Hebrews 9:24-28 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, November 17, 2024 “Christ’s Appearances Do Not Deceive”
Appearances can be deceiving. There is a reason that phrase is as popular as it is. It is true about little things. You don’t always know right away what you are dealing with. Another way of saying that: you can’t judge a book by its cover. You can expect one thing based on the appearance and be surprised— pleasantly or otherwise. Appearances can be deceiving is true of bigger things, too. How many of us have found ourselves in situations we thought we had figured out only to find out how completely wrong we were? This is even a general truth about the lives of Christians. Appearances are often deceiving. What things seem like is not the reality. God tells us that we are more than conquerors, but at times circumstances and situations seem to conquer us. God tells us we are victors in Christ, but it often appears as though we are losing our battles. God tells us that we are the most blessed people of all because we have his Word and Sacraments, but appearances suggest that there are lots of people way better off than we are. We are working our way through a worship series called, “Live Like You’ll Live Forever,” but we can’t help but notice death and destruction all around us. When the Hebrew Christians to whom the book of Hebrews was first addressed came to faith, their lives seemed to get a whole lot worse. As practicing Jews, they had been largely left alone. They continued living in the vast Roman Empire like so many others. But after converting to Christianity, they were targets of persecution. And things were heating up again. The reality was that they had something in Christianity, in Jesus, far better than what they had before. But it didn’t always appear that way. Appearances can be deceiving. So where could those Christians look for something certain and secure? Where can we find certainty? Where do we go for something that does not deceive? The answer is Jesus. That’s probably not a surprise to us as we gather here on a Sunday morning. It’s the main message of all of Scripture. It’s also the focus of our five verses from Hebrews 9. To those Hebrew Christians and to us, God explains how and why Jesus doesn’t deceive or disappoint. In fact, we could say that Christ’s appearances do not deceive. Of course, to say that, we’re actually using the word appearance in another way. The way Jesus looked as he lived on earth—his appearance in that sense—actually deceived many. People could not tell just from looking at him how special and how important he truly was. He looked like a poor, even miserable, human being. He looked lowly. He looked ordinary. That appearance was deceiving. But what the writer to the Hebrews invites us to focus on and to consider is not how Jesus looked. We are to focus on the times and places when Jesus appeared and the time when he will appear again. These appearances of Jesus do not deceive. They do not disappoint. First, Jesus appeared as a priest. The Bible uses this picture to teach us about Jesus quite a bit. The book of Hebrews maybe more than any place else has us focus on applying the things that were taught in the Old Testament to Jesus and his work. So back then, in the history of the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, God appointed priests. And a very special class of priests served over all, the High Priests. The priests served at the temple, and before that at the tabernacle. The beautiful temple, much of it covered in gold, stood in Jerusalem. At the time of this letter, the temple was a not-so-good approximation of the original one. But this was still the center point of the people’s worship. Their sacrifices and offerings were brought to the temple day after day after day. And there were some days that were particularly special. One of those, perhaps the most special of all, was the Great Day of Atonement. That day was so special because that day alone the high priest went into the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place was the innermost part of the temple. It was a room inside of a room, inside of the temple courts. When the temple was first dedicated, a cloud showing God’s presence settled into the Most Holy Place. His Ark of the Covenant had been there. When the