“Brothers and Sisters, we have a great high priest” (Heb 4:14). We heard that in the 2nd reading. It sums up today.
“We have a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens”.
We have a great high priest – this first and foremost. Many religions have had and have high priests. The people of Israel too. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, that high priest would pass from the outer sanctuary of the Temple into the inner sanctuary. He would have animal blood with him, and with that blood he would atone for the sins of the people of Israel. We, though, have a great high priest. “Great”, here, means “true”, “final”, “real”, “effective” – and “different”. He’s different in at least three ways. He doesn’t atone once a year, year after year. By dying and passing to glory, he has atoned once and for all, with no repetition required. He doesn’t atone for one particular people. He has taken away the sins of the whole world, past, present and to come. Thirdly, he doesn’t atone just for outward violations of a law. He brings about an inner transformation: in the conscience, in the inner self; he purifies us from “dead actions”, says Hebrews. And what does “atone”, “atonement” mean? To make at one, to make those previously at odds with each other one again, to make us at-one with God. At peace, at home at this deep level. We just heard Jesus’ last word on the Cross: “It is finished”. What is finished is the great work of making us and God one again, of healing the broken relationship. “We have a great high priest.”
There’s a wonderful moment in this liturgy, coming shortly. We pray, in ten great petitions, for everyone. We join ourselves to the universal prayer of our high priest. We stretch out our hands between heaven and earth, asking that the at-one-ment be realised here and now: that God the Father almighty, his gaze locked on his Son “may cleanse the world of all errors, banish disease, drive out hunger, unlock prisons, loosen fetters, granting travellers safety, to pilgrims return, health to the sick, and salvation to the dying.” And an end to war, we want to add! Then comes a still more wonderful moment when the Cross is brought in, raised and gradually unveiled, and we sing, “Come let us adore”. We have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God. Today is for sensing this (even if only a little). Today is a day for being wowed and awed and brought to our knees. Today we naturally want to adore: the Holy One, the Mighty One, the Immortal One. We want to surrender to mercy. We want to be baptised in the blood and water flowing from his side. How expressive it is, how moving, how it answers to the needs of our whole self, when we approach the Cross, kneel down and kiss his feet! Last night, Jesus washed our feet. Today we can kiss his. And we will not be kicked away.
“Brothers and sisters”, says our text, “we have a great high priest”. He is “Jesus the Son of God”. “He has passed through the highest heavens.” He has passed first of all through our life, through our human experience: through womb-hood, babyhood, childhood, adulthood. He has passed from conception and birth to death and burial. He knows from inside what being human is like. He has passed through suffering, to a depth and a degree all his own. He has had his dignity stripped away, layer by layer. He has been diminished, and finally had his life taken. “And they made his grave with the wicked.” He has passed through all this, Jesus, the Son of God. He has been down to the bottom of the pit – and raised. He has passed through and on. He is humanity’s Pass-over. “We’re going for all humanity”, said the commander of Artemis II. Well, Jesus still more. He carries us all. He has passed through the highest heavens. He has returned to the Father from whom he comes. His at-one-ment is an opening up, the creation of a great space, a freedom, a flow of relationship. “Access” is a word the Letter to the Hebrews likes. No more roadblocks, no more taxis only, no more bus-gates, no more LEZ – just the open arms of the Father.
“Brothers and sisters, we have a great high priest.” May we feel that today. May we sense the blessing, choose him as our food for the journey. “Let us hold fast to our confession”, ends our verse. Hold fast to our faith, hold fast to him. Let’s not live outside him, apart from him, away from him, but with him and in him, close to him. As St Augustine said so beautifully, “let us pass over in the Passover of Christ, lest we pass away with this passing world”. Amen.
