Hebrews 4:15

CHRISTIANITY BETTER THAN JUDAISM

‘For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.’

Hebrews 4:15

From the first chapter to the last of this Epistle the author discourses on the glory of Christ. To set forth Christ’s glory he contrasts Him with prophets—angels—Moses—Aaron—and shows how in all things Christ has the pre-eminence. His great point is to show how the religion of Christ is better than the Jewish religion. Christ’s religion has a better hope (Hebrews 7:19), a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6), better promises (Hebrews 8:6), a better Sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23). In fact the writer uses the word better no less than thirteen times. You can hardly conceive what a wrench it was for a Jew to give up the God-given, time-honoured religion of his fathers and of his childhood. That was why the author laboured chapter after chapter to prove that the Gospel of Christ is infinitely and eternally better than the Law of Moses.

I. A life of perfect sympathy.—Ah! then, He is so great He cannot feel for us! Yes, ten thousand times yes. He is a High Priest Who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His life on earth was a life of perfect sympathy. Every sermon, every miracle, every parable proclaimed it.

II. Wondrous is the power of sympathy.—If you would realise its power, imagine its absence. ‘I will buy with you,’ says Shylock, ‘sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you.’ Man needs it. Even a child quickly feels its warmth.

III. Purity and sympathy.—Human sympathy is a poor picture of the Divine. But if human sympathy is so sweet, what must the Divine be? Then the question comes: How can the sinless sympathise with the sinful? When any one has fallen into sin, who are the men who most sympathise with him? Are they his old companions?—those worse than himself? Not so. If he wants sympathy when he has fallen into sin, he must go to the most Christ-like. The more holy the saint, the truer his sympathy. The nearer to Christ the greater the sympathy. Perfect purity is essential to perfect sympathy. Christ was perfectly pure, so His sympathy with sinners was perfect too. Let us entreat Christ to give us in our measure this sweet gift of sympathy.

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘Henry Ward Beecher was one cold wintry night buying a newspaper of a ragged, shivering Irish newsboy. His very teeth were chattering, so that he could hardly call out the names of the newspapers. Beecher, for pity, bought the whole sheaf of papers under the boy’s arm. “Poor little fellow!” sighed Beecher, whilst his eye moistened, “ain’t you very cold?” And the boy said, with a gulp, “I was, sir, before you passed by.” ’