Our Great High Priest

First, some "groaners" for you this morning from the World Wide Web:

Missing Missionary and Sick Cannibal
Did you hear about the cannibal who got sick after eating the missionary? He boiled him, but he was a friar!

Total Oneness
What did the Zen Buddhist Monk say to the Hotdog Vender? Make me One with everything!

The Confused Samaritan
A man was beaten up by robbers on a road to London. He lay there, half dead and in bad shape. A Vicar came along, saw him and passed by on the other side. Next, a monk came by but also walked quickly on the other side. Finally, a social worker came along, looked at the man and said "Whoever did this needs help!"

Now, let's consider some Passion Sunday history:

Passion Sunday is a term used to denote the fifth Sunday of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. In Traditional Catholic and Prayer Book Anglican circles, it is sometimes called 1st Sunday of Passion Tide, with the 2nd Sunday being Palm Sunday.

Under the old calendar, Passion Sunday was also known as Judica Sunday, after this day's Introit: Judica me, Deus ("Judge me, O Lord") from Psalm 43. It was called Black Sunday in Germany. This alternate name originates from the fact that after Passion Sunday, the Judica Psalm was not said again until Easter; the German title comes from the old practice of veiling the crucifixes and statues in the church on that day. However, purple veils were used for such covers in the pre-Vatican II rite¹.

Psalm 43:
GIVE sentence with me, O God, and defend my cause against the ungodly people;
O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man.
 
For thou art the God of my strength; why hast thou put me from thee?
and why go I so heavily, while the enemy oppresseth me?
 
O send out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me,
and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling;
 
And that I may go unto the altar of God, even unto the God of my joy and gladness;
and upon the harp will I give thanks unto thee, O God, my God.
 
Why art thou so heavy, O my soul?
and why art thou so disquieted within me?
 
O put thy trust in God;
for I will yet give him thanks, which is the help of my countenance, and my God.

Traditional Anglican churches often use Psalm 43 as a preparation rite for Holy Communion among the clergy. It is an excellent way to prepare one's mind for the worship of Almighty God.

All this is background for the message from God's Holy Word to us today. The reason I mention it is to bring into your remembrance the fullness of the catholic faith (small "c"), of which we Anglicans are a part. In the Church's opinion, history and godly tradition play a very important role in our approach to and reverence for, Almighty God. It is only through our remembrance of God's Mighty Acts, as revealed in His Holy Word and proper administration of the Sacraments that we grow in true holiness and godliness. Thus, we read in today's Gospel as Jesus tells us, "Before Abraham was, I AM." We know that Our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The eternal Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, does not evolve or need our participation in His development, as some 20^th century theologians have asserted. God does not need to get it right. Rather, he is the norma non normata, or the standard for which there is no other. When we celebrate our glorious Christian heritage and history, including the Church calendar, we are celebrating not only the unmutability (the "unchanged-ful-ness" to coin a phrase) of God, but also our commitment to that eternal standard. Through Jesus Christ, we too shall be part of that glorious "same-ness", which is the status quo for all those resurrected and glorified in Jesus Christ our Lord. As He is, so shall we be, in glorious stasis, in blissful contemplation of the Glorious Godhead, in complete and utter contentment for eternity. We will no longer be full of potential, thus becoming, or moving towards the end of our journey in holiness. We will simply be, perfected in Jesus Christ, in a place where time no longer has any meaning. Freed from this present tyranny of time, we shall, in the words of St. Augustine, do four things: see, know, rest and love for all eternity.

This glorious promise is embedded in both the Epistle and Gospel for the day. If you have been following the Lenten series of readings for Daily Morning Prayer in your private devotions, you know that The Epistle to the Hebrews has been the New Testament selection. This book is a marvelous piece of theology that very clearly places Jesus at the center of the Christian faith as our Great High Priest. Although most translations ascribe St. Paul as the author of the book of Hebrews, the Church is not completely sure who wrote it. As you know, I am not a great fan of so-called "higher criticism" of the Bible, because I believe it leads to doubt, not faith and to needless speculation as to whether or not God's Word is really true. Yet, while I greatly discount most modern theologians, I do trust the early Church fathers, who also had some doubt as to who was the author of Hebrews. Even Clement of Rome once said, "No one really knows who wrote The Epistle to the Hebrews." Some have speculated that Apollos, Paul's gifted disciple, may have penned the work.

Authorship, however, is not as important here as the message the author is trying to convey. Let us examine what we do know about this wonderful piece of Scripture and see what application it has to our lives and more importantly, to our salvation.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews takes great pains to show us that Jesus is our Great High Priest. It is He, Jesus, who makes intercession for us to the Father and it is He who makes the one, perfect and complete atonement for our sins. This is the main point of the epistle, "boiled down" to its essentials.

The author of Hebrews draws a very clear contrast between the yearly, ephemeral, non-lasting atonement of the High Priest of Israel under the old Law, to the complete and efficacious sacrifice and atonement of Christ. In Heb 9:6-7, we read: "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:"

Thus, the priests went into the first tabernacle daily, offering the daily sacrifice to the Lord. The second tabernacle was the place of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred spot in the Temple. Here, only the High Priest entered once a year, bearing sacrificial blood to atone for the sins of the people on the prescribed Day of Atonement, or Rosh Hashanah. However, Hebrews makes it very clear that this was a non-durable sacrifice, because it needed repetition year after year. This is stated very clearly in Heb 9:9: "Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;" That is, the sacrifice was not complete and lacked power over time.

Yet now we see Jesus bringing eternal atonement for us in Heb 9:11-12: "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."

We see then, that we have an eternal, durable, efficacious and complete sacrifice for our sins through Christ. Heb 9:13-14: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"

Let us not miss the point here. The old sacrifice could make the fleshly sins pure, temporarily, by the ordinance of a sacrificial system. It offered the prescribed sacrifice and thus atoned for the sins of the people for a time. Note however, that it could not make the conscience pure from the stain of sin. That is, all the old system could do was condemn people as sinners under the law and make atonement for their sins past. It was effective in what it was meant to do, but it was not complete.

The author of Hebrews foreshadows his whole message in the very first two verses of the book. He says, in Heb 1:1-2: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets; Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."

That is, God has made his complete and final Revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Whereas the Law served as our schoolmaster, according to St. Paul, bringing us to remembrance of our duty and knowledge of our sinfulness before an eternal, holy and just God, only the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ is able to reform our consciences. Our minds, marred by the deceitfulness of habitual sin, are re-constructed and made better in Christ.

Recall that last week, the Rector told us about St. Paul's treatment in Galatians of the choice offered to the early Christians: either submit to the old Jewish ceremonial law and be bound by its innumerable conditions and restrictions, or embrace the wonderful liberty of Jesus Christ.

That is, once again, the point for us today. The old law could not change us; it could only condemn. The liberating gospel of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, has the actual power to change who we are. With Christ, we are no longer the old, heavy-laden creatures, bearing an impossibly heavy load of sin, as under the Law. Instead, we are the new creatures of Jesus Christ, forgiven, light in the Lord, transformed by the new, permanent, and complete sacrifice of Jesus.

Once again turning to the book of Hebrews, let us let the Scripture speak to us in Heb 9:14-15: "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."

We are not creatures of the old, slaves to a man-made construct of self-righteousness, which could only fail due to the fallen, un-reconstructed nature of man. No, we are creatures of the new, transformed, reborn, re-made in the image of Christ.

This is not a mission accomplished solely by man. Other religions that depend on the righteous acts of men always ultimately fail, because they do not address the true nature of man without Christ, which is that of a fallen, hapless slave to sin and death. Man cannot do it by himself. All we bring to our salvation, in the words of Martin Luther, is our sinfulness. No, this is a mission only accomplished by the one named in Hebrews as the Author and Captain of our salvation.

This is the same Jesus, who in our Gospel from John for today, defended and validated Himself to the unbelieving Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad". Then said the Jews unto him, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am."

This statement, which so infuriated the Jews, is our hope and comfort. We do not preach so-called "replacement" theology, but "fulfillment" theology. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all prophecy. He is the completion of the Law. He is God's final Word to mankind.

Therein lies our hope. Therein lies our transformation in holiness. Therein lies our joy and our eternal salvation.

All Glory be to the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost, now and forever. AMEN.