Hebrews 4:14 – 5:6
Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.
Every high priest selected to represent men and women before God and offer sacrifices for their sins should be able to deal gently with their failings, since he knows what it’s like from his own experience. But that also means that he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the peoples’.
No one elects himself to this honored position. He’s called to it by God, as Aaron was. Neither did Christ presume to set himself up as high priest, but was set apart by the One who said to him, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you!” In another place God declares, “You’re a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.”
“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.”
It’s a lovely sentiment, isn’t it? Jesus “gets it,” he understands because he too was one of us. How often have you sat in church and heard this reading – and not really thought too deeply about it? “Jesus is our great High Priest.” It’s common terminology in the New Testament, right?
Nope. This language of Jesus as High Priest appears – as nearly as I could trace this week – only here in Hebrews.
To truly understand this reference we need to have a basic understanding of the role of the Temple in Jerusalem and the office of High Priest. Since, in the New Testament, the high priest is often seen as the “bad “guy” – the one who connived at crucifying Jesus – it may be difficult for Christians to truly grasp this role and a its huge importance in Jewish culture.
The Temple was the physical dwelling place of God on earth and the only place at which sacrifices could be offered – and sacrifice was the center of Jewish worship. Again, we Christians have a slightly warped idea of the meaning of sacrifice because our New Testament writings tend to only speak of sacrifices offered as payment or expiation for sin. This is true, to a point, but sacrifices were also routinely offered in praise of God or in thanksgiving or as celebratory gifts.
Animal sacrifice was virtually a full-time business in the temple, and the part of the temple set aside for this was more of a slaughterhouse than our idea of a place of worship. The high priest, most likely, did not participate in this day-to-day slaughter. He had other responsibilities. He alone could enter the holy of holies – the center of the temple where God actually lived -- and he alone could speak directly to God. The high priest stood as mediator between the people and God – and this is the priestly role in which the writer of Hebrews places Jesus. Jesus now is the one who stands between God and us and speaks and acts on our behalf.
But not only is Jesus the high priest, the mediator, he is also the sacrifice – sacrificing his life for us – and doing so in a manner that ended temple sacrifice forever. He is the “once for all” sacrifice. This is common Christian thinking. Unfortunately, because we modern day Christians are not so educated in the Jewish concepts of sacrifice, this has led down some strange and just plain wrong paths.
Since all most people know of sacrifice is as a sin offering, it has been assumed that Jesus died for our sins. This assumption has led to the development of an atrocity we call “atonement theology” which has long been a blight on Christianity. If Jesus died for our sins, then, obviously, it is because we are all sinners. And if this sacrifice was necessary it must be because God could not or would not forgive us without someone paying this blood price for us. We all deserve this horrible death, but Jesus died in our place so we don’t have to. That’s a mighty big leap from what the writer of Hebrews actually says. It’s an even bigger leap from what Jesus taught us about his relationship with the God he called abba.
Atonement theology – or substitutionary atonement - was first articulated by St. Anselm in the year 1098. It’s not even 1000 years old. It is not biblical -- and yet, a large proportion of Christians assume this is and has always been the default Christian position. (It is not.)
First, this theology makes God out to be a monster and not someone I desire to worship and serve. A God who is all love and creativity does not demand a payment of blood in exchange for that love. Secondly, it focuses our attention entirely on Jesus’ death – in this view of our relationship with God Jesus’ death is the only thing about him that really matters. Better yet, it neatly takes our minds off the living Jesus and all he worked so hard to teach us. Why bother with that boring stuff like caring for each other and working for justice when Jesus has already died to forgive your sins and guarantee your passage to heaven?
Thirdly, it is completely non-biblical. Jesus speaks of his coming death, but never as God’s demanded offering. It is simply what happens to people who stand up and face down the powers that be – people who are passionate enough about what they believe that they are willing to die for that belief. It is the human powers who are all too willing to sacrifice others.
And, by the way, this substitutionary atonement is not found here in Hebrews. Don’t blame our poor writer. This whole theology, which has become the keystone of conservative Christianity is, in fact, a mis-reading of Hebrews combined with several misleading assumptions. Jesus was not a sacrifice demanded by God. To quote Marc Borg: what Jesus sacrificed was his life because of his passion for God. To sacrifice is to make a gift of one’s own life to God. That is what Jesus did – not because God required it, but because of his passion for God and God’s will. And his love for God's people.
This Letter to the Hebrews is not about celebrating temple sacrifice and placing Jesus within that culture, but rather it is about the end of any need for the entire system of sacrifice. Jesus died as he lived, showing us in his life how to live as children of God, working for justice, caring for each other -- being citizens of the new Kingdom of God – set free at last from all that we have allowed to separate us from God’s love.
Our Bible must be read carefully -- hearing what it actually says, not what someone in our past has told us it says. Listening to the words of the living Jesus teaching us how to live, not how to die.
Next week we will finish up the other smaller points left to Hebrews.
It’s a lovely sentiment, isn’t it? Jesus “gets it,” he understands because he too was one of us. How often have you sat in church and heard this reading – and not really thought too deeply about it? “Jesus is our great High Priest.” It’s common terminology in the New Testament, right?
Nope. This language of Jesus as High Priest appears – as nearly as I could trace this week – only here in Hebrews.
To truly understand this reference we need to have a basic understanding of the role of the Temple in Jerusalem and the office of High Priest. Since, in the New Testament, the high priest is often seen as the “bad “guy” – the one who connived at crucifying Jesus – it may be difficult for Christians to truly grasp this role and a its huge importance in Jewish culture.
The Temple was the physical dwelling place of God on earth and the only place at which sacrifices could be offered – and sacrifice was the center of Jewish worship. Again, we Christians have a slightly warped idea of the meaning of sacrifice because our New Testament writings tend to only speak of sacrifices offered as payment or expiation for sin. This is true, to a point, but sacrifices were also routinely offered in praise of God or in thanksgiving or as celebratory gifts.
Animal sacrifice was virtually a full-time business in the temple, and the part of the temple set aside for this was more of a slaughterhouse than our idea of a place of worship. The high priest, most likely, did not participate in this day-to-day slaughter. He had other responsibilities. He alone could enter the holy of holies – the center of the temple where God actually lived -- and he alone could speak directly to God. The high priest stood as mediator between the people and God – and this is the priestly role in which the writer of Hebrews places Jesus. Jesus now is the one who stands between God and us and speaks and acts on our behalf.
But not only is Jesus the high priest, the mediator, he is also the sacrifice – sacrificing his life for us – and doing so in a manner that ended temple sacrifice forever. He is the “once for all” sacrifice. This is common Christian thinking. Unfortunately, because we modern day Christians are not so educated in the Jewish concepts of sacrifice, this has led down some strange and just plain wrong paths.
Since all most people know of sacrifice is as a sin offering, it has been assumed that Jesus died for our sins. This assumption has led to the development of an atrocity we call “atonement theology” which has long been a blight on Christianity. If Jesus died for our sins, then, obviously, it is because we are all sinners. And if this sacrifice was necessary it must be because God could not or would not forgive us without someone paying this blood price for us. We all deserve this horrible death, but Jesus died in our place so we don’t have to. That’s a mighty big leap from what the writer of Hebrews actually says. It’s an even bigger leap from what Jesus taught us about his relationship with the God he called abba.
Atonement theology – or substitutionary atonement - was first articulated by St. Anselm in the year 1098. It’s not even 1000 years old. It is not biblical -- and yet, a large proportion of Christians assume this is and has always been the default Christian position. (It is not.)
First, this theology makes God out to be a monster and not someone I desire to worship and serve. A God who is all love and creativity does not demand a payment of blood in exchange for that love. Secondly, it focuses our attention entirely on Jesus’ death – in this view of our relationship with God Jesus’ death is the only thing about him that really matters. Better yet, it neatly takes our minds off the living Jesus and all he worked so hard to teach us. Why bother with that boring stuff like caring for each other and working for justice when Jesus has already died to forgive your sins and guarantee your passage to heaven?
Thirdly, it is completely non-biblical. Jesus speaks of his coming death, but never as God’s demanded offering. It is simply what happens to people who stand up and face down the powers that be – people who are passionate enough about what they believe that they are willing to die for that belief. It is the human powers who are all too willing to sacrifice others.
And, by the way, this substitutionary atonement is not found here in Hebrews. Don’t blame our poor writer. This whole theology, which has become the keystone of conservative Christianity is, in fact, a mis-reading of Hebrews combined with several misleading assumptions. Jesus was not a sacrifice demanded by God. To quote Marc Borg: what Jesus sacrificed was his life because of his passion for God. To sacrifice is to make a gift of one’s own life to God. That is what Jesus did – not because God required it, but because of his passion for God and God’s will. And his love for God's people.
This Letter to the Hebrews is not about celebrating temple sacrifice and placing Jesus within that culture, but rather it is about the end of any need for the entire system of sacrifice. Jesus died as he lived, showing us in his life how to live as children of God, working for justice, caring for each other -- being citizens of the new Kingdom of God – set free at last from all that we have allowed to separate us from God’s love.
Our Bible must be read carefully -- hearing what it actually says, not what someone in our past has told us it says. Listening to the words of the living Jesus teaching us how to live, not how to die.
Next week we will finish up the other smaller points left to Hebrews.
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