Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

11. Our Great High Priest

The closing words of Luke’s Gospel are most notable. They tell of the Lord Jesus being carried up into heaven and how His disciples “worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” It is this “great joy” pouring itself out in worship and praise that arrests the attention. What was the cause of it? These men were distressed and troubled, when they knew that their Lord was going away, and He had to comfort them by telling them of His Father’s house and of His coming again to take them there. But now that He had actually gone they showed no sign of being bereft, they were not sorrowing orphans, but men brimful and overflowing with confidence and joy. This must be accounted for. It is interesting and instructive to see that this Gospel by Luke opens with a dumb priest in the temple, and closes with these happy worshipping men in the same place. Clearly they were the true priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God, even though they were not sons of Aaron. Nothing but a great, and to them unexpected, event could have achieved this miracle.

It is not hard to discover why the official priest was dumb; an angel had brought good news from God to him, and he did not believe it. His dumb mouth was the outward sign of a dumb heart. A sad beginning to the Gospel, but what a joyous close. We catch the spirit of it, and share its gladness as we enquire the reason of it.

The understanding of these men, beloved of the Lord, had been opened to understand the Scriptures. They saw with hearts that believed that the road that Christ had taken was the only road; “it behoved Him to suffer and rise from the dead the third day.” He had fulfilled the infallible word and glorified God in doing it, and God had given His righteous answer to His suffering and death by exalting Him to His own right hand. They had seen Him go into heaven and they exulted in His triumph, but the way that He had gone must have added to their joy. “He led them out as far as Bethany” — that showed their willing subjection to His control. He was their Lord and Leader — “He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.” Those uplifted hands and that benediction declared Him to be their great High Priest who had entered into the heavenly sanctuary for them. We must see the meaning of the place into which He has gone and the manner of His going if we are to understand His present High Priestly service. Highest exaltation was His, His going up showed that, but in that exalted place He would not forget them, the manner of His going showed that. No wonder they were filled with joy!

We were not there when He was parted from them and “carried up into heaven,” yet the fact is recorded that we might believe it, and vision has been given us by the Spirit’s indwelling, and “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour” and we are exhorted to consider Him, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. This we will now do.

But first we must cite what our profession, or confession, is. We are addressed as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” This is our confession. We know that if He had not tasted death by the grace of God for us, and purged our sins by His own blood, and come triumphantly out of death, such a designation and confession could never have been ours. We owe it all to Him. He is our Sanctifier, “for He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one,” He has set us apart for God, even as He has “set Himself apart” (John 17:19) and we are one with Him, “for which cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren.” If we are His brethren we are sons of God and the glory of God is our destiny. This is the revelation of God’s grace to us, and being received by faith it sets us in motion towards the glory, and Christ is our Leader in that homeward march; He is the Captain of our salvation. But we need to be sustained and succoured in this way of faith, for we are beset with infirmities and the road is not always easy to travel; we need a great High Priest, to sympathise with us and to succour us and to save us to the uttermost as we come to God by Him; and this office has been bestowed upon Jesus, our Saviour.

“Lord, in all Thy power and glory
  Still Thy thoughts and eyes are here,
Watching o’er Thy ransomed people
  To Thy gracious heart so dear.”

It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Lord is shown to us in this attractive way, and it opens with the declaration of His Divine glory: He is the SON. None less than He could have made purgation for our sins, or could lead us to the glory of God. But He had to come down to us and take part in flesh and blood for this, and chapter 2 plainly teaches the truth as to His coming into manhood. There was nothing lacking in Him as to His eternal Deity, He was the SON. There was nothing lacking in His complete manhood, He was JESUS, and what He was He ever will be. This truth as to His Person is necessary for us; He only, who is God and man in one blessed Person, could be our Saviour, and He only could be our great High Priest. We have trusted Him as our Saviour; we have committed the eternal welfare of our souls to Him, we may with the same confidence rely upon Him to carry us right through to the glory of God by His intercession for us as our great High Priest.

We are dealing now, not with His finished work of atonement, which cost Him those unspeakable sufferings on the cross, but with the sufferings of His lifetime in the midst of sinners by which He qualified for His present service towards us in heaven that of being our great High Priest. His finished work on the cross was for sinners, His present work in heaven is for those sinners who have become saints through faith in Him, it is for all who have believed. We read, “Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like to His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God … for in that He Himself suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted” (Herews. 2:17-18) “For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we, yet without sin (sin apart)” (chapter 4:15)

And again, “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience, by the things that He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him (chapter 5:8-9). “But this Man, because He continueth ever, has an unchanging priesthood. Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them” (chapter 7:24-25).

Here is a theme for our meditation, it is a theme that might well fill volumes printed in gold, but it were better to have it deeply written in our heart. In pursuing it we are permitted to speak of our great Lord as JESUS, for this precious personal Name occurs many times in this epistle. It is Jesus, who is “the Author and Finisher of faith” (chapter 12:2), which means that He has trodden every step in the way of faith. There is not a trial, temptation, or difficulty in that way that He has not encountered and overcome. That way lay through a world, in which all that are godly shall have tribulation, but He overcame the world (John 16:33). He “endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself” (chapter 12:3). “He has suffered being tempted” (chap. 2:18), and this because He was obedient. Everyone who will be obedient to God shall suffer in a hostile world of which Satan is the god and prince, but His obedience was absolute, nothing moved Him from it. Nothing, neither allurements or terrors, diverted Him from finishing the road upon which He had set His feet for God’s glory, and that He might succour us. That road started at the manger — for He said, “Thou didst make me to hope when I was upon My mother’s breasts, I was cast upon Thee from the womb: Thou art My God from My mother’s belly” (Psalm 22), and it ended at the cross, when He cried, “Father, to Thy hands I commend My Spirit.”

Of course there is nothing strange in a servant being obedient, it is his life and duty to obey the word of his master, but the wonder here is “though He were SON, yet learned He obedience by the things that He suffered.” The Son in the Godhead, whose prerogative it was to command and uphold all things by the word of His powers took the servant’s place, but He did not cease to be the Son when He did that. He “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (chapter 2:9), but He was always the Lord of the angels, and they must always worship Him (chapter 1:6). Though He took the subordinate place for the will of God, there could not be any question of inferiority as to His Person. How emphatic is the word that the Son is God: “Unto the Son He says, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever and ever” (chapter 1:8). And in chapter 3, we learn that Christ is “Son over His own house,” which He has builded, and that “He that built all things is God.” I stress this that the wonder of His path of obedience and suffering may grow upon our souls and that we might have a deeper appreciation of the outcome of it.

“Being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation to them that obey Him.” He has fully qualified for this, there is not a test that He has not endured and triumphed in. Hence He is able to sympathise with those who are enduring trials and testings — for that is the meaning of temptations — and to succour them. He is able to save them to the uttermost … seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.

Here is the revelation to us of His unchanging, unwearying love. It has been said, that if it were necessary He would come again from heaven to die for us, so great is His love. That is not necessary, “for by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (chapter 10:14), but it is necessary that He should live for us, and intercede for us and succour us; we should be overwhelmed by the difficulties of the way if He did not, and He does this as being moved by the same love that made Him die. The birth pangs do not exhaust the mother’s love for her babe; she would be willing to lay down her life for it at any time.

“Yet she may forgetful prove;
He will never cease to love.”

To all who obey Him it can be said, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He is Jesus, that carries us in thought down to the depths of humiliation and death into which His love carried Him. He is the Son of God, that presents His glory, His magnificent greatness, the splendour of His Person and inheritance. He is Jesus, that tells us of the tender sympathy of His heart for us. He is the Son of God, that tells us of the power of His arm; the tenderest love and the greatest power in the universe abide in Him. He is Jesus, that tells of His preciousness to us. He is the Son of God, that tells us of His preciousness to God. Since He is Jesus, He loves us so well that there is nothing that would be good for us that He will not ask for when He intercedes before God for us; since He is the Son of God, there is nothing that He asks for us that God will deny Him.

Having such a great High Priest we are exhorted to draw near to God with boldness. First for the help we need in all the ups and downs of life, and second, to be worshippers before Him. We must not confound these two drawings near; they are distinct, and separated one from the other by five chapters in our Epistle. First, having such a sympathetic High Priest, we are exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace for timely help” (chapter 4:16). We are put into contact by our High Priest with the inexhaustible resources of Divine grace, and we have but to ask at the throne of grace, and that succour that we need in the hour of trial will be supplied. We could not have a better illustration of this than Paul, when the thorn in the flesh oppressed him so sorely. Should it be taken away? that was his desire; or would he give way under it? that was unthinkable. The Lord soothed his spirit with infinite sympathy and succoured him with all-sufficient grace. We see how Simon Peter missed this wonderful sustainment because of his self-confidence. He did not cry to the Lord in the hour of trial as Paul did, and he fell. Yet even he was preserved from despair by the intercession of the Lord. “Simon, Simon,” said the Lord, “Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Paul and Peter were alike the objects of the tender solicitude of the Lord. He interceded for them, before the trial seized them. Paul was preserved from failure, and Peter was preserved in spite of failure. Grace to keep and grace to restore came to them through the Lord’s priestly activities on their behalf. We might take another illustration from Peter’s experience. He walked on the water to go to Jesus, and found that the circumstances were such as he could not overcome and he began to sink. But when he cried out in his fear and need the Lord stretched forth His hand and held him up, and he walked on the waves by His support. No picture could set forth more beautifully the gracious succour that is ministered now to those who are conscious that they have no help outside the Lord. He stretches forth the hand of a man to their aid, but in that hand is the power of God.

But He is not only our great High Priest to succour us in our weaknesses, He is over the house of God, and He would have us draw near with boldness, not to the throne of grace only, but into the holiest, into the very presence of God; where, not our needs are in question but where God’s glories shine forth. We have the title to enter there, and we may do so with hearts full of thanksgiving, without any fear, being fully assured that it is God’s delight that we should be there, having our conscience clear of all sense of guilt through the one efficacious offering that Christ has made, and our whole beings consecrated to Him whose love has won our hearts. This is the great present end of the service of the Lord as our great High Priest, and we ought not to be indifferent as to it. It is sad that we would so often avail ourselves of the means without reaching the end, glad to have the relief that the grace gives, but not pressing on to have God as our exceeding joy and the object of our hearts adoration.

Those men of Luke 24 were in the joy of this in spirit, they do not seem in that glad hour to have had anything to pray for, it was all overflowing praise and worship with them. They had to pray later, and they did pray with real purpose, and we shall need to pray every day, but there is this other side, so near to the heart of God. He would have us draw near for His own sake and not simply because we have needs. He would have us near to Himself because He loves us greatly and He desires that our love should flow out to Him in response.

Time and space fails us to pursue this great subject now but “of the things we have spoken this is the sum. We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” and this glorious person is Jesus the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, and who ever lives to make intercession for us. May we be stirred up to know the Lord and His present gracious activities on our behalf in a fuller measure.