One of my seminary professors worked in the Vatican for a few years after the term of his contractual commitment at the seminary concluded.  It was great fun to visit him in Rome because, as an insider, he had access to the most restricted areas of the Vatican complex.   

Reservations for scheduled tours are required to visit sites like the Vatican Museum, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and the Scavi but, accompanied by my former professor, I was given access to those and other places before the tourist crowds arrived. 

The experience of enjoying the privileges of being with a Vatican “insider” is an inadequate metaphor for the meaning of today’s second reading, but it illuminates what the author was trying to convey.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote, “since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.” (Hb 4:14) 

The office of “high priest” would have been familiar to both Jewish and gentile followers of Jesus in the decades following his resurrection.  In the Temple in ancient Jerusalem, the high priest functioned to interpret God’s will for the People and to offer the sacrifice for the People’s sins on Yom Kippur, the feast of atonement.  The high priest’s role was one of special responsibility and unique closeness to God. 

Similarly, in pagan Roman culture, the pontifex maximus was the high priest of Roman civil religion.  Like the high priest of the Jerusalem Temple, the Roman pontifex maximus held a position of high regard but was responsible primarily for administrative and organizational matters of Roman civil religion. 

When the author of the Letter to the Hebrews described Jesus as a “great high priest,” his readers would have understood immediately that God had given Jesus an unique and irreplaceable role in the divine plan to redeem the world from its sins.  According to the author of the letter, Jesus is the only one who can reveal to the world the nature of God’s offer of salvation and the only one chosen by God to be mediator of that offer of salvation. 

The Letter goes on to say that Jesus, our high priest, can “sympathize with our weaknesses.” (Hb 4:15)  Jesus knows our human nature, not from an outsider’s perspective, but from his personal experience of living a fully human life; he is like us in every way but sin. (Hb 4:15)  As I said above, describing Jesus as an “insider” is an inadequate but accurate metaphor.  Jesus has both a direct “insider’s” relationship with God the Father and an insider’s knowledge of human existence.   

For these reasons above, the author of the Letter to the Hebrews described Jesus as “a great high priest” who is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses.” (Hb 4:14,15)  If we understand the author’s identification of Jesus as a high priest, then we can understand the goal of this section of the letter.  The author wrote, “let us hold fast to our confession.” (Hb 4:14)  He was encouraging his church congregation to hold fast to the original confession of faith they made at baptism. 

Some members of the author’s church congregation had begun to doubt that faith in Jesus was sufficient for salvation.  They had been misled into thinking that Jesus’ death and resurrection couldn’t guarantee forgiveness of sins to his followers.  Consequently, they began to look for something more reliable than their baptismal faith.   

Realizing that his congregation was facing a severe temptation, the author wanted to dissuade his readers from committing the worst possible offence against God.  The author wrote that Jesus was tempted as we are, but he did not sin.  Most notably, Jesus avoided the worst sin imaginable, that is, the sin of failing to trust God.   

The stories of Jesus’ temptations in the Gospels depict him as being tempted to abandon his God-given role as Savior and Mediator for a lesser role in God’s plan of salvation.  He faced this temptation “without sin.” (Hb 4:15)  The author encouraged his readers to do the same. 

In his passion and death, in which he acted as high priest offering sacrifice for the sins of all people, Jesus remained completely faithful to God.  Jesus’ perfect faith merited resurrection for himself and salvation for us.  Imitation of Jesus’ faithfulness is our guarantee of receiving the salvation offered by God.  The author of the letter encouraged his congregation to trust in the faith they confessed at baptism because the efficacy of that faith was guaranteed by God, the only source of mercy and forgiveness. 

There are many temptations today that would lead us away from our baptismal commitment to trust in God alone.  The Letter to the Hebrews provides guidance and instruction to help us avoid the sin of betraying God.  The letter reminds us that, by baptism, we have an “insider’s” access to Jesus who enjoys an “insider’s” relationship to God the Father; nothing equals the grace of baptism and nothing else suffices for salvation. 

Jesus “passed through the heavens” as “the Son of God.” (Hb. 4:14)  That is to say, he descended from the Father’s side to take human flesh in the Incarnation and he ascended again to the Father after his sacrificial death.  Jesus, alone, is the one who can be trusted to mediate both God’s will and God’s salvation to the world.