Our One High Priest
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16, ESV)
When you’re a kid, you want your parents to pray for you for a lot of things. When you go to sleep, they say your bedtime prayers. When you sit down to eat, they pray for your food. When you fall down and get hurt, they pray over the scrapes and bumps.
And for a kid, it feels like the prayers are better because it’s your mom or dad praying. The funny thing is, over the years that Sam and I have been in ministry, the premise is still the same for churchgoers to ask their pastors to pray on their behalf. Some people just feel that their pastor’s prayers are more effective or better heard by God.
And the reason is, sometimes we feel like we need a mediator between us and God. Which isn’t that different from Israel. In Exodus 20, God speaks from the mountain in thunder and lightning and fire. Feeling overwhelmed by such a display of power, Israel begs Moses to go and talk to God on their behalf and they will obey whatever God says via Moses (verses 18-19).
So Moses acted as Israel’s go-between with God. Of course, with the introduction of the Tabernacle and all the protocol that went with it, those mediators became the priests who carried out all the sacrifices. These priests were allowed into areas of the Tabernacle that Israel wasn’t because of their sins. But there was only one high priest that was able to go beyond the veil and into the part of the Tabernacle that God’s Spirit dwelled. That high priest was responsible for offering up sacrifices on the day of atonement each year, which was when Israel repented for their sins as a nation.
Under the law, God’s people needed someone to go to Him on their behalf. They needed someone to atone for them, to pray for them, to meet with God for them, and to communicate what God wanted from them. But when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He ended our need for a mediator and a system of priests to go to God the Father for us.
Instead, all we need now is Jesus Himself. He became our mediator and our High Priest. We can go to Him directly and share our needs, thoughts, worship, and desires. Not only does He hear us and care for us, He understands us. Because Jesus, our One High Priest, sympathizes with our temptations, sorrows, joys, and frustrations. Jesus goes to the Father on our behalf; He hears our confessions and bears them before the Lord. He atones for our sins and allows us to be forgiven by His blood.
Because of Jesus, we can confidently draw near to God. We can approach Him sure of the fact that the grace He has extended to us is sufficient to save us.
We don’t need a priest or a pastor to listen to our confessions and pray for us to be pardoned. We don’t need a friend who seems more spiritual to pray for our needs or to lay a hand on us to be heard by God. We don’t even need a parent to approach God on our behalf. We can do it ourselves. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to pray to our perfect High Priest, Jesus, who loves our prayers no matter how eloquent or simple.
That’s not to say that there is no point in coming together and praying corporately or praying in agreement over needs as the Church. Of course, there is a function in the Church praying together in building each other up and praying for one another. But corporate prayer or letting others pray for you should never replace your personal prayers and time with the Lord.
Over the years, I’ve met plenty of people who rely on others to pray for them. They refuse to pray, not in a public setting or in their own time of solitude. Whether that’s out of fear, laziness, lack of confidence, or apathy, it doesn’t matter. You need to pray. You need to be able to go to the Lord and worship Him. Thank Him. Talk to Him.
If I allow my daughter to grow up only saying her prayers for her, I’ve failed her as a parent. At the moment, she doesn’t have words, but we teach her to pray even now. We hold hands and close our eyes and bow our heads and that signals to her that it’s time to talk to Jesus. When she does have words, we’ll encourage her to use what she has to pray for herself.
And the beauty of that is that her prayers might be silly, or simple, or incoherent to me and Sam, but they will be hers. She will be raised to know that she can go to Jesus herself and let Him be the mediator to God the Father. She will be raised to know that her mommy and daddy will always pray with her if she wants, but her prayers are just as heard and capable of reaching the Lord.
Maybe you’re past that point today. Maybe you’re a full-blown adult and still don’t feel confident in prayer. Maybe you don’t have a parent to teach you to pray or any idea of how to get into the habit to do it.
You have to start somewhere. And you do have the ability to do it. All you have to do is start. You don’t need someone to go to the Lord for you. There is no one else on earth that has sweeter words or a better gift to pray so that it’s better heard by God. You don’t need any mediator other than Jesus, the one you pray to.
He died on the cross to be our High Priest. He lived among us so that we could be confident that He understands us. We should have no fear in approaching Him and talking to Him. He is the only One we need.
