“JESUS died in your sins.” There is a superb likelihood of hearing something like this in church over the times ahead. God loves humanity a lot that he sent his Son to die; and, on the cross, Jesus took the punishment for sin, serving the sentence in our place — or so the story goes.
But this is just not the total story, no less than, not in response to one book of the New Testament: the Epistle to the Hebrews. This tells one other story about who Jesus is and the way he has handled sin. For Hebrews, Easter is just not the tip of the story, but the start.
HEBREWS is a difficult read. Intricately written, it demands much of its readers. On even a fast skim, nonetheless, it becomes clear that it has an awesome deal of dialogue about priesthood and presents Jesus as high priest. But this poses an issue. Leviticus (the crucial Old Testament text about priesthood) says that only men of the tribe of Levi may be priests. Jesus doesn’t qualify: “Our Lord was descended from Judah, and in reference to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests” (Hebrews 7.14).
What to do? The creator cannot rewrite history. He needs one other solution to discuss Jesus as priest. Enter Melchizedek. Melchizedek offers a way of understanding Jesus’s priesthood. Jesus is just not a priest just like the priests in Leviticus: as an alternative, he’s a priest “in response to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7.17, quoting Psalm 110.4).
Melchizedek is mentioned more times in Hebrews than in the whole Old Testament, where he’s an obscure figure. Other than in Psalm 110.4 (referred to above), Melchizedek appears only in Genesis 14.18-20. That’s it.
Melchizedek turns up moderately abruptly in Genesis. He is a king and a priest, but —unusually — lacks ancestry, and disappears as suddenly as he appeared. Because of his mysterious origins, people began to view Melchizedek as an everlasting figure.
This is what Hebrews thinks, too. Being “without father, without mother, without genealogy”, Melchizedek had “neither starting of days nor end of life”, and so “stays a priest for ever” (Hebrews 7.3).
Melchizedek, then, is crucial in Hebrews. Like Jesus, Melchizedek can’t be a priest through ancestry: he has none. Like Jesus, Melchizedek has everlasting life. Jesus’s everlasting life, nonetheless, comes through resurrection. Death now not has power over Jesus, and this grants him “the facility of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7.16).
Hebrews, due to this fact, depicts Jesus as an everlasting high priest “in response to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7.17), through his resurrection life. Crucially, Jesus’s priestly work includes coping with sin. From the outset, Hebrews emphasises how Jesus “makes purification for sins” (Hebrews 1.3). This is priestly language.
Crucially, also, this tells us something about Easter. Jesus deals with sin as high priest; Jesus becomes high priest through resurrection. Jesus, then, can cope with sin only after his resurrection, and never on the cross. This is perhaps a troubling thought, especially at Easter. Hebrews, nonetheless, offers, as an alternative, a greater story of Jesus’s victory over sin.
To understand it, we must return to Leviticus. We cannot understand Hebrews without understanding Leviticus’s key ritual: Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”). Yom Kippur is the one time when high priests enter the Holy of Holies, the innermost tabernacle area where God dwells most intensely. The high priest collects the blood of sacrificial animals, sprinkling it within the Holy of Holies.
In ancient thought, blood comprises life: “The lifetime of the flesh is within the blood . . . as life, it’s the blood that makes atonement” (Leviticus 17.11). In Yom Kippur, Israel and the animal are connected. The animal’s life is brought (via its blood) into God’s presence. As the animal is purified, so, too, is Israel.
Crucially, the animal’s life (not its death) is the sacrifice. It is just not killing the animal which makes atonement: bringing the animal’s blood — its life — into the Holy of Holies does. This is crucial.
IN HEBREWS, Jesus deals with sin through his own Yom Kippur ritual, but there are some necessary differences. First, the situation: in Leviticus, Yom Kippur happens within the earthly tabernacle. In Hebrews, Jesus “didn’t enter the tent made by human hands”: as an alternative, he “entered into heaven itself” (Hebrews 9.24). Whereas, in Leviticus, Yom Kippur takes place on earth, in Hebrews, Jesus performs this ritual in heaven, “within the presence of God” (Hebrews 9.24).
Second, the high priest: in Leviticus, Yom Kippur is repeated annually. As high priests die, recent ones are appointed. It is just not so with Jesus. Having everlasting life, he stays high priest for ever.
Finally, the sacrifice: Jesus enters heaven “not with the blood of goats and calves”, as in Leviticus, “together with his own blood” (Hebrews 9.13), shed on the cross. Not only is Jesus high priest: he can be the sacrifice. His death is an important a part of atoning for sin, but this atonement is just not complete until Jesus’s blood is brought into God’s presence.
And so, every aspect of Jesus’s Yom Kippur is more practical. It happens in heaven moderately than on earth. Jesus is an everlasting high priest moderately than a mortal. Jesus offers himself moderately than animals. A greater place, a greater priest, a greater sacrifice.
This raises an uncomfortable point. Hebrews is commonly branded “supersessionist”. Supersessionism is the concept that the Church has replaced — superseded — Israel as God’s covenant people.This idea is anti-Semitic, and is to be condemned as such.
You can probably see why some view Hebrews as supersessionist. If Jesus performs a greater Yom Kippur, why trouble with the old one? If Jesus is the “mediator of a greater covenant” (Hebrews 8.6), why concern ourselves with the old covenant and the individuals with whom God made it? But this can be a mistaken reading of Hebrews. The God who “spoke through the prophets” is the one who “speaks through the Son” (Hebrews 1.1-2). Hebrews’ story of atonement is deeply embedded in Jewish thought: Jesus’s defeat of sin relies on it. This demands that the Church engage more deeply and more charitably with the considered our Jewish neighbours. There is not any Church without Israel, no Hebrews without Leviticus.
In his heavenly Yom Kippur, then, Jesus deals with sin for good. Having done so, he waits in God’s presence until his return.
WHY does this matter? What’s mistaken with seeking to the cross? It is very important, because Hebrews gives us a much bigger picture of who Jesus is. It is an image price remembering as we rejoice Easter.
Specifically, Hebrews’ depiction of Jesus matters because, first, it shows the safety of salvation. Jesus’s Yom Kippur is an unrepeatable, irreversible atonement. Jesus doesn’t “offer himself time and again”, but atones for sin “once for all” (Hebrews 9.25-26). Your sin is just not more powerful than Jesus’s atonement — never shall be, never could possibly be. If that’s not excellent news, then I don’t know what’s.
Second, Hebrews explains other features of the New Testament. If Jesus’s death on the cross deals with sin, what need is there for his resurrection, or ascension, or anything? Instead, what Jesus offers by bringing his blood into heaven is just not his death, but his whole life. His entire life — from birth to death, from resurrection to ascension — is obtainable to the Father for us.
Every second of Jesus’s perfect, obedient human life is an indispensable a part of his resolving sin. Jesus didn’t come to earth to die: he got here to live. Everything about his life on earth — his teachings, his miracles, how he interacted with the people around him — all features of Jesus’s perfect life contribute to his becoming the right Yom Kippur sacrifice and high priest.
We should, then, reflect on Jesus’s whole life. When focusing solely on Jesus’s death, we reduce him to lower than he have to be to atone for sin. Jesus’s life is just not a footnote to his death: all features of Jesus’s life are equally necessary, equally vital. Hebrews gives us a greater picture than a person hanging from a cross.
Third, Hebrews explain why prayer works. Jesus becomes high priest through resurrection. He, due to this fact, stays a priest for ever, waiting within the Father’s presence in heaven.
This Jesus, who achieved salvation by bringing his own blood into heaven itself, is the one through whom we pray. This Jesus hears our requests, sees our distresses, and prays to the Father for us. This Jesus “all the time lives to make intercession” for us as high priest (Hebrews 7.25),
Hebrews doesn’t offer us theology in abstract. Jesus the everlasting high priest demonstrates the understanding of salvation, the aim of Jesus’s whole life, the effectiveness of prayer.
THE work of Jesus didn’t finish on the cross: Good Friday is just not the tip. Only through resurrection — only because of resurrection — was Jesus made high priest. Only then could Jesus offer his whole life as heavenly Yom Kippur sacrifice.
In allowing the otherness of Hebrews to talk, we encounter Jesus afresh, in all his otherness. Jesus is stranger, and yet more beautiful, than we imagine. He is greater than his death: he’s his life. That is sweet news indeed!
Dr Jonathan Rowlands is Graduate Tutor and Lecturer in Theology at St Mellitus College.
