Highlights in Hebrews
(with Roger Kirby)
Part 20 - Hebrews 7:24-27
Meeting our needs
“because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”
What do we really need? All sorts of things spring to mind but it is unlikely that they are the same things the writer is thinking about. He is concerned almost entirely with our status before God and therefore with our eventual destiny. As that affects us he wants us to have a sense of purpose in life and a sure destination to be going to. These two things are hugely important but many modern cultures ignore them almost completely. Our sense of purpose should come from setting out to follow Jesus and staying faithful to that calling for the rest of our lives. Our destination is to be with him after death - in a way that is not clear but is fully expected throughout scripture. We have a journey to make. It is not the case that setting out to follow Jesus will protect us from all the possible troubles and difficulties of this life. We may still suffer ill health, bereavement, loss of a job, and all the other ills that can affect us but we have a clear and certain path through these things taking us through to our destination.
The basic problem of every human life is sin. From our very first howl as babies when we want fed we have a strong streak of self-interest in all we do. We should be living to glorify the Lord God and his son Jesus but we don’t - we are really more concerned with ourselves most of the time. Jesus has rescued us from the consequences of that level of self absorption. Jesus - holy, blameless and pure - as the writer says. Because he was human he could stand alongside us, represent us and substitute for us. Because he was himself God he could do that for not just one person but for a huge multitude of people - including you and me! Before Jesus died the High Priest had to makes sacrifices every day and particularly on the one day of the year when he went into the innermost part of the temple where, they thought, God dwelt. All that was now unnecessary.
We each have a path to walk through life. Our paths are all different but they are all converging on one spot and one person who accompanies us every step of the way maps them all out for us. Our paths may not be easy. They may not be as easy as we would like. But he is with us and lead us through the difficulties, through the marshy bits, up the steep hills, all the time even as our legs get tired and we want to stop and rest for a while. He knows every way we should walk. He will show up some of our ‘needs’ to be just ‘wants’. All the true needs he will fulfil from his richly abundant grace. We should and must rejoice in our saviour and God.
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