and let us exalt God's name forever.
Psalm 34:3
Reformation 507
Most years I've written about Reformation for the last Sunday of October. This year I'm continuing Hebrews, so here's a trio of Reformation Sunday reflections from previous years that celebrate God's grace and freedom in Jesus Christ. The readings are the same every year, but some pastors sometimes apply the current week after Pentecost readings to Reformation, which usually works well.
• Reformation 500 :: 2017
• Reformation 2020–Therefore we will not fear
• Reformation 2021–Be still and know that I am God
Hebrews 7:23-28
23 Furthermore, the former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests humans, who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
Hebrews, week 4 of 7
As I previously mentioned, because I'm not very familiar with Hebrews I decided blogging about it all seven weeks would be a good learning experience. This week I finally read it in one sitting, although that was wasn't quite my first time. In a previous life we read through Hebrews without commentary or interpretation for our weekly staff devotions. In addition, the Monday evening women's bible study I hosted for a few years (the guys met at someone else's place and we got together whenever anyone had a birthday) at least began a discussion of the book. I remember how interesting it was to discover many well-known biblical quotes in Hebrews.
The homily by a still unidentified author was intended for Jewish Christian either in nearby diaspora or scattered far to the known ends of the earth. I've already mentioned Hebrews is formally and intensely theological, but as I kept reading it struck me how very Greek, systematic, and philosophical it was—rather than being earthbound and Hebraic.
This Week's Passage
Last week, this week, and the next two describe Jesus' high priestly identity in great detail.
Earlier weeks have been about typical requirements and duties for the high priest as mediator between earth and heaven, along with ways Jesus didn't meet some of those in human terms, and the manner in which he met and exceeded them in divine terms.
We learned the human high priest needed to be from the tribe of Levi and descended from Moses' brother Aaron. We heard about the high priest entering the inner tent of the temple once a year to make offerings for his own sins and the transgressions of the community.
The author reminds us Jesus was from the tribe of Judah; Jesus had no need to make offerings one after another,,because the quality of his offering – himself– was sufficient to atone for all the sins of all humanity.
But like conventional high priests, Jesus brought qualities of obedience, compassion, and sympathy.
In all this Jesus goes way far back in the journey of God's people to the book of Genesis and a high priest named Melchizedek, who provides a large part of the template for Jesus' unique high priestly role.
This week emphasizes how human high priests always ended up dying, so they always needed to be replaced, but because Jesus' priesthood is permanent and forever, he thus can save everyone forever. In addition, Jesus' has splendid characteristics of being holy, blameless, undefiled separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens—that we can interpret as authority because of his ascension that was necessary to finish the work of redemption.
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