It always strikes me as surprising that Aaron is the first
high priest consecrated to the Lord. You
would think that he had already blown it with the golden calf. The Lord, however, didn’t disqualify him on
account of sin. In Hebrews we see that
sin made Aaron humble and able to deal gently with sin in others. His own sins were public and costly and in
some ways that fits him to be the priest.
He can’t be self-righteous with others because everyone knows what a
mess he had made of things. The Lord,
however, set him apart, had Moses consecrate him, put the holy garments on him,
and made him priest. It was all an act
of God’s grace, right from the start.
This has to be the most audacious thing anyone ever did or
said. Can you imagine what it would have
been like as they waited for what Jesus, the hometown boy made good, who had
done amazing things and now was here with his little group of disciples, would
say when the scroll was put away. His
sermon was essentially, “I am the one prophesied there six hundred or so years
ago, I am the one you’ve been waiting for.”
Only a lunatic or a blasphemer would say such a thing. When they object because they know who He is,
Jesus’ response is to talk about a bunch of Gentiles who recognized God’s
prophets in the past. What He says is
incredibly offensive unless it is true and no one was prepared to receive it as
true. The reality is, as we know, that
He isn’t Joseph’s son is He? Contrast
this reaction to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 when Jesus claims to
be the one she is waiting for. She is
ready for that One to come, she wants change.
We need a priest who shares our sinfulness but we need a
redeemer who is without sin. We need
compassion and encouragement but we also need an example of how to
succeed. Jesus came down, got into this
messy life with us, and successfully navigated without sin. He relied on the Father and He gives us the
tool, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to enable us to live His way. We know His great compassion for us in the condescension of coming down
and also in the cross where He took on our sin in order that we might take on
His righteousness. He didn’t come to
show us what failures we were so that He might triumphantly stand apart and
condemn us, He came to save us from condemnation that we might stand with Him
in glory and victory.
Come, thou almighty King,
help us thy Name to sing,
help us to praise!
Father all glorious,
over all victorious,
come and reign over us,
Ancient of Days!
help us thy Name to sing,
help us to praise!
Father all glorious,
over all victorious,
come and reign over us,
Ancient of Days!
No comments:
Post a Comment