A Sermon from Hebrews chapter 7 and Mark 10.
The Book of Hebrews is probably my favourite book in the Bible. Not only is it the punchline to my favourite bible joke: How do we know God likes a good cup of tea? He Brews, it is also an important book that brings together huge swathes of the Biblical narrative
It helps us make sense of Jesus’ role in the history of our salvation. It was originally believed to be an Epistle written by Paul, but more recent academic study points out it is neither of those things. An Epistle is an ancient style of letter writing that had some clear structuring. Looking at the writing we can see it doesn’t quite fit that structure. It isn’t a letter to the Jewish people; it is more a sermon. It is quite possibly the most profound sermon ever delivered. My favourite theory is it was written by the Apostle Apollos, who we meet in the book of Acts: a preacher who comes to Ephesus. Paul writes to the Corinthians of Apollos ability ‘What I planted, Apollos watered’ and God grew’.
I found that the writing in Hebrews really nourished my faith; if you haven’t spent much time with that text, I would strongly recommend giving it a read through. We learn a lot about Jesus from the very first Christians. We learn about Jesus’ role as our permanent high priest; it’s a role that perhaps we don’t consider him in so much. We recognise him as the Son of God, we recognise him as the God incarnate: but the OT tells us that the anointed one of God, Ha Meshiach, the Messiah, will fulfil the offices prophet, priest and King.
As the Word of God in the flesh, we recognise him as a prophet.
When we crucified him – we did so only after a coronation of thorns. You will be familiar with the four letters INRI found on crucifixion images– the Latin acronym: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
His office of priest requires a little more understanding. Who better to make it clearer than Apollos the preacher to the Jews. Also, understand this: Apollos’ sermon was likely delivered to the Jews some years after the Roman destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The temple cult destroyed, the office of High Priest no longer available to the Jews.
We are, however, faced with a problem. The original covenant between God and the Hebrews was a threefold promise made to Abraham. If Abraham, the father of the Jews, is faithful to God, God will be faithful in return. He will give him land, offspring and a relationship with God himself. As always with God’s faithfulness, these things are granted. The priest are to be the intermediaries between the people and God. The priests will come from the tribe of the Levites, the Levites will not be given their own portion of land, they will reside amongst the tribal lands and be the priests for the people.
But Jesus, is not of the Levites. As we enter advent, we will hear how he is from the Royal line of David, which is the line of Judah.
Prophet directly from God, King by David, but Priest by whom?
Apollos helps us to understand. See the Levites didn’t work out so well. Verse 28: For the law appoints as a high priests’ men in all their weakness’. The Levites sinned like the rest of us which meant they had to offer sacrifices continually – first for their own failings, and then for the others. In a sense they became a barrier to that relationship with God granted to Abraham. But Apollos reminds of another man that Abraham encountered. A mysterious figure called Melchizedek. King of Salem and Priest of the most High God.
Melchizedek means ‘My righteous King’ and Salem (Jerusalem) is of course Shalom meaning ‘peace’. My righteous king of peace, who in Genesis brings forth bread and wine to Abraham. Hmm… doesn’t he sound familiar? Apollos goes on in chapter 7 to tell us he was ‘without beginning of days or end of life and remains a priest forever. Chapter 7 goes into great detail how Jesus is like Melchizedek, but very explicitly tells us:
Jesus has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the power of his indestructible life: For it is declared you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
Much of the Bible is a narrative of how we exiled ourselves from relationship with God by choosing a different path, a path by which we invariably fall short. The priests would atone for our failings and draw us back into right relationship with God. But because of their own failings continual sacrifice was necessary. Once a year when the temple in Jerusalem still stood, on the festival of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, the high priest would enter the Holiest of Holies – the inner part of the sanctuary where God’s presence resided covered by a purple cloth – represented here by our own curtain. But Jesus in his perfect sacrifice only needed to enter it once. On the day of his death, he went to the actual holiest of places, not it’s mere representation on Earth, the actual place – on his death Jesus showed us he was indeed prophet, king and priest. The curtain fell away – God’s presence was no longer in the temple.
Although the temple would later be destroyed, along with it the office of High Priest, it effectively was made redundant from that day on. Jesus became our High Priest and as it was made clear to all that God resided in him, he effectively became our new temple too.
Both the leader of our church and a focus for correct worship through faith.
This brings us to the Gospel for today. Mark Chapter 10 has taken us through the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ mission. Self-sacrifice and service are not only at the heart Priesthood (as I’m sure any priest will attest to) they also lie at the heart of God’s Kingdom.
Priests are our mediator’s to God, and Jesus not only illuminates us to that he exemplifies it. The perfect priest – not only in a sacerdotal way (that is in a priestly manner) but maybe even as a sacrament himself, which is both given and received by the Holy Spirit. That right relationship with God that I spoke about, our escape from exile is manifested in poor Bartimaeus. We can interpret his affliction in any way we choose: a physical blindness, a spiritual blindness, but it presents to us some kind of isolation from the goodness of the world. Mark brings that out to us in poor Bartimaeus.
On a close reading of the text, we read how Bartimaeus first calls out to his King: ‘son of David, have mercy upon me’
But Jesus responds to him as a priest. Bartimaeus shows both faith and knowledge. Bartimaeus may be blind but he recognises the priestly response, he goes on ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ In the Greek text it is actually written: Ραβοννι, ίνα αναβεπψω. 'Rabbi I want to be able to look up'.
Bartimaeus is seeking help, but its not necessarily the help we first thought. It is a priest that can help us look upwards; and it is of course Jesus as our perfect Priest that helps us look to God when we look to him.
Be blessed.
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