Hebrews 4:14-16
Lent 1
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace—Tucson, AZ
March 6, 2022
My friends in Christ, where do you go for help? Well, that depends on what you need help with, doesn’t it? If you need help sorting through your emotions and your thoughts, you go to a counselor, who, along the way in their education, have sorted through their own. If you don’t even know where to start with managing your money or putting together a budget, you might listen to Dave Ramsey. After all, he was a millionaire who lost it all and had to start over—and is now a multi-millionaire. If you need tax help at this time of the year, you need someone who has been trained in that and has some experience. What if the kids are making you crazy? It’s nice to be able to talk with a mom who has been through that and has come out the other side! In times of need, we search out that person who understands and can help us. What a help it is for us when someone has been there and done that! This is also true when it comes to something far more important than any of those things. The words of God in Hebrews 4 direct us to look at Jesus, to think about his life, and to find the help that comes only from him. There is comfort in knowing that Jesus can help us, in particular when it comes to being tempted to sin. For that reason, we are urged to Go to Jesus when Tempted We don’t know who wrote the letter to the Hebrews, but it is clear that he had a great knowledge of the Old Testament and so did the people he wrote to. Those who received this letter were in the process of abandoning their faith in Christ and the forgiveness and eternal life that comes through him. Instead, they were returning to the laws and ways of the Old Testament, which were only intended to look ahead to the Savior and to prepare people to see Jesus as that Savior. This helps us to understand why Jesus is referred to here as the great high priest. Throughout this letter, the author talks about important things from the Old Testament and then explains that Jesus is better than those things. For example, Jesus is superior to Moses. He is the better sacrifice than all those made under the law. He is also a better priest—and this is how: The priests had to make sacrifices for their sins and for the sins of the people. This had to go on day after day, year after year. But Jesus was better than all of that. He was both the priest—the one who offered the ultimate sacrifice for sin—AND he was the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Perfect priest. Perfect sacrifice. And so, he is called here the great high priest. Jesus spent his entire earthly life defeating every temptation that was thrown at him by Satan and sinful people. At the end, he offered himself on the cross as the sacrifice for sin. The sacrifice was perfect because his life was perfect. Then he defeated death. After his resurrection, he ascended into heaven—or as it says here, he has gone through the heavens. Now Jesus, the Son of God, sits on his heavenly throne.
This all sounds like what we say in the creeds, doesn’t it?! We typically speak together one of those confessions on Sundays because they focus on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, our Savior. The encouragement in these words is that we continue to hold on to our confession about Jesus. The reason to hold onto Jesus and what we know about him as the Savior is that he is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Is he though? The perfect Son of God looks with compassion on sinful me and my everyday fight to do what God wants? That seems like a stretch. But it’s the truth, and this is why: Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. The same kinds of temptations we face called out to his human nature. Jesus is true God, but the Bible teaches that he is also true man or truly human. He had to defeat those temptations as a human being. Simply turning those tempting situations over to his divinity would have eliminated the struggle. That would not have been worth anything in paying for our sins. Jesus brushing off temptation as true God, who cannot do evil, is not the same as him enduring temptation and defeating it as true man because we cannot. In the gospel today, we heard about the temptations Satan threw at Jesus as he began his public ministry. Throughout his life here, Jesus was exposed to all the types of temptations that come our way. Jesus knows all the points that are poked at by Satan, all of the vulnerable places of human weakness. As true man, Jesus felt Satan pushing on those, yet he did not sin by giving in to those temptations. Jesus got hungry, but he never stole from others to feed himself. Powerful people mistreated him (like the religious leaders and the Roman soldiers), but he did not strike back. He got tired, but he didn’t sleep in and ignore God’s command to worship. There were attractive women around and he didn’t lust after them. He had no actual home, but didn’t covet the homes he visited, like those of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus or Zacchaeus. He and his disciples had money to support the group, but he was not greedy for it like Judas was. He was truly greater than everyone else, but did not give in to feelings of selfish pride, like the Pharisees. On and on, we could go! But he knows the feeling of temptation to do all those things I mentioned and more. He knows the draw toward them. He didn’t just have Satan working on him, unseen, in the spiritual realm, as we do. Satan tempted him to his face. He knows and he understands. He has been there and done that. And we’re told that he sympathizes with us. He feels for us because he knows what it is to be human, to be vulnerable to discomfort and illness and death—and to be vulnerable to the temptations to reject what God says and rebel against him.
And don’t we have to admit that Jesus’ temptations were even more severe than ours? He knew that he was facing unspeakable torture and a horrible death. Wouldn’t the temptation be strong to run from it or annihilate those who planned to carry it out? Wouldn’t we run from the gruesome torture of the cross rather than run to it? We can’t comprehend the temptation to avoid it or to make it stop while in the middle of it all. The crushing weight of the world’s sin as he hung dying is a feeling we’ll never know. But Jesus knows all of those temptations. And he knows all of ours too. But the difference between him and us is that he crushed every temptation! He didn’t listen to Satan! He never gave in to sin! This means something for you and me. That’s why it says “so.” We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. SO let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God’s people are invited go to Jesus. We can walk right up to Jesus as he sits on his heavenly throne and ask him for mercy (punishment for our sins held back) and grace (undeserved love). We can do that? Yes! And not timidly either! We are told to go confidently. Humble and repentant, yes, but not timid. This is a holy boldness! One of the most pressing times that we need his sympathizing ear and his experience and his love and his strength is when we are tempted. We should take temptation to sin so seriously that we go running to Jesus for help! Those first Christians, who were tempted to let go of their Savior for something else, were urged not to lose their grip on Jesus. We’re kind of the same, aren’t we? Isn’t there an ever-present danger to lose our grip on Christ, to trade him for something else when we are tempted? That’s really what we do when we give in to temptation. We choose something sinful instead of choosing to live for the one who lived and died for us. Jesus’ victory over temptation has been credited to you for your salvation, Why would you trade him for those body-damaging drugs…or activities that constantly keep you from worship…or that drink you know you can’t take…or filthy speech…or an angry mind…or lustful activities…or misuse of your money…or whatever else tempts you? There is a way to deal with this. You can try handling it on your own, but we all know how that works out for us. Instead of giving in to the temptations that are calling out to you or going into battle on your own, approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
The moment of temptation is a time of need! In that moment, we call out asking Jesus to help us. We look to him on his throne of grace and ask for his compassion and love and strength in that moment. We count on the one who stood his ground when tempted, so that we may stand and win the battle too. There are plenty of times when we win these battles with Christ’s help, in the same way that David defeated Goliath with the LORD at his side. But you know as well as I do that in that moment of “live for God or live for self,” our sinful nature sometimes fights not the temptation, but Christ instead. And, of course, there are plenty of times we don’t give Jesus a thought, but embrace the temptation and the sin instead. Then when the spiritual battle’s dust has settled, we sit defeated, filled with regret and pain and sadness. At this critical moment also, this time of need, we need to return to the throne of grace. We go with hearts of faith and in true repentance, confident that Jesus will withhold punishment from us and give us his undeserved love. We look for forgiveness, and that is what Jesus gives. Christians being tempted to pull away from Jesus, who need to be reminded that Jesus understands them and will help and forgive them—that’s not just the Hebrews, my friends, it’s us too. God would have us find comfort in knowing that Jesus crushed temptation and sin and Satan. He has been through it and handled it perfectly for our forgiveness and salvation. Who better to go to when we need help handling temptation? Jesus is the one. That’s who we go to when tempted. Amen. Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest, who has gone through the heavens, namely, Jesus the Son of God, let us continue to hold on to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. 16 So let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.