Hebrews 4:14

Hebrews 4:14

We have a great High Priest

Now we really do have a change of direction! After examining in depth, the provision of God’s rest and the power of His Word, we are asked to consider a subject that will occupy much of this Epistle – the role of Yeshua as our High Priest! Remember that this was written to Jews, for whom the most important and most exalted human person was their High Priest, He alone represented God Almighty, was granted access to the Holy Place where God dwelt, and He was the bridge between their humanity and the spiritual Being who occupied the throne of heaven. The best that such a man could ever hope for was an encounter with the Lord when He entered the holy ground of the inner sanctuary of the Temple, once a year. Thus, to hear that there was a High Priest who had now left this world and entered directly into heaven was extraordinary! There was to be no annual shuffling in and out of an earthly, man-made sanctuary for High Priest Jesus Christ, He had returned directly to His Father’s side in heaven and taken His titled place as the Son of God. This was mind-blowing and took a bit of understanding! How could any human being take such a role? How could the traditions of centuries of Jewish faith be turned on their head in such a way? How could these people have mixed with One who had such authority and power, and not realised who He really was? Is it possible that this is true, that their earthly Temple was merely a picture of a greater, heavenly reality and now Yeshua had come to blow a hole in their religious and traditional view of Judaism?  Could Jesus of Nazareth fulfil the role of a High Priest in a way that none of His predecessors had even imagined, by ascending directly to heaven to be granted access to His Father’s presence? Not only that, but could Jesus also represent humanity and the Jewish people in the way that previous High Priests had done? In fact, because of where He was, could Jesus fulfil the role much better? 

This letter to the Hebrews will attempt to answer many of these question and ones we’ve not even thought about! For now, let’s just bathe in the satisfaction of knowing that we all have a High Priest and He no longer occupies a building in a single location on earth, but He dwells at the right-hand side of God Himself, in the heavenly realms. If anyone can represent His people, surely Jesus can! And surely this is as good a reason as any to cling tightly to the faith we profess. I don’t recall hearing this being taught in our churches. Why not?

 

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