Word of Salvation – Vol. 27 No. 17 – January 1982

 

The Only True High Priest

 

Sermon by Rev. W. F. Van Brussel on Mat.27:4

Scripture Reading: Mat.27:1-10; Luke 23:33-49

Psalter Hymnal: 373; 39: 61; 356; 136; 466

 

Beloved congregation,

Today I want to draw your attention to these two different moments in the period of our Lord’s Passion.  By doing this we shall receive an opportunity of looking at two people under similar, yet entirely different circumstances.

Both Judas and the criminal-on-the-cross were going through an extremely painful experience just before the moment of their deaths.  That is where these cases are similar.  But the difference is that Judas went to the chief priests with his troubles, and they let him down, whereas the robber on the cross addressed himself to our only High Priest, right next to himself on Calvary, and he found relief.

What a difference this was!  The response of the priests Judas contacted in the midst of his agony, and that of our Lord Jesus who at that very moment Himself was going through the bitterest of all agonies ever suffered, was a great difference indeed.  The priests of Israel were utterly unfaithful when called upon by an Israelite in highest need, and our only High Priest faithfully granted even more than was petitioned.  Thus, our message is going to be: The Unfaithful chief priests and our faithful High Priest as pictured in the Gospels in the contrasting performance of their tasks, during our Lord’s Passion.

1.

When talking about priests we remember that they had a threefold task to perform.  It was their duty to offer the people’s sacrifices to God, to pray for them and to bless them.  For a task such as that is needed a man who is able to sympathize with people; he must be willing to bear responsibility for others.  He ought to understand people, to share their sorrows and their joys with them, and to help them to carry their burdens.

In the set-up of our Churches it is especially the office of the deacons in which all these various things come to a very special expression.  This does not mean, of course, that all such qualities are not wanted for elders and ministers.  But in their offices it is more the task of ruling and teaching (king and prophet) that come to the fore.

The priestly aspect of the work of the church, however, ought to come to the foreground in any office, really, and also in the life of any church member.  Each father in the Christian Church ought to be, for example, the priest in his family.  When looking at the conditions amongst the Israelites we find that the priests, especially in the days of our Lord’s earthly ministry used to form a very important body; a powerful body, too.  They were very much honoured by the people and they used to exercise quite an amount of authority.

In the Gospel-records we actually meet them always as a very solid group of men they were sort of a clique.  It was not very wise for people to come into conflict with them.  We often meet them, especially in the days of our Saviour’s deepest humiliation as a strong, and hard, and heavy, and impenetrable wall.  This is the force our Lord Jesus indeed has not been afraid to come into conflict with.  But in Judas they had found a helper, who was to be used for the very thing they were not able to do themselves.  They were not intending to go and dirty their hands with a man such as Jesus of Nazareth, you know.  And thus a man like Judas was very welcome to engage himself in the dirty work.  They had bribed him for this purpose, and if things turned out unpleasantly they could always let him down.

And that is exactly what has happened.  He had been employed by the priests in order to commit a crime, the bearing of which he had failed to grasp, at first.  As soon as he had discovered what his horrible deed had led him up to, and this only for a relatively small amount of money, he came to an entirely different view.

Of course, we know that, apart from the priests, Judas himself is to blame.  This also appears from the way in which he has tried to obtain relief.  He actually made two useless efforts.

The first thing he did was to restore the money in a wrong spirit.  We read: “He brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders”.  To his avaricious nature they had been very valuable once, but now he felt that they were curses, and thus he merely wanted to get rid of them.  Here we can see how conscience reverses a person’s estimates.  These silver pieces seemed red with blood and hot with fire, now!  Judas could no longer retain them.

But the restitution was done in a wrong spirit; it was from a selfish desire for relief.  It was not a self-sacrificing desire to make satisfaction for the injury.  The thing which he did and which was especially wrong was that he made confession to the wrong party.  It was to the chief priests and the elders – and not to God – that he said, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.”

Meanwhile we can find here a plain proof of our Lord’s innocence of every charge laid against Him.  If there was any living witness who could give evidence against the Lord Jesus, Judas was the man.  Was he not a chosen disciple of the Master, a constant companion all through the years of His Ministry, a hearer of all His teachings, both in public and private?  He indeed must have known well, if our Lord had done any wrong, either in word or deed.  Judas never came forward as a witness, though, because his conscience would not let him.  Bad as he was, he knew very well that his Master was holy, blameless, true, a really sinless Man.

The testimony Judas is giving to the purity of Jesus’ life is far more powerful than the testimony of any other could possibly be.  It was far more so than Pilate’s was.  For Pilate only saw the outward, whereas Judas had seen the inward, more than once.

The point however, which interests us most here, is the response of the chief priests.  Their only reply was: “What is that to us?  See to it yourself!”  Neither the guilt of Judas nor the innocence of Jesus, was anything to them.  “The ungodly, though associating in the commission of a crime, desert their associates when it has been accomplished” (Bengel).  But the godly, though not taking part in the crime, endeavour, after its commission, to save the sinner’s soul.  Well, was not this attitude extremely cruel?  They had been tempters: they had offered the bribe; and in doing so, no doubt they had been kind and gentle.

How different they were now!  However, they simply could not act gently now, for they too, had guilty consciences, just as much as Judas had one.  Perhaps their consciences began to trouble them a little, now.  The guilty cannot, if they would, comfort the guilty!

This is how such things develop.  A conduct such as is pictured here must ever take place under similar circumstances.  Gentle tempters must always become tormenting devils.  This desperate Judas did not find any solace with the leaders who did refuse to be faithful in their charges as priests.

2.

Let us note now what we find in Luke 23:43, and then especially against this background how entirely different a response we meet with here.

This criminal also gives evidence of his awareness of guilt.  He knows he has lived the wrong way, and he can only admit, and is ready to do so, that he has deserved this bitter punishment.  He is aware of the infinite distance between himself and the innocent Christ; he feels Jesus’ authority as it were.

However, he is also aware of the fact that this authority of Jesus does not push him away.  There was not much time left to him, really, to give proof of his conversion; but the very short time he still had to spend was very well used, was it not?  He humbly approached Him of Whom he now knew very well, that He was his Saviour.  He simply appealed to Jesus, his dying Saviour, for mercy!

And listen to Jesus’ response very carefully, right now!  Jesus does not refuse the criminal’s humble request.  On the contrary, His response is surprisingly moving.  It gives more than He had been asked.  He is not ready merely to remember him; the criminal will be with Him in Paradise, even today!

We are not going to say much about this “today” and this “Paradise”.  The only point I want to stress, now, is this “with Me”.  Yes, this is what Jesus, our only High Priest really and truly IS: GOD WITH US!  The Saviour-God will be with the criminal forever and ever!!!

Here we find pictured before our eyes the only faithful Priest Who indeed is able to sympathise with our weakness, the One Who in every respect has been tempted as we are. (Heb.4:15).  We shall never be priests such as He is.  Look at this your only High Priest while He is hanging on His cross.  He does understand His neighbour indeed.  He feels His neighbour’s deepest need.  He is the One that truly loves and forgives, and bears, in an act of self-denying dedication!  How utterly poor is our love, our readiness to forgive and to understand and to bear with other people as we ought to compare it, right now, with what we witness on Calvary.  No, I do not pretend that all men and women have ever failed to give evidence of their well-meant love and forgiveness, and tolerance.  But this can only be a result of what we may witness here and now on Calvary.  Jesus did not hesitate for a single moment.  Just remember at this moment how reluctant the church was as to receiving Saul into its communion, after Jesus had made him become Paul.  Probably the church now would keep a “penitent” such as this criminal standing at the door!

Jesus did not; He answered promptly.  If it ever might happen, penitent sinner, that the church shrinks from recognizing you among the saved, Christ will never do that!  Jesus did not utter reproaches.  Yes, the Pharisees would.  And many so-called Christians would.  Many a church of our day would.  If Christ had done so, we should not have wondered.  But He seems to think that the man’s conscience had accused him enough already.  Jesus did not impose any condition, either.  What numerous conditions are imposed on penitent sinners by us! …by the Churches.  The Lord does not wait for anything but a sincere prayer.

It struck me that somebody has asked a question in connection with this story: How come that in the old pictures of Christ as found in the catacombs of Rome, He was preferably portrayed as the Good Shepherd carrying on His shoulders a sheep which had wandered away from the fold?  How strongly must these persecuted Christians have experienced the solid comfort of knowing and believing in their Saviour.

This Jesus on the cross indeed is the Warrant of security, and guidance, and direction, and solidity, and preservation in a world filled with dangers and threats, with all sorts of evil and crime.

Even today any penitent sinner in deep suffering and agony and in extreme need may know in both life and death: My only High Priest will never let me down.  For, once for all, He has received me as His very own, in His blood-sealed grace.  The time when the robber was saved was the hour of our Saviour’s greatest weakness.  He was Himself hanging on the cross under the burden of God’s wrath against the sin of all the world.  He was just going through His very last personal agonies.  Yet, even then He heard and granted a sinner’s petition, and opened to him the gate of life.

How glorious the thought that we may feel free to come to Him with our petition for mercy while He is in His glory!  This glory He is so eager to share with all penitent sinners.

Amen.