Nigh Unto God

For the Law made nothing perfect, but the bringing of a better hope did; by the way which we draw nigh unto God. Hebrews

Everyone has hoped for something. Maybe a boy hopes for a new bicycle. Maybe a girl hopes for a tea set. There are things we can remember that we thought about, longed for on the night before Christmas. Hope is an essential aspect of our humanity. But our realized hopes don't seem to fulfill as we expect. We hope on Christmas Eve and by the end of Christmas Day we are left empty after all the giving and getting.

The author of the Book of Hebrews writes about a high priest that provides a better hope. And the locus of this hope is in this new high priest, who has been prefigured in the priestly order of Melchizedek. And this new high priest allows us to draw "nigh unto God." Imagine! Nigh unto God. Think about that. John says, "God is love." Who would not want to draw nigh unto absolute love? How is it we leave this gift untouched?

Should we open this gift, we will discover something remarkable---something so exciting, so unexpected that we fail to hear the wildness of it. Not only is this high priest one who lives to make intercession, but he is himself the sacrifice. Quite a divine irony.

The entirety of redemption is wrapped up in this. When we mediate on it, it will put the fast-paced , commercial Christmas in its proper place. It will give us a peace as we walk in the chaos. What a pity for those who don't know the great high priest that gives such a gift, the pearl that will not perish.

We indeed do have a better hope. And what can be better than drawing nigh unto God?


First published in the Advent Devotional 2004 Park Street Church, Boston MA