That's the high priest we have!

[AI translation] The Scripture read illustrates the significance of Jesus' ascension by depicting the most sublime event in Old Testament worship. For the greatest event of the Old Testament cult was the entrance of the high priest once a year into the Holy of Holies, the sanctuary hidden from all mortals, which the people believed was the dwelling place of the real presence of God. He took with him the blood of the lamb blessed for the sins of the people, and there he prayed for the faithful waiting outside. Now, then, says the writer of Hebrews, what this Old Testament cultic act represented was now fulfilled, made real, on that particular sacrificial Thursday, with the entrance of Jesus, the true sacrificial Lamb and High Priest, into the heavenly sanctuary. Our High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God, "pierced through heaven", bearing with Him, on His scarred hands and feet, on His body and soul, which had suffered death and risen again, the testimonies of His sacrifice for our sins, as a demonstration to the Father that, behold, all the work of redemption was truly accomplished! It is this sublime fact of salvation history that we remember today.So, first of all, that our High Priest has passed through heaven. Modern man is always struck at this point, because heaven has no place anywhere in today's world view. Where is heaven? In the old world, heaven was imagined as a vast space above the earth, a higher floor that could be reached if man could always fly upwards. In this sense, the prehistoric people of Babel wanted to build a tower so high that its top would reach the sky. But since then, mankind has become more familiar with the structure and shape of the visible world. We now know that the stars are not tiny points of light in the sky, that the earth is only one of millions of minor planets, that there is no up and down in the universe, and that the universe has no boundaries. We also know that the earth is spherical, and so in Australia, for example, people point in the opposite direction to us, 'up', to the way we point up. This more correct understanding of the world space also puts our understanding of heaven in a more correct direction. For by the fact that the telescope does not show the location of heaven anywhere, our faith suffers precisely nothing. On the contrary, what natural science teaches us warns us that heaven is not a place visible to the eye, a space somewhere beyond the Milky Way, but a form of existence, a quality of life that cannot be explored by instruments or scientific means, but can only be known by revelation from there. Heaven is not a certain place in this world, but another world, another life, an invisible spiritual world, which differs from ours not in its position but in its quality. It is an unimaginable way of life, which, in the words of the Bible, 'eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, nor the heart of man conceived, which God has prepared for those who love him'. Ascension is not a change of place, but a change of being: a transition from time to eternity, from the created world to God the creator. To be in heaven is to be directly with God. Our being in heaven will also be about sharing in God's glory, justice and joy. And the ascension of Jesus means, in addition, to share again in the power and omnipresence of God.
So Jesus is now in heaven. The Jesus who lived in human flesh here on earth is now back in heaven. "He has passed through the heavens," says our Word. The kind of operation that this Word describes is like someone who successfully fights his way through bushes, rocks, dangers, enemy territory, and finally arrives triumphantly, victoriously at his destination. This is how Jesus struggled his way through the various regions of that mysterious, invisible world, through the spiritual realms of sin, death, demons, to the supreme place, the heavenly glory of God. There is something very welcome, encouraging, reassuring in this news.
To give you a better idea of what it is about, let me try to express it with a picture. Let us imagine that someone goes down into the abyss to pick up a man who has fallen into a precipice, ties a lifeline to him and to himself, and through the dangerous precipices and cliffs, he makes his way back up to the top, and now holds the rope from above, pulling his unfortunate companion from a safe place. Thus from above Jesus came after us into the abyss of sin and death into which this world has fallen. His life and death among us is the lifeline with which He wrapped human life around Himself, and then, when He had done all He could below, He crossed the abyss again, and ascended into heaven. And now life on earth is bound to heaven for good, the Son holding the rope from a safe place above at the right hand of the Father.
However desperate, dangerous, frightening human destiny may sometimes be, however perilously this earth may waver or crumble beneath us, fear not, it is already well bound to eternity, for there is One who has bound Himself to us forever and will never let us go. Yes, Brothers and Sisters, there is a real, real link between earth and heaven. That rope, that lifeline, is now His Word, His Word, that divine Word which here proclaims to us His grace, the forgiveness of sins, which calls us to repentance, which leads us on the path of a life consecrated to God. By this word He upholds all things.
It is also the word that binds our daily lives to the eternal shore. He holds the rope from above, and from beyond, from the invisible world, his word comes to us: hold fast to what I say! Take hold of my word like a rope, cling to it, fear nothing, my word will keep you, lift you up, help you through all troubles, through danger, even death, through eternity!
So this is how Jesus penetrated the heavens, so that the connection was preserved. But there are further blessings of His ascension. Our Word says: "For we have not a high priest who cannot be moved in our infirmities, but who is tempted in all things like unto us, except sin." (Heb 4:15) So the same Jesus is there in the heavenly sanctuary who has descended deeper than all of us into our earthly misery. Just think, in Jesus, the incognito of God has suffered everything that a man on earth can suffer; temptation, weariness, misunderstanding, malice, homelessness, illegality, persecution, imprisonment, death. He has personally travelled the whole journey of human life, experiencing first-hand all that makes life on earth difficult, distressing, bitter, unhappy. There is no situation that he has not known and experienced. That is why he can sympathise with us as a doctor who has been terminally ill himself. There in the highest place is an invisible confessor Father who knows all weakness and sin, a loving brother who has lived through all the struggles of human life, a divine Saviour who has conquered all these and helps us to conquer them. We can therefore have complete confidence in him, for we have a High Priest in heaven who is all-powerful as God, and yet like us as men. Who represented God here on earth among men, and now represents men in heaven before God.
Hence the writer of Hebrews goes on to say, "Let us therefore come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in due time." (verse 16) Interestingly, the Scriptures speak of going before Christ, of seeking His help, as if Jesus were not in heaven, but on earth just as much now as He was in the past. It is precisely this wonderful gift of His ascension, that He did not depart from us, but came closer to us. It is precisely because He passed into another form of life, into the invisibility of the spiritual world, into a state of omnipresence, that He could be with us every day, in every place, without any limitation of space or time, until the end of the world. Jesus' ascension has not made the army of His followers poorer, but richer. If He were here with us bodily now as He was 2000 years ago, somewhere like Jerusalem or on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, He would not be here with us now. Only the very rich and privileged would travel to him and seek his nearness.
So how is this? It is so beautifully expressed in our old confession of faith, the Heidelberg Catechism, when it explains this thesis of the Apostles' Creed: "He would ascend into heaven". It asks the question, "Is Christ then not with us until the end of the world, as he has promised us?" Answer, "Christ is real God and real man. He is on earth no more, as far as his human nature is concerned. But his divinity, majesty, grace and Spirit will never depart from us." What a great thing! However miserable and miserable my human nature may be, my body a hotbed of every disease and my soul prone to every senselessness - so be it, if I know that Jesus is with me in His divinity. I may have been humiliated, abused, broken by life to the point of losing even my self-respect, what does it matter if I know that Jesus is with me in His majesty! I see more and more how my heart is corrupt to the very core of my being, a million sins have left a stain on it - oh thank Jesus who is with me in His grace. I live in the flesh, that is, in helplessness, inability to do good, utter incapacity to serve God - and yet I can be a blessing to others because Jesus is with me by His Spirit.
No more loneliness, no more bitter, worrying abandonment, neither in sickbeds, nor in solitary confinement, nor in the uncaring crowd, nor among alienated, misunderstanding family members, because One to Whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given has promised to be with us always, until the end of the world. Behold, did not Jesus say to his disciples, as a farewell, "Be with me always. No. But this: I will be with you always. So there is no case where anyone can say, "God has forsaken me! It is always our faith that is at fault. He is still with us! Faith is the psychological state which enables man to become aware of Christ's being with us and to let Him work His power in us. Whatever may happen to you, whatever difficult task you face, whatever temptations you face, whatever struggles you face, say with absolute certainty: I am not alone! Even if death itself is approaching, so that you can almost feel its chilling breath, say with courage: 'I am not alone, Jesus is with me!
If you are approaching the gates of heaven and see the sign above it, "Nothing unclean shall enter there..." (Revelation 21:27a) And the angels will ask, "Do you have entrance, you wicked man? There, too, you shall only say: I am not alone, Jesus is with me! And the pearly gates will be opened to you, and you will enter the golden city.
Behold, we have such a High Priest in heaven. Come therefore with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in due time!
Amen
Date: 30 May 1957 (Holy Thursday afternoon)