Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

Grace, mercy and peace two you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

There is an ancient legend about a King in mythical times, who approached a city near his kingdom and offered to be the city’s ally and protector. The King addressed the residents of the city and said, “Citizens, your city is continually under attack from your enemies. You are defenseless. You are weak. You have often been defeated. I am strong. I will protect you.” And the people of the city said, “What do you seek in return?” And the King replied, “I ask a most difficult thing. I ask that you allow me to be your protector.” And the people of the city asked for time to consider the King’s offer. They met and discussed the possibility, and approached the King and said, “You may become our ally and protector and in return we will pledge our allegiance to you, pay an annual tax to you, work for you, and submit to you. The King said no. The people said, we will pay tax to you. The King said no. The people said we will work for you. The King said no. The people said, we will submit to you. The King said no. The people said, the price is too high. To allow you to serve as our protector in return is more than we are able to do, for that costs our sense of self-reliance and independence. The King said, yes it is a steep price., but I simply offer to be your protector. The people said and if we can’t pay the price? Will not pay the price? Can we negotiate something else in return for your protection? The King said, I offer I will protect you. I will be your ally. All I ask is that you allow me to be. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it! It does indeed sound too good to be true, but it is very similar to what we see in God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God.

Let’s take a look at Hebrews chapter 5 verses 1-10. In general, the book of Hebrews deals not only with the contrasts between the Old and New Covenants but also with the important point that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. Hebrews chapter 5 shows Jesus to be the ultimate High Priest since two important qualifications for the high priesthood are found in Him: 1. The High Priest was appointed by God. 2. The High Priest must be able to sympathize with His people.

God established both the priesthood and the office of High Priest in the days of Moses [Exodus 28:1.] The writer of Hebrews summarizes the work of the High Priest by saying that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. The primary job of the High Priest was to offer, either directly or indirectly through lower-ranking priests, sacrifices to the Lord. The phrase gifts and sacrifices for sins, reminds us that not every sacrifice was a blood atonement for sins. Many of the ritual sacrifices were intended to be simple gifts to God, expressing thanks and desiring fellowship. Ideally, the High Priest was more than a “Butcher” offering sacrifices. He also had compassion on those who were ignorant and going astray. He would minister the atoning sacrifices with a loving heart for the people.

In the Old Covenant, God made specific commands to help insure the High Priest would minister with compassion. As briefly summarized in Exodus 28 the High Priest wore a breastplate in which were set twelve stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and on his shoulder straps were stones engraved with the names of the tribes. In this, the people of Israel were always on the heart and on the shoulders of the High Priest. These served as reminders that the high priest represents the people, and also himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.

God also made specific commands to help insure the High Priest would minister with awareness that he was also subject to weakness. As stated in Leviticus 16:1-6, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest had to sacrifice for himself first to remind himself and the nation that he had sin to atone for, just like the rest of the people of Israel.

No man may take this role of being High Priest by himself, but only he who is called by God. The High Priest was taken from the community of God’s people, but was not chosen by God’s people, but appointed by God for His people. The High Priestly office was nothing to aspire to or campaign for. It was given by God by right of birth. It was given by God and not appointed by man. There, of course, have been some dreadful instances, reported to us in the Old Testament, where men presumed to act as priests who were not priests. The overall lesson is that no one can take the honor of being our own High Priest. It is just as great an arrogance for us to think we can approach God on our own, without a priest. That all sounds like it leaves us in a pretty hopeless situation, doesn’t it?

But, my friends, our God has made it so easy for us. We need no other priest other than Jesus Christ. You see, God has provided us a mediator, a Priest. We must avail ourselves of the Priest God has provided for us. We as sinners can undertake nothing towards God immediately, or by ourselves. But only with a mediating Priest, who must know God’s mind and perform His will. Jesus did not make Himself a High Priest, but was declared the Son of God and declared to be a High Priest forever. You see Jesus’ priesthood, like Malchizedek’s, is unending. Therefore you see Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on our behalf makes Him perfectly suited to be the source, the cause of our salvation.

Sadly, there are people in this world today, very similar to the people in our opening story, who don’t want Jesus to be the author of their salvation. They want to write their own book of salvation. But guess what, folks? God will not read it, for it is only Jesus Who can author our eternal salvation.

My friends, Jesus Christ is superior in His qualifications to anything we can imagine or institute for ourselves. Christianity is based upon the highest form of divine disclosure, the personal revelation of God through His incarnate Son. This Son of God partook of flesh and blood and was made like us in our likeness so that we may have eternal life. After Christ’s death, the Mosaic law was abolished, because it was and able to be perverted by humans. Christ is superior to Moses, for you see Moses and all who followed him as High Priest of the Old Covenant were mere servants in the House of God, but Christ is the Son over God’s Household.

Therefore my friends, because of these divine truths, it is up to all of us to encourage others to avoid the divine Judgment that is visited upon unbelief.

The disbelief of the Children of Israel prevented them from becoming the generation of the conquest, and the rest that Christ has to offer is so much greater than what was provided by Joshua. Like the people in mythical story I began with, they were hesitant to trust someone they didn’t know to protect them. There are many people in our world today just like them.

But, Jesus Christ is our Strength, our Shield, our Protector. Sound too good to be true? Yes, it seems to be good to be true, but true it is! God has made it so easy, my friends. We know we can trust this King, this High Priest, this Jesus that God has provided us.

Therefore, I urge you all to enter the eternal rest that is possessed by faith in the One Who shed His Blood for us, died on the Cross for us, and was Resurrected for us, our King, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now may the peace of God, which far surpasses our human wisdom and knowledge, keep our hearts and minds united in the one true faith unto life everlasting, Amen.