Jesus’ Mercy
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family … for this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted Hebrews 2:11,17,18
For the first time in Hebrews the author introduces Jesus as the one who fulfils the role of the high priest.
Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, the very presence of God, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement. On this single day he brought the nation’s atoning sacrifice before God.
A true high priest fulfilled two great functions. Firstly, he represented God to the people. To do so he had to be both holy and merciful because God was both holy and merciful.
Jesus was both. He was ‘the one who makes men holy’ (2:11). The writer adds a little later ‘Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens’ (7:26).
But Jesus was also perfectly merciful. Unlike the elder brother in the prodigal son parable, Jesus easily crossed the gulf to save His siblings. There is nothing we ever have faced or ever will face that bars us from Jesus’ mercy.
If the first great function of the high priest was to represent God to the people, the second was the reverse – to represent the people to God. How could God really know what it’s like to be human? Only by actually becoming one of us: ‘…he had to be made like his brothers in every way’ (2:17).
It was in His full humanity that ‘he himself suffered’ (2:18). ‘Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity …’ (2:14). He could represent us before God because He was fully human.
Jesus is our great high priest. He represents God to us – holy and merciful, and He represents us to God – as a completely real human being.
God is not far away because Jesus is not far away.
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