Musical Prelude and Service.

Hebrews 5:1-10 & Mark 10:35-45
One of the lectionary readings for this week comes from Job 38. It is God’s response to Job’s questions about why he had to suffer so much. They are questions we all ask: How can a loving God allow so much suffering? God’s response is essentially, were you there when I created the world? Can you comprehend how large, how vast, how wondrous this world is?
When trying to figure out why we must suffer this response is not terribly satisfying, but what can be lost in that reflection is the reality that God accepts the questioning. God listens as Job asks the questions.
I chose at first to avoid that scripture this morning, but as I explored the readings from Hebrews and Mark, I kept coming back to this.
One of the questions that come up a lot is where is God when we are suffering? Why are good people allowed to suffer by a loving God?
These are difficult but important questions, and questions people have been asking at least as long as there has been a written record.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of those challenging, complex and ultimately perplexing bits of scripture that are frequently skipped over in favour of readings that are a touch more, shall we say, accessible.
One of my teachers once commented that any pastoral minister worth their salt would try to avoid Hebrews. But alas, sometimes it is important to face those challenges.
Hebrews 5 compares Jesus to Melchizedek. Who is this Melchizedek? Well, he shows up in Genesis 14. He is the ruler of Salem. He comes to Abram with bread and wine and blesses him. Melchizedek, as a name is most commonly translated as King of Righteousness. Essentially Melchizedek is viewed as the first High Priest. But in ways, more importantly, Melchizedek precedes the beginning of the Aaronic line of Priesthood instituted at the time of Moses. For the writer of Hebrews, that is important because they are asserting that Jesus acts as a High Priest in his actions, but he is not of the Aaronic line, so technically cannot be a priest.
He is appointed to this position directly by God as was Melchizedek.
One of the primary responsibilities of priests, in particular at the time of this writing, is to mediate between God and humanity. The priesthood was essentially an intermediary dealing with anxieties, concerns of illness and sin. It is for that reason priests would spend so much time offering sacrifices to God; to appease God or please God. People would come to the temple with their offerings – produce, live animals, money, and the priests would offer sacrifices at the alter on their behalf.
In Hebrews it is noted that while the priests have this sacred role, they are still mere humans and subject to sin. So, they needed to cleanse themselves and be absolved of sin themselves before taking on these duties. And they were also required to be compassionate.
Sadly, as we are well aware they were also weak and open to corruption. This is one of the things Jesus was quick to criticize on a regular basis.
So one of the things the author of Hebrews is arguing in this letter, is that Jesus as Priest, is in the tradition of Melchizedek, a priest without sin and who is blameless makes the ultimate sacrifice. And beyond that, he himself is the sacrifice. By doing so, Jesus bypasses all the work of the human
and imperfect priests who came before him. Jesus, who now forever intervenes for us before God. Our sins are forgiven. No other sacrifice is necessary.
There is a lot more to Hebrews and their attempt to describe and explain Jesus. That is a mere 10 verses in a lengthy and complex essay. But in part what we are told, and what we also hear elsewhere, is that through his death and resurrection, Jesus resets, or redefines our relationship to God.
But. And there is that word again. But….
I also think this assertion, which I essentially agree with, is often taken in directions I have difficulty with. One of those is the notion that God required this sacrifice on that part of Jesus to grant us forgiveness for our own sins. That does not compute for me when I proclaim my faith in an all-loving God whose love and mercy is offered unconditionally.
Instead, what I would suggest is that we human beings seem to require sacrifices, to satisfy our own sense of guilt or concern for the world.
The trial, torture, death of Jesus is a sacrifice. But I tend to view that sacrifice as one we as humanity demanded. Not God. But through that death – through Jesus’s agony, God comes closer to us. Through Jesus, God knows what it means to suffer. Jesus experiences loneliness, abandonment, betrayal, agony, torture, humiliation and death. God empathizes with us in our weakest and most desperate moments. Because through Jesus, God has been there.
In the reading this morning from Mark, Jesus speaks of the requirement to serve is that you desire to lead, and also what that entails.
Jesus knows what lies in front of him. He knows what it means to continue on his journey to Jerusalem. God may not demand blood, but Jesus is prepared to make that sacrifice to proclaim his message. He is committed to this role.
As I have stated, I cannot accept the image of a God that requires this sacrifice, but I also see that a significant portion of humanity does require such a sacrifice. It seems we cannot comprehend a God who loves us so completely and without condition. As much as we proclaim God’s love, we keep questioning it and try to explain suffering as a consequence of our sin, or wonder why God does not fix all of humanity’s problems for us.
So. Jesus pushes on to Jerusalem, proclaiming a coming world of peace and compassion, of generosity and justice. He does so while calling out the hypocrisy and injustice of the ruling elite and the occupying empire. He decries the cruelty of society knowing he will be persecuted and sacrificed to the Gods of greed and retribution. But in doing so, Jesus also serves as a sacrifice to his God of love and mercy. A God who works for our liberation from the forces of greed, of power and of cruelty.
Jesus carries on knowing he walks to be tortured and killed but unwilling to compromise his commitment and vision to this new world God desires for all of humanity.
Does God need this? Or, as we required a priesthood to mediate between humanity and God, do we need the comfort of knowing Jesus sits beside God intervening on our behalf?
God is waiting to welcome us, to enter a new relationship with us. God has shown us just how far they are ready to go to proclaim a new way of living in the world. Are we ready to embrace that way of life?
As I said, God heard the cries of Jesus and through those cries, experienced the loneliness, the abandonment and betrayal that haunt so many of us. God experienced the pain and death that Jesus endured. God. Knows. Our. Pain.
But, as has become abundantly clear over the course of history, God does not stay the hand of the torturer or the executioner. We human beings have been granted the power to make our own choices. We also live in a world that is well beyond our control and which God only rarely intervenes to spare some and not others.
But we are left with choices of how we will live in this unpredictable world: Will we respond to the suffering of this world with indifference? With relief it is not us who suffers? Will we respond with glee to witness retribution for perceived or real sins?
Or will we respond with compassion and empathy having experienced our own loneliness, our own pain, our own grief? Having endured our own abandonment or betrayal and not wishing that hurt on anyone else? Can we wish that pain on others?
Will we seek to lift others out of despair, to alleviate others suffering? Will we commit ourselves to making poverty a thing of the past and work to ensure others do not go hungry?
The writer of Hebrews describes Jesus as our high priest; chosen by God to intervene on our behalf. But God also chose Jesus to endure the worst humanity can do to itself. As a result, God knows our suffering and continues to love us, weep with us, and encourage us to do something more, something truly glorious. As we have endured our own suffering, can we respond with compassion and mercy for those we now witness enduring pain?
Why does God allow some of us to suffer?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why does God permit this world to so often inflict such cruelty on some?
Still waiting for a satisfactory answer, I know.
I think on some level God puts it back on us. Why do we allow so many among us to suffer? Especially alone. Without responding and serving where we can. Having endured our own pain, but not empathizing and responding to others in pain. Having suffered ourselves, can we not respond to offer comfort and strength and hope for those we now witnessing their own hardship?
And may we respond by saying Thanks be to God for always walking alongside us in times of joy and in times of pain. Amen

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789