Prepare for Christmas: The Eighth Day of Advent

Second Sunday of Advent

And Who Is Melchizedek?

Sunday, December 9, 2018

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way. . .that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. . . . Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:17-18

The Old Testament clearly teaches that sin separates creation (us) from God, and the law required the blood of a perfect lamb to be shed to atone for sin. The above Scripture says Jesus had to be like us in every way so he could demonstrate that he understands our state of being, could relate to sin though he never sinned, and could remain a perfect human to atone for an imperfect race. All this was necessary both for him to accomplish his earthly task and for us to even begin to understand!

And it’s also amazing that he didn’t just atone for our sins but at the same time dealt with our sin nature. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, all the bad things we have done, said, or thought have been wiped away, but there’s more! Even the desire to sin and the ability to resist that desire Jesus has now died for! The law-required “wages” have been paid.

And how comforting the last of this passage should be for us! I remember as a young person thinking about Jesus as a super-human being who was immune to the things I struggled with. I was oh, so wrong! Here we read the comforting words of the Scripture that assure us Jesus was tempted just as we are, and his temptations did not end at the desert where he went soon after his baptism. The temptations continued all the way to the cross. Read the gospels carefully and find the times that he suffered temptation. These show that he understood how we also are tempted.

Go with him to Gethsemane, and hear him pray, “Father, is there any other way? Yet not what I want but what you want.” Read that his temptation was so great that he sweated blood as he resisted. Listen as he refuses during an agony we cannot imagine the drugged wine that would have eased his physical pain on the cross. Sing one of the old hymns that tell us, “He could have called ten thousand angels. . . ,” but instead he resisted the temptation so that you and I could be forgiven for our own individual sins through his awesome sacrifice.

“How could he love us so? How could he love us so? How could our Savior to Calvary go? How could he love us so?” we sing. He refused to give in to his temptations to reject the cross and the suffering, and his refusal to give in made it possible for him to become our “merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.” He had “to be made like us.” It was absolutely necessary!

Prayer: Father, the next time we are tempted to have our own way, to yield to some sin’s momentary pleasure, remind us of Jesus and his faithfulness to you. Remind us of our opportunity to be “in service to you.” Remind us that you understand us, forgive us, atoned for us. Keep us from sin. He became like us. Now make us like him. Amen.

And Who is Melchizedek?

An Advent Devotional Guide
prepared for Rehobeth United Methodist Church, Winter 2012,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator

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