Thursday
"Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up." (v.1-2)
Background
At Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London, where I am a minister,we have boards which show every superintendent minister since JohnWesley opened the church some 230 years ago. Indeed there is morethan that - downstairs, close to the museum entrance, there is afull display of the images of all of these people. Generation aftergeneration the work of ministering in this place has been handed onto new people in an unbroken line.
This was the case for the Jewish Christians to whom this letter waswritten. There had been a succession of Levitical priests down theages (the traditional Jewish priesthood), ministering in the Templeand offering worship and sacrifice on behalf of the people ofIsrael. The writer makes much of the contrast between this humanpriesthood and the priesthood of Jesus. The Levitical priestsserved for a term and then died - Jesus continues as a priestforever. The Levitical priests, like that long array of Methodistministers on our boards, were a mixed bag: some saintly, some lazy,some outright rogues, but Jesus was made perfect for ever. TheLevitical priests had to perform the ritual sacrifices day afterday but Jesus had made the single great sacrifice in his death tosave humankind. Literally, a sacrifice to end all sacrifices.
This contrast is placed within a larger context. To the Jewishpeople, the Temple in Jerusalem was central to theirself-understanding and was their focus of worship. But the writerthrows down a serious challenge to his readers. The Temple, heasserts, is earthly and temporary. (How true that was for theJerusalem Temple, which was to be destroyed in AD 70.) The 'true'Temple is heavenly and eternal. The old Covenant, establishedbetween God and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai (
We should not underestimate the challenge that this passage wouldpresent to the first readers - Jewish Christians who had lived alltheir life looking to the Temple in Jerusalem as the focus of theirdevotion, and saw it as the very house of God. At a time when Jewsaround Jerusalem were under persistent threat from the Romans, tospeak of the Temple as a copy and not the reality of God's presencewould be not merely disloyal, but seriously blasphemous andsubversive.
To Ponder
How much do we, in our own way, make temples ofour places of worship?
How might we get our loyalty to the 'temporaryand earthly' in perspective to that which is eternal andheavenly?