eternal salvation. It is something which keeps a man safe both in time and in eternity. With Christ a man is safe for ever. There are no circumstances that can pluck him from Christ’s hand.