The True High Priest (Mark 14:60-65)

“For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Hebrew 5:1). Caiaphas was the high priest before whom Jesus stood. He was the high priest who was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins on behalf of men in relation to God. He was the mediator between God and the people. It was Caiaphas who had said about Jesus, “it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50). It is fitting therefore that when the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world stood before Caiaphas the high priest at the feast of Passover that Caiaphas should condemn Him to death.

When Caiphas asked Jesus if He was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One, Jesus responded, “I am.” “Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’” (Hebrew 5:5). The earthly high priest then tore his robe in the presence of the true high priest. After the high priest tore his robe and condemned Jesus to be deserving of death, Jesus was treated with contempt, being spit on and slapped. In treating Christ this way they fulfilled the messianic prophecy. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised; we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). 

Here is a great mystery: that the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world should be sacrificed at the Feast of Passover. The Feast of Passover was to commemorate the liberation of the Children of Israel from the bondage of  slavery in Egypt. Jesus was, “oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). Jesus had come to break the curse and bring liberation from sin and death.

Jesus, however, was not only the sacrificial Lamb, He was also God’s appointed high priest. Jesus is the true mediator between God and man. “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrew 5:9,10).

What does this mean for us today? It means that when Satan tempts us to despair, reminding us of our guilt and the sinfulness of our souls, that we have not only a Savior who redeemed us by His blood but a High Priest who intercedes for us. We are invited to draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. Jesus the Lamb of God who took away our sins sympathizes with our weaknesses and intercedes for us before the throne of God.