The Sympathetic Christchild
Hebrews 4:14-16
©Copyright
December 19, 2010 by Rick Goettsche www.unionchurch.com
In physics there is a principle called sympathetic resonance. It states that two instruments that are tuned to the same pitch will vibrate together. An example of this would be if you had two pianos tuned exactly alike and you played a note on one of the pianos, the same note would play on the other piano, even though nobody touched it. I put together a quick video this week to help you see this principle. When two guitar strings are tuned to the same pitch, striking one will cause the other to vibrate in “sympathy.” In the video, you see me strike one string and you can see the string next to it begin to vibrate, even though I didn’t touch it.
This morning we are going to be looking at Hebrews 4:14-16 where we will see that Jesus is tuned to the same frequency that we are. As such, the things that move us also move him—he truly understands the human experience. Last week we talked about how Jesus was fully man and this week we will see that while he was on the earth his experience was just like ours, except he didn’t sin. At Christmas we remember that Jesus came into the world to bring forgiveness to mankind, but he also came to help us in our daily life.
We start by turning our attention to verse 14 of Hebrews 4, where we read,
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.
In this passage Jesus
is described as a great high priest. The high priest was a staple of the Jewish
faith throughout the old and new testaments. The high priest was the one person
who was allowed to enter into God’s presence. He did so once every year on the
Day of Atonement (also called Yom Kippur). He would enter the Holy of Holies
and offer sacrifices before God to cover the sins of the people for another
year. If anyone else tried to enter God’s presence, they would be struck
dead—and even the high priest had to go through a series of sacrifices before
he could enter into God’s presence.
So this is the picture that the writer of Hebrews has in mind when he refers to Jesus as a great high priest. Just like the high priests in the Jewish system, Jesus is the means by which we have access to God. But, the writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is greater than any of the high priests who came before him. He is far better than the mere men who served at the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus is a great high priest—in fact he is the greatest and ultimate high priest. The writer of Hebrews gives two major reasons why Jesus is superior to the human high priests.
First, Jesus is a great high priest because he passed through the heavens to enter into God’s presence. This statement may not make a lot of sense to start with, but think about it for a minute. The way the temple in Jerusalem was set up was such that the high priest would have to pass through several layers of successively more holy places before he got to the place where God’s presence was. He would pass through the courtyard, then into the holy place, and then he would finally pass through the curtain and into the most holy place. After he had done his duty in the most holy place, he would exit back out through the layers again, because he couldn’t stay in God’s presence any longer than it took to complete his sacrifice.
Contrast this with Jesus. He didn’t pass through the temple to enter into God’s presence. Jesus ascended into heaven. He didn’t move through earthly structures, but he went directly into the presence of God and sat down at the right hand of God! Jesus was unique compared to the human high priests because he entered directly into God’s presence and stayed there! That means he is always there to open the way for us to come to God, unlike the human priests who could only come into His presence once each year.
When Jesus died the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place tore in half. This was symbolic of what Jesus had accomplished as our great high priest. The human high priests did their duty before God and then left His presence. Jesus not only remains in the presence of God, but he opens the way for you and me to enter His presence as well!
Second, Jesus is the son of God. Priests were set apart for the priesthood by virtue of their family lineage. The descendents of Levi were the priestly tribe, and the descendents of Aaron in particular were set apart as the high priestly line. Everyone who held the office of high priest was a son of Aaron. Jesus, however, was not a son of Aaron. He was the son of someone even greater—he was the son of God. The writer of Hebrews argued that if being a “son” of Aaron qualified a person to be a high priest, how much more so would being the son of God!
So we see that Jesus is our great high priest because of the fact that he is the son of God and uniquely qualified for his position and also because he entered directly into the presence of God and permanently opened the way to you and me. He is always there to intercede for us.
But the writer of Hebrews wanted us to know more than just that Jesus is our high priest. He wanted his readers to know the kind of high priest that Jesus was—namely one who had experienced the same things as us and had prevailed.
Verse 15 tells 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.
He tells us that Jesus
is not just some detached and unfeeling high priest. Just because He is the son
of God and is seated at God’s right hand doesn’t mean that he is out of touch
with his people. Quite the contrary! He reminds us that Jesus was tempted in
every way that we have been, but he was without sin.
Now some people take
issue with this idea. They argue that Jesus’ experience was different than
ours. Some declare that Jesus could not have been tempted in all the same ways
that we have. After all, they argue, Jesus couldn’t possibly have been tempted
to look at internet pornography or to break the speed limit or to waste time
watching TV—such things didn’t exist when he was on the earth. He also couldn’t
have been tempted to cheat on his wife or to beat his children, because he
wasn’t married and had no children. He couldn’t possibly have been tempted in
the same way that we are.
Such an argument shows
a misunderstanding of what the writer is saying. He is not saying that Jesus
experienced exactly the same situation as each of us—because that’s impossible;
he would have had to live billions of lives. He is, however, saying that Jesus
experienced the entire range of temptations that human beings face. Was Jesus
tempted to lust? Absolutely. Was he tempted to disobey
the laws he thought were silly? Certainly. Did Jesus
face the temptation to break promises or to lash out in anger at people who
frustrated him? Of course. Though each situation may
have been different, Jesus faced all the same temptations that you and I do—the
difference was that he did so without sinning.
Another common
argument is that Jesus couldn’t possibly understand how difficult it is to
resist sin, because he never engaged in it. These people somehow reason that
Jesus somehow had it easier than us and that’s why he didn’t sin.
Think about this for a
second though. Jesus’ experience was actually far more difficult than ours. Next
month we are going to do an event with the youth groups called 30 Hour Famine.
The idea is for everyone involved to experience what it truly means to be
hungry, so we will go without eating any food for 30 hours.
Now, many of us think
we know what hunger is really all about. Most of us have tried to change our
diet at some point and found it exceedingly difficult. We have felt “hungry”
before and didn’t like it. For most of us, we think that if we skip lunch we
are starving by dinner time. Is that
true? Do we really know what it means to be hungry? At the end of 30 hours of
not eating, the body begins to start feeling true hunger pains—at that point
you can just begin to have a sense of what hunger really is. The truth is, the
body can survive quite a bit longer without food—doctors usually say we could
potentially go as long as 4-6 weeks without food. As a matter of fact, Jesus went
without food for 40 days—pretty much right up to the limit of what the body can
take!
So the question is, who really understands hunger the best? The one who skips
lunch and then decides to have an early dinner, or the one who doesn’t eat for
40 days? The answer is obvious. When we give in to the temptation to eat, we
don’t really understand just how bad our hunger can get.
The same thing is true
for us with sin. We think we understand the challenges of the temptations we
face, but we don’t really understand the depth of temptation because we have
given in to it before the full force of the temptation was unleashed on us.
Jesus never once gave in to the temptations around him. As such, he understands
a depth of temptation that we will never experience. Satan unleashed everything
in his arsenal to try to get Jesus to give in, but he stood firm through them
all.
Hebrews 2:18 gives us
the practical application of this truth.
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help
those who are being tempted.
A number of years ago
our family went whitewater rafting, and we had a guide who sat in the back of
the boat and steered. Our guide had rafted this river for many years and knew
the best way to go down safely. We were traveling with a group of about 10 other
rafts down the river and quickly came to appreciate the value of an experienced
guide. One of the newer guides was actually making their final training run and
took his boat into the wrong part of the rapids and ended up flipping the raft
and sending everyone in it flying downriver. Our guide had been through the
rapids many times before, so she knew the best way to navigate them.
Whenever we face a
difficult time in our lives, whenever we find ourselves feeling like we have to
give up or give in, we need to remember that we have a great high priest who is
sympathetic to our situation. He understands exactly how we feel because he’s
been there before. And because he’s been there before, He is able to help us to
navigate safely through the rapids.
That brings us to the application of this truth. Verse 16 tells us,
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.
We are told that the first place we should turn when we find ourselves in need of help is to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we can receive both mercy and grace when we need it. We need mercy after we have sinned. We need God to forgive us in order to restore our relationship with Him. Lots of people want to pull away from God after they have fallen into sin. They feel like they aren’t worthy to be near Him because of what they’ve done. That’s absolutely true—because of our sin we are never worthy to be near God. But we have to remember that Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and is willing to offer us the mercy we need—if we will just ask for it. We don’t need to stay separated from God after we sin—we need to ask Him to forgive us.
Grace, on the other hand, is help to face the trials and temptations of life. Many of the trials and temptations we face are intentionally more than we can withstand on our own. It’s not that God has set us up to fail, but that he has set us up ask for His help. If we will come to God and ask for the grace that we need, it will be provided to us. God doesn’t want us to face life alone—he offers us help to make it through every situation.
We can ask for mercy when we sin and grace when we face difficult times and help will be provided. We don’t have to worry about whether God is listening—he is. Years ago it was sometimes difficult to get money out of the bank. You had to make it to the bank during its regular business hours and ask a teller for the money you needed. That’s not the case anymore. Now there are ATMs and online banking and electronic transfers that allow us access to our monetary resources for ourselves at any time of the day or night. That is the picture of Jesus. We don’t have to wait for Sunday morning, or for our daily prayer time or some other special time to ask for help. We don’t have to have a church leader go to God for us. Each of us can summon the resources of God in the moment of our need. Because of what Christ has done, we have the ability to ask for God’s help at any time—so we should take advantage of all the services the bank of heaven offers to us. We should bring all our needs to God, knowing that Jesus understands and is ready and willing to help.
At the beginning of this passage we read,
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.
(emphasis mine) (v. 14)
If we believe what we read in scripture, we should cling
tenaciously to these truths whenever we need help. When we face difficult times, we should not be driven to give up or to
turn away from God. We shouldn’t turn first to self-help books or even to our
friends and family. If we really believe that Jesus understands us and wants to
help then we should be people who run to him in prayer, seeking the help he has
promised.
Practically speaking this
means that when we face health problems, we should hold to the truth that we
serve the Lord of life and death, of sickness and health. We should trust that
He will do what is best. When we feel rejected by the world, we should remember
that we are forgiven and accepted by God. When we feel like we just can’t carry
on, we should cling to the truth that He understands and wants to help us. When
we’re scared or don’t know what the future holds, we should seek comfort in the
arms of Jesus.
When you find yourself
short on money it doesn’t matter how much of it you have in the bank. Unless
you go and ask for it, it isn’t any help to you. The same is true for us. God
has promised that through Jesus he will give us everything we need to live
life—but we have to ask for his help.
As we celebrate Christmas this year, I think we would do well to reflect on why Jesus was born. We understand that Jesus had to live a sinless life as a human being in order to be able to offer his life as a sacrifice for us. Hopefully that’s easy for us to grasp. What I think we fail to grasp sometimes is that Jesus also came to earth as a human being so that he could provide practical assistance to us as we live out our lives.
Think about the indignity that he faced in coming to earth. The one who created the universe now had to be subject to its laws. He started life as an infant child, one who struggled to take his first breaths in the cold, crisp night air of Bethlehem. He was born into humble circumstances; he didn’t even have a bed to sleep in the night he was born.
Jesus went through the same process of growing up that each of us faced. He had to learn how to understand the language of his parents. He had to learn how to talk. He had to learn how to walk and to read. Jesus wasn’t born knowing every verse of the Scriptures, but he had to take the time to study and to learn them. He experienced true human frailty.
Jesus endured hunger and thirst. He had to deal with sickness and his body feeling like it was falling apart. Surely he had to deal with the pain of hitting his thumb with a hammer while building things in the workshop at home. Jesus understood the struggles of being sleep-deprived and the sting of rejection and being unappreciated.
Understand that while the gift we received at the first Christmas was certainly forgiveness of our sins and the guarantee of life in heaven, we also received the gift of sympathy at Christmas. Because Jesus was a man, he felt the same feelings we experience. Because he understands the human experience, wants to help us face the struggles of daily life.
I hope today you understand what Jesus has done for you. He has given us the perfect gift; the gift of true understanding, real companionship, and a life that goes on forever. Think about it, aren’t there days when you long for someone who could really understand your heart, your struggles, and your fears? Jesus came to be that person in our lives.
Most parents have had the experience of getting their kids something for Christmas that the kids think is great on Christmas day, but a month later, the kids have forgotten about it completely. This morning we have been reminded that Jesus gave us the greatest Christmas gift ever. The question we must answer is whether it is a gift we will forget about, or whether it is one we will cherish and use every day for the rest of our lives.
©Copyright
December 19, 2010 by Rick Goettsche www.unionchurch.com