ACC ~ Hebrews 7 v25

HE STANDS BEFORE THE ALTAR. ORIGEN: Jesus now stands “before the face of God interceding for us.” He stands before the altar to offer a propitiation to God for us. As he was about to approach that altar, moreover, he was saying, “I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you.”Therefore, he expects us to be converted, to imitate his example, to follow his footsteps, that he may rejoice with us and “drink wine with us in his Father’s kingdom.” For now, because “the Lord is merciful and gracious,” he “weeps with those who weep and desires to rejoice with those who rejoice” with greater feeling than this apostle. And how much more “this one mourns over many of those who sinned before and have not repented.” For we must not think that Paul is mourning for sinners and weeping for those who transgress, but Jesus my Lord abstains from weeping when he approaches the Father, when he stands at the altar and offers a propitiatory sacrifice for us. This is not to drink the wine of joy “when he ascends to the altar” because he is still bearing the bitterness of our sins. He, therefore, does not want to be the only one to drink wine “in the kingdom” of God. He waits for us, just as he said, “Until I shall drink it with you.”Thus we are those who, neglecting our life, delay his joy. HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 7.2.3.

AS MAN HE INTERCEDES. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Petition does not imply here, as it does in popular parlance, a desire for legal satisfaction; there is something humiliating in the idea. No, it means interceding for us in his role of mediator, in the way that the Spirit too is spoken of as “making petition” on our behalf. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Even at this moment he is, as human, interceding for my salvation, until he makes me divine by the power of his incarnate humanity. “As human,” I say, because he still has with him the body he assumed, though he is no longer “regarded as human,”meaning the bodily experiences, which, sin aside, are ours and his. This is the “advocate” we have in Jesus—not a slave who falls prostrate before the Father on our behalf. Get rid of what is really a slavish suspicion, unworthy of the Spirit. It is not in God to make the demand, nor in the Son to submit to it; the thought is unjust to God. No, it is by what he suffered as man that he persuades us, as Word and encourager, to endure. That, for me, is the meaning of his “advocacy.” ON THE SON, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4(30).14.

HE THAT HAS ALL JUDGMENT ALSO INTERCEDES. CHRYSOSTOM: You see that he says this in respect of that which is according to the flesh. For when he appears as priest, then he also intercedes. Wherefore also, when Paul says, “who indeed intercedes for us,” he hints the same thing; the high priest makes intercession. For he that “raises the dead and gives them life”and does so “as the Father,” how is it that, when there is need to save, he “makes intercession”? He that has “all judgment,” how is it that he “makes intercession”? He that “sends his angels” that they may “throw” some into “the furnace” and save others, how is it that he “makes intercession”? Wherefore, he says, “he is able to save.” For this cause then he saves, because he dies not. Inasmuch as “he always lives,” he has, he means, no successor; and if he has no successor, he is able to aid all people. For there under the law indeed, the high priest, although he were worthy of admiration during the time in which he was high priest as Samuel, for instance, and any other such, but, after this, no longer; for they were dead. But here it is not so, but “he” saves “to the uttermost.” What is “to the uttermost”? He hints at some mystery. Not here only, he says, but there also he saves them that “draw near to God through him.” How does he save? “Since he always lives,” he says, “to make intercession for them.” Do you see the humiliation? Do you see the manhood? For he says not that he obtained this by making intercession once for all, but continually and whenever it may be needful to intercede for them. “To the uttermost.” What is it? Not for a time only, but there also in the future life. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 13.6.

FROM HIS INCARNATION HE ADVOCATES FOR US. OECUMENIUS: He intercedes as “we have him as an advocate with the Father.”He says that from his incarnation itself he advocates for us and exhorts the Father to have mercy on us. FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 7.25.

Heb