BACKDROP - At this juncture in the Hebrews "homily" the author focuses on the work and calling of the high priest and thus provides a backdrop for reflecting on the priesthood of Christ.

BRIEF WALK THROUGH THE TEXT [1]:

vs. 1: textbook definition of what a high priest does: appointed to officiate on behalf of others in matters relating to God, i.e. to offer gifts and sin-offerings.

vs. 2-3: human frailty allows for intimate identification betw priest and people, but such identification requires that the priest cover his own sin-a contrast to Jesus as high priest (cf. 4:15; 7;27).

vs. 4-6: as priests must be called by God (Ex. 28:1), so Jesus is called to as a high priest by God. Using Psalms 2 and 110, the author connects Jesus to divine sonship, a status which qualifies Jesus to be a priest and to accomplish his saving work.

vs. 8-10: wordplay-"Jesus learned" (emathen), "through what he suffered" (epathen). Jesus reached the summit of obedience through his suffering and in the process fulfilled a much larger, redemptive divine plan.

A REFORMATION VIEW - In the Letter to the Hebrews, Christ "was heard for his . . . fear" [vs. 5, 7] . . . Christ, therefore "praying with tears and loud cries . . . is heard for his . . . fear" [v. 7]; he does not pray to be spared death, but he prays not to be swallowed up by it as a sinner because he there bore our nature. And surely no more terrible abyss can b e conceived than to feel yourself forsaken and estranged from God . . . it is as if God himself had plotted your ruin. [2]

 

When you "blew it" as a child, how did you feel about the mistake? About yourself? About others involved? From whom did you draw comfort: parent, sibling, friend, your dog, or someone else?

What is a pastoral message from this lesson that you think may provide a needed word that people need to hear today? Message of sympathy? Empathy? Forgiveness? An invitation to come before God in prayer? Someone who knows us intimately and fully, still represents us and forgives us before God?

 

Consider homiletical possibilities in the following paragraph from NIB:

Hebrews has thus far drawn from the life of Jesus two central meanings: As one in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, he is able to serve as our priest with sympathy and patience; and as one who experienced life as we know it with faithfulness and full obedience, he is the pioneer and model for the Christian pilgrimage. As priest, his sympathy flows out of his being tested, not out of failing the test; therefore, his being without sin is not erosive of his capacity to be touched by our weaknesses. As model, his faithful obedience through suffering qualifies him. This is to say, he lived his own life and faced his own struggles, and hence can be a model . . .

. . . What does the life of Jesus mean for the life of faith? If the gospel is the death and resurrection of Jesus, as Paul insists, is all that precedes his death not gospel but preface to the gospel? Or are Jesus’ healing, feeding, receiving, forgiving, loving, and caring also gospel? The author of Hebrews not only offers a way of reading texts about Jesus but by so doing also presses us to think through again this vital question. [3]

__________________________________
[1] Initial ideas drawn from The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (Abingdon Press, 2003), page 2158.
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, book II, chap. XVI, sec. ii.
[3] The New Interpreter’s Bible XII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), page 63-64.