Jesus is the Only Priest that Welcomes Us Like This
For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.
And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.
So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You””
The role of a priest is to do the things that a diety requires on behalf of the people over which the diety rules. There have been priests acting on behalf of various religions around the world for thousands of years.
The Jewish priesthood introduced by Moses in the early 1200s BC involved similar activities. The people would bring things to the priests, the priests would take the things (sacrifices) to God, God would bless the priests, and then the priests would take the blessings back to the people.
There were strict ruled in the temple about how to approach God. If you did it wrong, you might get killed on the spot! (Unless you went to the tent of meeting outside the camp, where you could go meet God anytime.)
It would be prideful and arrogant for a person to declare themself a priest. It was set up to be a calling. It was set up to be something that came by your birth order and placement in the Hebrew family structure.
The writer is comparing Jesus to the High Priest in all of these different ways. Jesus didn’t claim it for Himself, but received the calling and direction from the Father. Jesus could have easily been a counselor or a prophet to a good High Priest, but God wanted Him to be the High Priest Himself.
Jesus also makes a great High Priest because while He was tempted just like every one of us, He never fell into sin. You know how your grandma would pull some turkey or ham right out of the pot with her bare hands and give it to you to snack on while Christmas dinner was cooking? Did you every say “Grandma! Nasty! Wash your hands!”
You’d better not!
Jesus is a go-between for us between God and mankind, but He Himself is the pure and holy God! That doesn’t mean we have to face an angry god on our own, but He’s already being a mediator for us. He is already prepared to welcome us directly.
Since we have this direct access, we also have the “priesthood of all believers” because with our direct access to God, we can be the go-between for other people that don’t know Him yet. Even today, we can be the people that take things to God for people that don’t draw near and then bring back the blessings from Him to share with them.
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