What is a priest?

Midweek Communion at St Giles – 20 January 2011

Reading Hebrews 7.25 – 8.6

²³ Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; ²⁴ but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶ Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷ Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. ²⁸ For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

¹ Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ² and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

³ Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. ⁴ If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. ⁵ They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” ⁶ But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

Sermon

Author of Hebrews admits passage about Christ and Melchizedek is long and difficult.

Nature of priesthood. How Christ can be a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Quote from Ps. 110 – starts The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” This was the verse quoted by Jesus in Matt. 22 when Pharisees asked whose son is the Messiah? They reply David’s son” and Jesus then asks how David in the Ps. Could call the Messiah Lord when he is his son.

Who was M? He appears in Genesis, when it says Abraham defeats coalition of 5 kings and rescues his kinsman Lot. M of Salem appears, blesses Abraham, and in return A gives M one-tenth of his spoils.

Many speculations of who he was, and why he is important. Suffice it – he is a priest who blesses A. For Hebrews, this leads to discourse about priesthood.

In OT priests lived and died. Christ did not die, and remains a priest forever. OT priests were human, fallible, and sinful. Christ is holy and blameless. So where earthly priests offered sacrifices for their own failings before could intercede for others, Jesus had no need to do so. His sacrifice was not for his own sin and then for the sins of others, but he sacrificed himself for our sins.

In this sense, as M was important in OT, so in NT Christ has superseded M as our high priest. But where many priests in OT lived and died, making offerings for sin, in NT there is only one priest, Jesus Christ. He did not require to be perfected, but through suffering became part of the divine plan for salvation in himself, not through any offering he made for us to God.

Likewise, earthly priests had to continue making sacrifice day after day, night and morning, as a ritual of atonement. By contrast Christ’s offering of himself was once and for all, having no need to be repeated.

Where does this leave the Christian priest? What is out business? We are not here to offer sacrifice, but to act as kind of apostles in the community called Church. As Rowan Williams put it:

The fundamental task is that of announcing in word and action in the middle of the community what the community is and where it is; it is telling the Church that it is the created universe insofar as that universe has been taken up into the activity of the eternal Word and transfigured by this fact, and that it is in consequence the place where Christ's self-offering continues to be most freely real and effective. The priest is therefore in the business of – as we could put it – immersing in Christ's action the gifts and prayers and love of human beings.

Takes some ‘getting your head round.’ Comforting, at times when we feel least successful, to know the task is an impossible one, but one we have to strike to aim for. Task we all share – not just delegated to the one ordained by the church to lead it. May God give us the strength needed to continue with this task, because it cannot be done from our own strength alone. Amen.