Adult Bible Study Online

Who can speak for us?

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Lesson text: Hebrews 7:20-28
By: Omar Eby
Email: ebyo@emu.edu

Who speaks for us? Jesus speaks for us. More than 20 years ago I stumbled upon a verse in Hebrews that gives me great consolation.

Jesus “had to be made like his brothers [and sisters] in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (2:17). Merciful and faithful to whom? I know the passage goes on to say: “He was faithful to the one who appointed him” (3:2), and “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house” (3:6). But it ends with, “We are his house.”

I console myself with an imaginary conversation between Jesus and God. Incarnate, Jesus learned what it was like to live in this messy flesh. Returning to his heavenly reserved seat, Jesus does not forget his once being human. By experiencing our temptations and trials, he sympathizes with us. He is our advocate; he argues our case before the Father. He does not say, “Being human wasn’t so bad. I don’t know why the silly fools keep sinning.”

So Jesus is faithful to us. He remembers what it was to be human. Who speaks for the guilty? Who speaks for the innocent? Who, if not the divine-human Son, mission accomplished, can speak for us before God the Father? In what manner does Hillary or Obama or McCain speak for us? Are we fools or savvy to let them snatch at the prerogatives of our own moral voice?

And Jesus is merciful in his “speaking ourselves into existence” before God. If the high priest “selected from among men” (5:1) was “able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray” (5:2), how much more persuasive is Jesus’ quiet advocacy for us in his eternal conversations with God? “Speaking for us”—because we are in “his house.”

So he was “made like us,” we who were spiritually homeless, power crazy, righteous prigs, proud of our Mennonite plainness, make peace with a vengeance, assassinate character with cruel wit, puffed with idolatrous national pride—and the Lord knows what else! Literally, Jesus does know. Still, he speaks for us?

*Scriptures are quoted from the NIV.

This message relates to the Adult Bible Study. For additional information on Adult Bible Study or Adult Bible Study Teacher, send email to info@mpn.net. To order either publication call Mennonite Publishing Network at 1 800 245-7894.