Hebrews 3:1 “Fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest we confess.”

Later chapters of this letter to the Hebrews describe Jesus’ high priestly work in detail. Ordinarily, so long as you didn’t mind butchering animals for sacrifice, the position of high priest was highly desirable. People waged political campaigns and paid money to secure the position. You were a highly respected member of society. You were a powerful national leader. You were part of a religious tradition over a thousand years old and had access to parts of the temple where no one else could go.

But ordinarily, you weren’t asked to become one of the sacrifices you offered. You weren’t expected to die for the people you served. That was part of Jesus’ mission from the beginning. He came knowing full well it would cost him his life.

There are other religious leaders in history who were put to death for what they believed and taught. But none of them volunteered. It was not part of the plan from the beginning. Jesus came with the full knowledge he would die a violent death at the hands of the people he came to save.

More than that, he embraced that death as the substitute for the world that rejected him. He accepted that justice would be served on him for crimes and sins others had committed. Jesus knew that he was dying for you, and for me. He was faithful to that mission.

Are you paying attention? What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you? What is the biggest sacrifice anyone has ever made for you? My father, a manager at a small midwestern company, worked a second job selling suits at JCPenny for twenty years so that I could attend a private Christian high school and college. As a nation we get regular reminders of the sacrifices our soldiers have made, sometimes giving up a limb, or even a life, so that we could be safe and enjoy our freedoms.

Thinking about such things isn’t supposed to put us on a guilt trip and manipulate us into a certain kind of behavior. But it does have the effect of nurturing our affection for family and country, bonding us more closely to those who have served and loved us.

No sacrifice or service comes close to matching what Jesus gave. Fix your thoughts on his faithful love, and see if you don’t find yourself closer to him day by day.