Jesus the Sympathetic High Priest

Knowing that Jesus Christ understands our grief will strengthen you as you run in faith, anchored in hope as you face daily struggles.  In verse 14 of the same chapter, the writer exhorts the saints to hold fast or maintain their profession by remembering who they profess (Hebrews 3:1). We have a Great High Priest that has passed through the heavens.  As a traveler moving toward a destination, Jesus passed through the first heaven which is the earth’s atmosphere, He passed through the second heaven or the exosphere. He ascended and was exalted higher than the heavens to the highest heaven. This epistle consistently presents Jesus Christ as exalted and seated at the right hand of God, having finished the work for us, living to intercede for us and appearing in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 1:3; 7:25; 9:24).  By faith, you can find strength to keep going as you see Jesus before the throne of God above having made an end of all your sin living and pleading for you. He will never leave you nor forsake you in times of trouble. He will never abandon His work for you or in you! He will hold you fast in the grip of His grace! Such consolation is grounded in the reality of verse 15, “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.” The suffering saints were likely thinking…, He is so distant in heaven, how does that help me in my pain and sorrow? How do we know He really cares?

After a period of deep, personal grief, Frank E. Graeff wrote a hymn expressing the consolation he received in Jesus by asking: “Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song? when the burdens press and the cares distress and the way grows weary and long?” Graeff’s biblical answer is expressed in the refrain; “O yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.”

In Hebrews 4:15, the word “infirmities” includes the nuance of “lacking strength to restrain corrupt desires” or “a tendency or inclination toward sin.”  While our weaknesses include all sorts of miseries, it is clear the writer is referring to the weakness of sin.  In times of temptation, we may find ourselves weak and wounded because of sin and are tempted to feel lost and left alone.  We are prone to doubt His love and compassion and to wonder if Jesus cares “when I've tried and failed to resist some temptation strong? When for my deep grief there's no relief though the tears flow all the day long.”  The strong consolation communicated is that His heart is touched with our grief, even when that grief is owing to our failure.

Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God, is the One who suffers with us under our infirmities (Hebrews 2:18). Rather than being provoked against you because of sin, His heart sympathizes with you because of your weaknesses.  Think of a father who is grieved over and hates a disease found in his child.  On the one hand, the father’s hatred for the disease brings the help to find the remedy to kill and be rid of it.  On the other hand, he is moved by compassion and drawn toward the child because of the disease he hates.  Similarly, your brokenness over sin does not move Jesus to abandon His work or depart from you.  Because He suffered being tempted, He is able and willing to bring help in your temptation (Hebrews 2:18).  He knows the temptations of power and of pain, of riches and of poverty, of hunger and of fullness, of popularity and of rejection, of friends and of enemies, of family and of strangers.  He was tempted in each and every way!    

Sometime ago while walking through our house, I heard the noise of a torrential water fall coming from the basement.  After rushing down the stairs, I discovered water gushing from a busted line.  I ran to shut off the water valve to stop any further flooding and damage in our basement.  We have a shut off valve that stops the water fall of temptation for sinners by either 1) escaping the temptation by grace or, 2) giving in to the temptation in sin and weakness. In either case, the temptation stops by flight or by falling.  With Jesus however, there was no shut off valve that stopped Him from experiencing  temptations.  Why?  Because He was tempted in every way, yet without sin.  Because He was without any possibility of sinning, He was tempted with everything and by everything the devil had in his arsenal.  As a result, you will never be in a situation where the trial was too painful, too hard, too difficult that your Savior cannot sympathize and bring help.  He was victorious and now brings that victory to us as He intercedes with our Father on our behalf.  Jesus knows and He cares!

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  From this throne where Jesus sits, we obtain mercy and find grace we desperately need for our trials.  We must come with boldness when we are miserable, broken, helpless, wounded, empty and sinful to obtain mercy to help.  We must come with boldness for grace to rescue, deliver, uphold, empower, and strengthen us in time of need.

Have you ever wondered why the writer used a double negative in Hebrews 4:15?  Does he not simply mean, we have a high priest that can be touched?  In standard English, two negative words in one sentence is considered grammatically incorrect. However, in the original Greek, a double negative rules out the idea of the negative in the strongest possible way by highlighting the positive.  The “not/cannot” combination in verse 15 is designed to emphatically communicate while also removing any and all doubt from your mind.  It is another way of saying there is absolutely no possible way that your high priest cannot relate to you, that He is not moved with the feeling of your frailties or that He is unwilling or unable to help you. It is impossible for you to come by faith to His throne of grace and not receive mercy and grace.  Come and keep coming and He will not, He cannot, refuse to help you!

His help always comes in time of need.  That is, it is seasonable or well-timed.  The writer uses a unique word for “help” which means, aid: specially, a rope or chain for frapping a ship.  When a ship was frapped, a long rope was used to undergird the hull during a storm to prevent the ship from breaking up (Acts 27:17).  They were only used when sailing through storms.  Likewise, when we are sailing through stormy seas, the only help that will keep the ship of faith sailing is the mercy and grace coming from God’s throne. It’s not that mercy and grace are unavailable at other times, but that during afflictions we are more vulnerable to doubting God’s love and turning to other would-be helpers.  God’s answer to give us boldness?  You have a great high priest who is gentle, sympathetic, qualified in every way and greatly desires to help the bruised reed and encourage the dimly burning or smoldering wick in affliction (Isaiah 42:3). You can come with great confidence knowing your name is written on His heart.  Do you believe Jesus?

What is your greatest need in trial?  You may think, all you need is to get out of the trial as fast as possible. According to Hebrews 12:11, your high priest would likely say that you and I need to experience the peaceable fruits of righteousness by the training we will experience through the storm.  Our greatest need is God’s greatest design, that through the storm, we reach the shoreline of experiencing more of God’s love in Christ (Hebrews 12:6).  What has this to do with mercy and grace? “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)…” (Eph. 2:4 – 5, emphasis added is mine).  The aim of God in the storm is that you would come to know more of His saving love, more of His saving mercy and grace, more about Jesus our Sympathetic High Priest!