Interceding from Heaven

Today is Ascension Day in the Christian year, and this week we’ve been reflecting on why the ascension of Jesus was and is so important. Yesterday, we were thinking about the fact that there are two aspects to the work of our Lord Jesus as Prophet and Priest and King. We call them His finished work and His unfinished, or ongoing, work. As Prophet, we saw yesterday that the Lord Jesus continues to speak to His church through the ministry of His Word to us. But He also continues His priestly ministry.

We’ve seen before that when we think about priestly ministry, we tend to focus on sacrifice. And certainly, our Lord Jesus, at the heart of His priestly ministry, has sacrificed Himself for our sins. That, of course, was fundamental to the work of the old covenant priests, and it’s certainly fundamental to the ministry of our Lord Jesus. The old covenant priests kept standing because theirs was not the real sacrifice, and they continued to make it daily. Hebrews tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ has made a sacrifice of Himself, once and for all, and now—thinking about the ascension—He has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

So, Christ has made a sacrifice and finished His work, but that isn’t the end of our Lord Jesus’ priestly ministry. Making sacrifices for sins was one part of the priest’s regular ministry. The other part was making intercession for the people. It was his responsibility—and we see this in different ways in the Old Testament—his responsibility to care for the people, and the priest did this in a variety of ways. But central to those ways was that they interceded for the people. They expressed to God their care and love for the people and carried their needs into His presence.

You remember how this was seen in a very visible way in the person of the high priest. He wore a breastplate where twelve different kinds of stones were each engraved with the name of one of the tribes of Israel. And there were shoulder pieces on his garment that had two onyx stones, on which were engraved, on one, six names of the tribes, and on the other, another six names of the tribes. That must have been a wonderful sight for a child to see the high priest of Israel with all the people in his heart and carrying all the people on his shoulders. What a wonderful picture of our Lord Jesus, not only in His earthly priestly ministry, but in His ongoing heavenly ministry. As Hebrews 7:25 says, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, because he always lives to make intercession for them.”

The author of Hebrews doesn’t explain in detail exactly how Jesus intercedes, and so perhaps we shouldn’t over speculate. But what makes this to me one of the most encouraging and reassuring verses in the whole Bible is that it tells me that the Lord Jesus is in heaven, before His Father, and He’s there for me in all my need, and He’ll never let me go. He’ll never stop caring.

Perhaps we can think about it like this: When someone you love is in difficulty, maybe sick or facing a personal crisis or going through a testing experience, you feel they’re constantly on your mind and on your heart. Sometimes, you speak words in prayer for them and about them, but there’s also a sense in which you’re caring constantly for them, isn’t there? You’re in the Lord’s presence, and they’re on your heart, and you know He sees that. That’s the kind of ministry Jesus exercises for you, for me, today. We’re always on His heart.

And there’s something else we need to know. Remember how Paul tells us that when we feel condemned—maybe because others condemn us, maybe because we feel that Satan condemns us, maybe because we condemn ourselves—we need to know that there is no condemnation for us because Jesus Christ, who alone can ultimately condemn us since the Father has placed all judgment into His hands, Jesus Christ alone who can condemn us has not only died for us, but He is now at the right hand of God interceding for us. I feel fairly sure that more than one of us will need to remember that today.