And now for something a little different…most of my sermons tend to be general comments on humanity, where each of us appreciate part of the stream, the common life shared with each of our brothers and sisters, or I preach about facets of God’s nature or mission—God’s love, God’s love expressed through Jesus, Jesus stretching us, but all in all my preaching tends to be in a general sort of manner. It may cause you to stretch, but it may not. You may not ever have to exit your comfort zone. You can take what you want from it—you can go deeply, but you are not required to go anywhere. I suppose I do this, because I figure that if you want to go deeply, you probably will; and, also, conversely, nothing much I am going to say is going to persuade you to go deeply if you don’t want to do so. All that preamble is to say that today’s sermon is prefigured with more of an opportunity to go deeply into your inner sanctum; and a little deeper into our theology. (Of course, you can always close your eyes, pretend to be in deep prayer, and tune me out— I will be none the wiser.)
Where do we want to go?
First let’s start where we need a little explanation. The sermon to the Hebrews (or letter, but most scholars think it is a sermon) uses references that are clearly antiquated for us. Explanations in the text about previous hierarchies of priests and their status really do not have any bearing to us. You can learn about priest structure and ritual sacrifice in ancient Israel, but … why?
Now, I am a priest, and although I think that one would be hard pressed to think of me personally as an intercessor between someone and God, the role of priest held that function, and some still think a priest has that function. However, to me, the important part in the passage is that Jesus is the high priest (or King, because in the time those roles were often interchangeable), who holds the priest title permanently and who makes intercessions for humanity. Jesus [he] “is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” It is fair to say, even if not thinking of the priest as one who prays for us – though priests do pray for their congregations, as I do for you – really the priest in their person is a living symbol, for the community, of salvation: our reconciliation with God. And thus begins the portion of the book of Hebrews that speaks of how Jesus is instrumental in our salvation.
Salvation is a concept, that we often talk around, but rarely do we say what we mean by the term. The term corresponds to the Latin salus and the Greek soteria. Generally, for Christians, salvation refers to “God’s restoration of the world to the life appointed for it through the life, death and resurrection of Christ.” (Farwell). The nature of how and what happens to have this come about is construed in various, different ways. Our text from Jeremiah and also our psalm invoke the concept of God saving the remnant of Israel after the Babylonian exile. There is here the understanding of salvation as the return to where you belong, a coming home, a regaining what was lost, or having it restored to you.
Which then brings us to the Gospel, and where it takes us. The Gospel story is on the surface a straightforward story of healing. Things that are notable about this story are the following: this is the second story in Mark of Jesus healing a blind man… in the first story in Mark of Jesus healing a blind man, there is a crowd pushing the man forward, it involves Jesus put saliva on his eyes, the healing is incomplete at first, and afterwards he commands the man to tell no one. By comparison, this story is the last one of this section before Jerusalem, the crowd is keeping the man from Jesus, so that he has to call out to Jesus, the healing is all at once, the man then joins the followers, and there is no spit, the man’s faith has made him well. Given the proximity to Jerusalem and how different it is, this has characterized as a spiritual healing. The mode of healing is directly resultant of the man’s faith. Here the notion of salvation is a return to physical wholeness, if by a spiritual path.
Now, don’t panic, this is not sharing time. What I want you to do is have a little self-examination. We all have at least one thing for which we long, something that feels crucial to our being whole and well. The Israelites wanted a return home. The blind man wanted to see. So, what would you bring before Jesus? “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” What spiritual ailment do you have that needs healing? Maybe it’s that you have never sought a relationship with God. Maybe you keep yourself too busy. Maybe you pray on Sundays but don’t seek a daily relationship with God in prayer. Maybe you are holding onto some offense that has been done to you. Maybe you have offended someone else and know you need to reconcile or have the strength to ask for forgiveness. Maybe it is something else that you would bring to Jesus….
Now, you may be one who has a hard time, for whatever reason, of addressing Jesus by name— who feels that God is too big, a force, a good, LOVE, and so a personal relationship doesn’t work for you. Well, maybe this is exactly why we have a high priest for us, someone with whom we can have a relationship.
However instead, we could also put the exercise in different words, we can put it this way… “In what way do you need to be opened up so that you can let love into some part that has been closed? How will God heal you?”
PAUSE PAUSE PAUSE
And this is one way that Christ brings salvation. Christ is the high priest who is there for us, who bridges the distance between us and God. There is something to the remedy between us and God, something to repairing the breach, something which comes by way of the Christ. We can’t do this ourselves. But we can call, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” And we can trust that mercy will be given.
Track 2
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 126
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52