Jesus: The priest

Pile of stones on green grass

Photo by Shalev Cohen on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered why Jesus came so long after Genesis 3? “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” has the line “late in time, behold him come.” We know that Jesus isn’t one of those folks who has a hard time getting out the door on time. So why wait? Could it be that Jesus coming down was Plan B? Let’s think about that possibility. I mean we do see this elaborate system of worship in the Old Testament. Worship was done in a particular place and in a particular way. Leviticus is an entire book dedicated to outlining Sabbath as well as daily worship. There were daily sacrifices, thanksgiving offerings, sin offerings, vows, things that took place, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, as well as a litany of health regulations and prescriptions for daily life. All of this was meant to guide and maintain a relationship with God. There was an entire tribe of people who’s sole job was to help the people maintain that relationship, helping them sacrifice, teaching them, maintaining their temple, and even helping them with some of their physical disease as well.

Why have this entire system that, at the end of the day, according to verse 11 of our text, “can never take away sins?” Was this a system that if the people just did it a little bit more faithfully it would have worked but since they didn’t Jesus swoops down and just does it? Is Jesus like a parent trying to let their child do something on their own, realize it is never going to happen, and just does it for them?

No. God knows everything. God plans everything from before the beginning of the world. Acts 2:23 tells us this: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” It was always the plan that Jesus would die for the sins of the world. But in order for us to understand what that actually means we need the Old Testament to compare Jesus’ sacrifice to. It is like trying to point out the difference between a million and a billion. A million seconds is 11.5 days. That’s a while! But a billion seconds? Why that’s over 31 years! I’ve only been alive for a little bit longer than a billion seconds.

In the same way, we look at Jesus’ ministry and ultimately dying on the cross and ask, “What am I really seeing here?” The Old Testament is the background to that answer, and for today, we will look at the office of Old Testament priests. That is what we are going to look at today when we see that Jesus is the ultimate priest.

Jesus as priest makes us perfect.

If you were to describe the job of the priest in the Old Testament in one word it would be “mediator.” They were the go-between in the relationship of God and man. Remember, God is perfectly holy and cannot stand the sight of sin. Man is full of sin, so you can see the problem here. The priests would represent the people to God and God to the people. They would stand between God and sinner by presenting a sacrifice. The animal would represent the sinner killed for their sin. The priest would offer that up to God as a covering for sin. Then the priest could turn to the worshiper and say that their sin was covered. It would be a great occasion to teach (which was also part of their job) what God expected of them and how to have a good relationship with them.

That is the biggest job that typically comes to mind for the priest, but there were plenty of other things you had to do as well. Another big part of the job was praying for the people (Ex. 30:1-10; 37:25-29). When John the Baptist’s dad, Zacharius, was visited by the angel in Luke 1, that is what he was doing. There would be a holy place with a pulpit-like stand where incense would be offered as well as prayers.

While teaching, prayer, and sacrifice were their main jobs, they also looked after the people to ensure that they didn’t become unclean through skin disease like leprosy or other conditions like that. When someone would present with something like that, the priests had a list of protocols to follow to declare the person clean after their condition cleared up, or if it didn’t to declare them unclean and direct them outside the gathering of the people of Israel.

It’s a big job. Lots of hats. But you can see how the priest would have been an essential figure in the life of Israel. Since their whole lives were to be in relation to God, the priests would be the ones to direct them on how to do it.

So how did you become a priest? Well, there were a couple of requirements. You had to be born into the role. You had to be of the tribe of Levi, because God set that tribe apart for that role. But just being born wasn’t enough. You also had to be free of physical defect. You couldn’t have a club foot, a hunch, or some other disease. Just like the lambs that they sacrificed, they had to be unblemished people to serve the Lord, physically and morally.

If one managed to pass that test, on the day you were to start the job, you would be washed and then anointed with oil. That anointing “represented the impartation of the authority and power of God through the Holy Spirit” (Ross, 211). This was to show everyone that God had set him apart for service to Him.

Now, that’s a lot of background information. And that is just some of the stuff that is put down on paper. It would be hard to describe what it would feel like to have a relationship with a good priest. He would be there to purify your wife after she completed childbirth. He would see all the lambs and rams that you brought for your sin. You would watch him lift animal after animal, getting a little slower as age set in. He would be there as you made vows to God in exchange for letting your child live. And he would be there when you brought your thanksgiving offering with your now-whole son. He would be there for all the highs and lows of life, and if he was doing his job well would point beyond himself to God.

Now, you could always pray to God on your own even in the OT times. But there was always something between you and the full presence of God. There was a temple, and in that, a holy place, and beyond that a Most Holy Place that only the High Priest could go, and only once a year!

What difference does Jesus make in this whole process?

Why, He makes all the difference in the world.

Even at the very beginning of his ministry, he was different. He was baptized by John the Baptist, and that was to identify with His people. He represented a people that needed to be cleansed and went through what they would need to go through, a cleansing baptism. In one way, it was an identification ritual, but in another way, it was an ordination ceremony. He comes up out of the water, not anointed with oil, but Who descends on Him? The Holy Spirit. What the priests of the OT just had a picture of, Christ has the reality in its fullest!

The priests were always sacrificing every year because at the end of the day, sacrifices couldn’t deal with sin permanently. The priest could, as it were, pull the tops off of the weeds in the garden but couldn’t deal with the root. Yes, the weed was gone for the day, but it would grow back.

That is why in all the pieces of furniture in the temple, as one preacher once pointed out to me, there is one piece that is missing, a chair. The priest wouldn’t sit down. There was always something to do. There was always a sacrifice to make, prepare for, or clean up after. When Christ comes, He offers a single sacrifice for sin, a sacrifice that would be worth more than one and a half thousand years of animal sacrifices! It has been asked, “How can one man suffer for a few hours and atone for the sins of the world?” Well, it depends on Who that Man is! When it is the Son of God acting as Priest, not offering some other sacrifice but offering Himself as a substitute, there is no limit to what can be atoned for!

And now it is done, and now, for the first time ever, a priest can sit down. The work is done, or better, “It is finished.”

Let me ask you this, “Who here would consider themselves perfect?” If you are in Christ, in a way, you all should be raising your hand. Because what does the text say in verse 14? “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” With Jesus’ work, He paid for every sin past, present, and future! He has paid for that sin in the past and declares you clean! In God’s eyes, you are perfect even in the middle of your worst sin. But, that doesn’t mean we just sin with abandon. Those who have been made perfect and still being sanctified, still being made more holy, still being set apart.

Set apart for what? Well, do you remember how someone became a priest? They had to be born into the line and be perfect. When you come to Christ, you are born again in a new family. And you are made a priest, too. Not to pay for sins—that’s already done—but to introduce people to God, praying for them, and serving God to that end. That is why in 1 Peter 2:9 we are called “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

When you come to Christ, there is an ordination of sorts. You receive the Holy Spirit, too. Not like the OT priests with oil but like Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes down on you slightly before the moment of conversion and lives in you powerfully. No longer does God’s presence need to be accessed in the temple behind a curtain. That curtain is ripped! God now dwells with His people in their hearts, but one day, we will live with Him face to face.

That is what Christ has done to make a relationship between God and man!