Jesus, Our Great High PriestSample

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

Perhaps you’ve been mocked, sidelined, or cold-shouldered for your faith in Jesus? We’ve been learning that Jesus is supreme: our great mediator and the perfect offering for our sins. Embracing this truth may mean offending those who don’t share our convictions. It’s then that we need to take courage, fixing our eyes on Jesus who left us a flawless example of selfless sacrifice.

Breaking free from ungodly aspects of our culture and traditions is extremely difficult. If you’ve had to do this, it may well feel as if you’ve had to deny part of your identity. When my mother passed away, I was expected to participate in a cleansing ceremony a few months after the funeral to ward off bad luck. (This involved the slaughtering of a goat and seeking out the spirits of ancestors.) I respectfully declined and subsequently experienced tremendous hostility from my wider family.

When we go through these kinds of family or community tensions, it helps to think of Jesus on the Mount of Olives. On the night of His betrayal, He endured severe agony and sorrow (Luke 22:41–44), and He did so for us because He loved us. Jesus freed us from needing to perform all sorts of activities to get right with God. His sacrifice was so much greater than anything we’re called to give up, and because of that, we can withstand persecution when it comes.

Hebrews 12:1–3 explains that as we cast off sin, we’re called to fix our eyes on Jesus, who endured pain and suffering on our behalf, so that we may be reconciled to the Father. We are to look at the example of how He sacrificed Himself and find courage in the fact that He is acquainted with every struggle we might face as we try to live a life that’s pleasing to Him. So let’s remind ourselves to cast off everything that doesn’t glorify God – the weight of sin – and take courage from fellow believers. We’re not alone in our fight to obey God in all we do: others have gone before us, and still others will come after us and look up to us. Let’s keep on keeping on, following Jesus’s example of sacrifice.

May we be flooded with the experiential knowledge of the beauty and supremacy of Christ. May we continually be reminded that once and for all, Jesus our High Priest paid the ultimate price to atone for our sin, removing the requirements for any other kind of sacrifice. And may we stand firm in the truth that there’s just one mediator between God and people: Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God.