Hebrews 4, 14-16

A young soldier who fought for the Union Army in the American Civil War lost both his father and brother in the fighting. He had to return to his family to help his sister and elderly mother with the spring planting on the farm. 

So he went to Washington DC to ask the President for a leave of absence from military service. When he arrived in Washington, he went straight to the door of the White House and asked to speak to the President. A guard official stood there and said: 

‘You can't see the President. The President is much too busy to see you.’ Go back outside and fight as you should.’ 

So the young soldier left the White House, not knowing how to break the bad news to his family. As he sat on a park bench nearby, a little boy came up to him and asked, ‘Why are you so unhappy? What's wrong?’ 

The soldier looked at the boy and began to pour his heart out to him. He told the child that he was the only man in his family, as his father and brother had been killed. He was desperately needed on the farm, and the only one who could make that possible for him was the President himself. 

The little boy simply said, ‘Come with me.’ The boy took him by the hand and led the soldier back to the White House. They walked through the back door, past the guards, past the generals, past the high-ranking government officials, until they got to the President's office. 

The little boy didn't even knock, he just opened the door and walked in. There stood President Abraham Lincoln behind a desk, studying battle plans with the Secretary of State. 

The President looked up and said, ‘Oh, what can I do for you, Todd?’ The little boy looked up and replied, ‘Daddy, this man needs to talk to you.’ 

Today's Bible text is about a similar incident. It comes from the letter to the Hebrews. The theme of this entire letter is: ‘Do not throw away your trust, your faith!’ The letter is still addressed today to Christians and churches that have grown weary. 

The congregation to whom the text is addressed had doubts that God had withdrawn, that he had forgotten his people. Leaving them to their own devices. The letter to the Hebrews is a sermon to a challenged, despondent congregation. It was probably living in Rome in external distress. It was a small minority in the capital of the Roman Empire. We don't know that exactly. 

But the letter to the Hebrews tells us how it fared: The small community was subjected to reprisals, some were made a spectacle of in the arena, others had to give up their possessions. So who can blame church members for having despondent hearts, swaying knees and tired hands. This determines the everyday life of the church. In the midst of this challenging situation, Hebrews writes a ‘word of comforting exhortation’.  This is what the sermon was called in the Jewish synagogue at the time: ‘a word of comforting exhortation’.

Our sermon text speaks to this situation. I read verses 14-16 from Hebrews 4: 

Because we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has passed through the heavens, let us hold fast the confession. 

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace, and so be helped in due time. 

Three thoughts on this:

1. Jesus the High Priest 

What characterises the sermon to the Hebrews is the doctrine of the High Priest - unique to the New Testament. Among the Jews, the High Priest stepped from the temple through a curtain into the Holy of Holies once a year to intercede for the people. Once a year - according to the belief of the Jews - he had direct access to God in the Holy of Holies. 

Jesus, who is described as the High Priest in our sermon text, gives himself up so that all people can have access to God. The curtain to the Holy of Holies is torn in two on Good Friday. The Son of God and heavenly High Priest was tempted like us humans (see Gospel reading), but he did not succumb to temptation and he did not sin - unlike all the other Jewish High Priests. He suffers with us humans. So he can also sympathise, help and save today.

2.  A different world view 

In the beginning, God created two worlds: the visible world and the invisible world (Nicene Creed). In this heavenly reality (heaven), of whose existence faith is firmly convinced and which can only be seen with the eyes of faith, are the heavenly heavens. 

Our real world and the invisible world with the ‘Holy of Holies’ (with the throne of God) are separated from each other by a ‘curtain’. The world view illustrates what the author means when he says of the heavenly High Priest that he has passed through the heavens. It describes Jesus' journey from the world into the heavenly Holy of Holies. 

He becomes a forerunner for his sisters and brothers and goes ahead of them through the curtain to the place of God. There he intercedes for the believers - not in the future but now, today!

3. Travelling on earth, anchored in heaven 

In the text of Hebrews, this is illustrated with the image of an anchor (chapter 6): 

‘[...] we have taken our refuge in grasping the hope that is set before us. In it we have a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, which reaches into the inner place behind the curtain; there Jesus has gone in for us as our forerunner, he who is High Priest forever.’ 

The image of the anchor reaching up to heaven is a comforting one. If we stand firm in faith, the anchor chain reaches from heaven to earth. A firm anchor is not so easy to break - even if it gets a little stormier and more uncomfortable at the other end (‘on the way on earth’). 

For believers here on earth, this confidence becomes the anchor of the soul in the heavenly Holy of Holies. Travelling on earth, anchored in heaven. 

This is the comforting message for us Christians in the world. The author encourages the congregation to resist resignation and to hold on to their commitment to Jesus Christ. ‘Let us . 

- ... Hold fast to the confession of Jesus 

- ... let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and be helped. Today and forever. 

It is encouraging and comforting for the challenged and tempted church that we can do the same as the psalmist not only on Invocavit Sunday and trust in God's promise: ‘When we call on him, he hears us’ (Ps 91:15). We can call on him always and everywhere! 

Jesus is our anchor. Our bridge builder. Our intercessor. Our High Priest. Our translator. He prays for us to the Father. He translates our ‘stammering’ into the language of God. 

The high priestly prayer of Jesus (according to John 17) 

Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said: 

I have revealed your name to __________ the one you gave me out of the world. She/he was yours, and you gave her/him to me, and __________ have kept your word. Now __________ knows that everything you have given me comes from you. For the words that you have given me I have given to __________, and she/he has accepted them and truly recognised that I came from you and believes that you sent me. 

I pray for __________. I do not ask for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. And all that is mine is yours, and yours is mine; and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world; but __________ is in the world, and I am coming to you. 

Holy Father, receive __________ in your name (...). As long as I was with them, I received __________ in your name, (...) and I kept __________ (...). But now I come to you, and this I speak in the world, that my joy may be complete in __________. 

I have given __________ your word, and the world hates her/him, for she/he is not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take __________ out of the world, but that you keep __________ from the evil one. __________ is not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 

Sanctify her/him in the truth; your word is the truth. As you have sent me into the world, 

so have I sent __________ into the world. (...) 

I pray not only for __________, but also for those who will believe in me through her/his word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I in you, so may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. And I have given them the glory that you have given me, that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one and that the world may know that you have sent me and love them as you love me. (...) 

Righteous Father, the world does not know you; but I know you, and __________ has recognised 

that you have sent me. And I have made your name known to her/him, so that the love 

bwith which you love me may be in __________ and I in her/him.