The Priest Whom We Need
A. Maclaren, D. D. Hebrews 7:26-28 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;… I. WE ALL NEED A PRIEST, AND WE HAVE THE PRIEST WE NEED IN JESUS CHRIST. In fair weather, when the summer seas are sunny and smooth, and all the winds are sleeping in their caves, the life-belts on the deck of a steamer may be thought to be unnecessary, but when she strikes on the black-toothed rocks, and all about is a hell of noise and despair, then the meaning of them is understood. When you are amongst the breakers you will need a life-buoy. When the flames are flickering round you, you will understand the use and worth of a fire-escape, and when you have learned what sort of a man you are, and what that involves in regard of your relations to God, then the mysteries which surround the thought of the High Priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ will be accepted as mysteries, and left where they are, and the fact will be grasped with all the tendrils of your soul as the one hope for you in life and in death. II. WE NEED FOR A PRIEST A PERFECT MAN, AND WE HAVE THE PERFECT PRIEST WHOM WE NEED IN JESUS CHRIST. The writer goes on to enumerate a series of qualities by which our Lord is constituted the priest we need. Of these five. qualities which follow in my text, the three former are those to which I now refer. "He is holy, harmless, undefiled." Taken generally, these three characteristics refer to the priest's relation to God, together men, and to the law of purity. "He is holy"; that is to say, not so much morally free from guilt as standing in a certain relation to God. The word here used for "holy" has a special meaning. It is the representative of an Old Testament word, which seems to mean "devoted to God in love." Such is the first qualification for a priest, that he shall be knit to God by loving devotion, and have a heart throbbing in unison with the Divine heart in all its tenderness of pity, and in all its nobleness and loftiness of purity. And, besides being thus the earthly echo and representative of the whole sweetness of the Divine nature, so, in the next place, the priest we need must, in relation to men, be harmless — without malice, guile, unkindness; a Lamb of God, with neither horns to butt, nor teeth to tear, nor claws to wound, but gentle and gracious, sweet and compassionate; or, as we read in another place in this same letter, "a merciful High Priest in things pertaining to God." And the priest that we need, to bridge over the gulf between us sinful and alienated men and God, must be one "undefiled," on whose white garments there shall be no speck, on the virgin purity of whose nature there shall be no stain; who shall stand above us, though He be one of us, and whilst "it behoves Him to be made in all points like unto His brethren," shall yet be "without blemish and without spot." I pass on just to notice, in a word, how this assemblage of qualifications which, taken together, make up the idea of a perfect man, is found in Jesus Christ for a certain purpose, and a purpose beyond that which some of you, I am afraid, are accustomed to regard. Why this innocence; this G d-devotedness; this blamelessness; this absence of all selfish antagonism? Why this life, so sweet, so pure, so gentle, so running over with untainted and ungrudging compassion, so conscious of unbroken and perfect communion and sympathy with God? Why? What He might, "through the Eternal Spirit, offer Himself without spot unto God"; and that by His one offering He might perfect for ever all them that put their trust in Him. III. WE NEED A PRIEST IN THE HEAVENS, AND WE HAVE IN CHRIST THE HEAVENLY PRIEST WHOM WE NEED. The two last qualifications for the priestly office included in my text are, "separate from sinners; made higher than the heavens." Now, the " separation" intended is not, as I suppose, Christ's moral distance from evildoers, but has what I may call a kind of half-local signification. and is explained by the next clause. He is "separate from sinners," not because He is pure and they foul, but because having offered His sacrifice He has ascended up on high. He is " made higher than the heavens." Scripture sometimes speaks of the living Christ as at present in the heavens, and at others as having " passed through " and being "high above all heavens"; in the former case simply giving the more general idea of exaltation, in the latter the thought that He is lifted, in His manhood and as our Priest, above the bounds of the material and visible creation, and " set at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Such a priest we need. His elevation and separation from us upon earth is essential to that great and continual work of His which we call. for want of any more definite name, His intercession. The High Priest in the heavens presents His sacrifice there for ever, We need no other; we do need Him. Oh, friend! are you resting on that sacrifice? Have you given your cause into His hands to plead? (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; WEB: For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;