14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
- Hebrews 4:14-16, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House) 1984.
Dear Friends in Christ,
This past Thursday we observed the Ascension of Jesus Christ with a special Festival service. Under the theme, "Jesus is Seated at the Right Hand of God," our guest preacher reminded us that far from taking an early retirement, Jesus now watches over us and directs both the affairs of His church and His children from this position of power and honor and glory. This is indeed a wonderful and comforting thought…
According to the church year this is the Seventh Sunday of Easter. For our purposes this morning, however, I’d like us to consider it to be the first Sunday after the Ascension, and I’d like to devote our message to another aspect of this event in the life of Christ. Today we’d like to focus on the ascension of Jesus especially as it relates to the privilege and power of prayer. For among all the other things it means,
CHRIST’S ASCENSION IS OUR INVITATION TO CONFIDENT PRAYER
With that as our focus, let’s begin by working our way through the text before us…
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Note that Jesus is referred to here as "our great high priest." By way of background we need to understand that our Book of Hebrews was originally a letter written to Jewish Christians who were very familiar with the Old Testament. They knew what the priesthood was all about. They knew how in the times of Moses God called his brother Aaron to be the first High Priest and how many others followed after him.
Therefore, the fact that Jesus is called "great" is significant. It distinguishes him from the rest. It signifies His superiority over all the others. And what especially sets Him apart is this: "We have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens." This is a reference to the ascension…
Again, considering the knowledge and background of the original audience, perhaps the inspired author (we don’t know for sure who wrote Hebrews) is making a comparison that may need some explanation for us, but wouldn’t for them. Something along these lines: The holiest day of the year for Old Testament believers was the "Day of Atonement." On that day (still celebrated by Jews today as Yom Kippur) many things took place. One was that the high priest would pass from the people’s sight and enter the "Most Holy Place" to perform the work of atoning for the sins of the people. This was repeated yearly.
In a similar but far more meaningful way, Jesus passed from the sight of His disciples, ascending through the clouds to His heavenly sanctuary – the work of atonement having been accomplished once for all and never having to be repeated again. Once and for all and forever. That’s what makes Him the "great high priest."
It may be good at this point to briefly review the work of an Old Testament High Priest. It was essentially twofold. First and foremost, he was to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. From early on God had told His people about the seriousness of sin, and that there could be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. This the Old Testament priests did regularly, but their sacrifices were only signs and reminders of the one great sacrifice that was to come…
And that, of course, was and is Jesus Christ. As our great high priest He not only performed the sacrifice; He was the sacrifice. Recall the words of John the Baptist about Jesus: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Recall the words of the communion hymn: "Draw near and take the body of the Lord, and drink the holy blood for you outpoured. Offered was he for greatest and for least, Himself the victim and Himself the priest." Jesus was the sacrifice that paid for all our sins. His cross was the altar.
The second function of a High Priest was to pray and intercede for the people. This Christ also does for us as our heavenly High Priest. When we fail, when we fall, when we sin, there is Jesus interceding for us before the Father. He is our advocate, our lawyer, our mediator, our go-between. In a very simplistic way, we might think of it this way: When our Heavenly Father sees our sin and in His justice declares us to be law-breakers who must be punished, Jesus steps in and holds before Him His sacrifice on the cross in our place. And for that reason God freely and fully forgives all our sins.
Because of this powerful High Priest we have – One who sacrificed Himself for our sins and continues to daily intercede for us – we are given these words of encouragement: Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
Our text goes on with further words of encouragement to us, now in regard to our life of prayer. Having spoken of the greatness of Christ, the writer does not want to leave us with the impression that our great high priest is somehow unapproachable or distant from us… For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
What is being said here? We are being reminded that Jesus is not only true God, but also true man. As such, He is able to sympathize with our troubles and hardships. He understands the things we go through. Why? Because He once went through them Himself. Therefore we can approach Him confidently in prayer with the result that "we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The overall point that is being made here is this: The ascended Christ is both sympathetic to our needs and approachable for our needs.
Let’s expand on this. What are some of the things Jesus coped with during His time on earth? Well, at the very outset of His ministry He was tempted directly by Satan, who suggested that He use His divine power to take the easy way out. So, Jesus understands the nature of temptation…
He coped with disappointments throughout His ministry. Disappointment with the hard-heartedness and unresponsiveness of most of the people who heard His message. Disappointment with His won closest friends – one of whom betrayed Him, three of whom couldn’t keep watch with Him during His most agonizing hour of prayer, and all of whom scattered like scared sheep on the night of His arrest. So, Jesus understands disappointment…
Remember the Garden of Gethsemane? There He coped with what today we might refer to as "anxiety" ("Father, if it is your will, let this cup pass from me.") At various points in His ministry He coped with weariness. He coped with hunger and thirst. He coped with the loss of loved ones. Recall Him weeping at the grave of His friend Lazarus.
He dealt with all these things, plus more. But in all these situations, He never sinned. Yet, that doesn’t mean the temptations and the problems He faced were any less real. They happened, and He experienced them…
And that’s exactly why we can approach Him with confident prayer. He knows what we go through. He’s on our level. He doesn’t view us in a condescending way.
So let’s redirect the question. What are some of the things that make our lives difficult? What are the things that rob life of its joy for us? What are the things that keep us awake at night?
Is it loneliness? Health problems? Worries about relatives or friends? Concerns over money matters? Struggles in our marriage? Personal weaknesses that seem to master us no matter how hard we try? Uncertainty or fear about the future? Relationships that have gone sour? We could add others…
In all these cases there is so often the tendency, even among Christians, to dwell on the problem rather than the solution. And what is the solution – or at the very least, the foundational first step toward accessing a solution? Our text tells us this: We have a sympathetic, loving Savior who promises to hear and act upon our prayers. The solution is spelled out for us in the well know refrain of one of Christendom’s best loved hymns: "Take it to the Lord in prayer."
Which now raises the next question. How is your prayer life? Are you bringing your problems and concerns and worries to the throne of grace? Do you pray often, and with the confidence that the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is listening?
If you do, you know the peace and comfort there is in an active prayer life. That’s why God not only suggests that we pray, but commands us to pray. He wants us to be at peace. He wants us to talk to Him (is not the lowest time of any relationship when people give each other "the silent treatment"? God doesn’t want that kind of relationship). He wants us to come to Him with what’s on our hearts and minds so He can give us the opportunity to "receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
On the other hand, if our prayer life is sluggish or sporadic or lacking in the real belief that prayers make a difference, than we are like an extremely wealthy man who chooses to live in poverty. We’re simply not taking advantage of the great riches at our disposal. And there is no need for us, who have been made so rich in Jesus, to live a life of spiritual poverty…
I’d like to close this morning by reading to you a portion of Luther’s Large Catechism on the Second Petition of the Lord’s Prayer ("Your kingdom come.") It first came up in our Thursday morning Senior Bible Study, and I also shared this with our voters at the budget meeting this past week as the first strike solution on how to deal with a deficit budget. What Luther writes has application to any situation in our lives.
After speaking about the meaning of the phrase, "Your kingdom come," we read: From this you perceive that we pray here not for a crust of bread or a temporal, perishable good, but for an eternal, inestimable treasure and everything that God himself possesses. This is far too great for any human heart to think of desiring if God had not commanded us to pray for it. But because He is God, he also claims the honor of giving much more and more abundantly than anyone can comprehend – like an eternal, unfailing fountain, which, the more it pours and overflows, the more it continues to give – and he desires nothing more earnestly of us than that we ask much and great things of him, and again is angry if we do not ask and pray confidently…
For just as when the richest and most mighty emperor would bid a poor beggar ask whatever he might desire, and were ready to give great imperial presents, and the fool would beg only for a dish of gruel, he would be righteously considered a rogue and a scoundrel who treated the command of his imperial majesty as a jest and sport and was not worthy of coming into his presence. So also it is a great reproach and dishonor to God if we, to whom he offers and pledges so many unspeakable treasures, despise them or have not the confidence to receive them, but scarcely venture to pray for a piece of bread.
Let us pray actively, and with boldness and confidence. For we have an ascended Lord. And the ascended Christ is our invitation to confident prayer. Amen.