"What's On the Inside?"

 

Hebrews 5:1-10 

 

      Jean and I want to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to go and visit our niece last weekend.  It was a great blessing to spend time with her at the hospital.  The most meaningful moments were at the end when we were able to join hands and pray together.  It was the one time Chris broke down and cried. 

 

     While we were driving back from Rochester, New York on Monday I was thinking about Chris, who is battling cancer.  Outwardly, she looks good.  She does not have any muscle tone in her legs or her arms but her color is good, she has all of her hair, she looks like Chris.  One of her daughters, Kelsey, looks just like her.  When you look at Chris it is hard to believe that that her abdomen is full of a cancer that is eating away at the inside of her body.

 

      As I thought about what the cancer was doing to Chris, it made me think that there are a lot of people who look good on the outside but have a lot of things wrong on the inside.  I am not thinking about physical illness but people who are struggling spiritually.  Maybe the best way to put it is that they are full of sin and the sin is eating away at them.  They look perfectly fine but they are all tied up in knots because their lives are out of control and they don't know how to make things right.  They have been off track for so long that they don't know how to get back on track. 

 

     We cannot see the insides of others.  But according to the writer of Hebrews, God can.  Before God no creature is hidden.  We are all open and laid bare before the eyes of God.  God knows what we have done, what is going on inwardly and outwardly in our lives.  And God is the one we have to deal with, the one we have to answer to.  God's word is sharper than any two edged sword.  God sees not only what we do but discerns the intentions of the heart.  

 

      The writer of Hebrews is encouraging people who are struggling inwardly to pray with boldness and confidence.  Storm the gates of heaven.  Share your heartfelt cries of human need.  Trust that you will be heard and comforted.  His words are a reminder of the old hymn: "Have we trials and temptations?  Is there trouble anywhere?  We should never be discouraged: Take it to the Lord in prayer!  Can we find a friend to faithful, who will all our sorrows share?  Jesus know our every weakness-Take it to the Lord in prayer."

 

       We can pray with boldness and confidence because we have a great high priest, Jesus the Messiah.  In Old Testament times the task of the priest was to approach God on behalf of the people, to gather what the people bring-their offerings, their prayers, their cares, their deepest needs-and to lift them up to God. 

 

       The truth be told, not one of us is worthy to speak to God.  No one is worthy, except Jesus.  It is Jesus, the great high priest, who takes our cares and concerns to the throne of God, and there we receive mercy and grace.  Rather than offering the blood of goats or bulls or rams, he offers himself, his own blood, a once and for all sacrifice.

 

       That sacrifice is not going to help my niece out.  Not physically.  She can look forward to glad heavenly reunion but barring a miracle she will not live to see her daughters graduate from high school.  That sacrifice will not heal the cancer but it can heal the soul.  I think there are a couple of reasons her tears flowed in the hospital when we prayed.  One is that she knew we would probably never see each other again.  The second is that she knew that she had done a lot of things that she needed forgiveness for.  She needed to know the great high priest, the one who gave his life for all. His sacrifice can make a difference in all of our lives if we just believe. 

 

        The Christian walk is not about trying harder to be faithful, it is about trusting more in what Jesus has done for us.  There is not a thing we can do to earn salvation but there is something Jesus has done.  When we approach the throne of grace with honesty and boldness about who we are and what we have done and what our need is, God promises that healing will take place.  When we realize we have a great high priest, our tears of sadness at what we have done will turn to tears of joy because of what he has done.