Priest

Scripture: Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.1-4, 7-10; 10.11-15


Faith comes from hearing. “It is neither derived from nor exercised by seeing.”
We walk by faith not by sight.

The first Christians, who were all of them, it is important remember, also Jews, certainly understood this message. As Jews they had visual symbols and reminders of their faith, the scrolls of the Torah, the synagogue, the Temple, and the priests and rabbis who walked among them as representatives of the faith. And yet the visible was only holy and only useful to the degree that it pointed to the invisible reality of the invisible God. Remember these first Christians who were first, Jews, were taught that the name of God was so holy it couldn’t be written down in a word and couldn’t be directly spoken. Whisper it and God might vanish, or worse yet, come crashing with a vengeance on a people of unclean lips and uncircumcised hearts.

To understand this message of faith in the letter to the Hebrews we must understand this mysterious connection between visual symbols and invisible reality. We must understand the language of covenant, confession, and priest.

The Hebrews had priests from their earliest existence. Father Abraham gave sacrifice and homage to a priest called Melchizedek, who is invoked in this New Testament as founder of an order, whose completion and perfection is found in Christ.

The purpose of priest is to be a bridge between the people and their God.

“Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Hebrews 5.1

The priest handles the holy things, the visuals of an invisible God. So here begins the mystery than an ordinary human being can be trusted with the divine.

I am a priest. I like to think of myself as a regular guy. Most clergy I know what to viewed by their people as regular, down-to-earth, approachable people. We want to be treated like everyone else, fed the same food, told the same jokes, invited to the same places. And yet, as a priest, I would shun the folksy, regular, ball-cap wearing image, so that I can rightly divide the Word and administer the Holy Sacrament. It is dangerous to deal cavalierly with holy things. It just won’t do.

A priest offers sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Hebrews 5 points out that the priest is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward because he himself is ignorant and wayward. Peter is recognized as the Bishop of the Christian Church. But as a follower of Jesus he is a perfect example of this mysterious relationship between the holy and the human.

Peter had a knack for speaking first and thinking later. He was the kind “who thought that saying something noble or valiant was the same thing as doing something noble or valiant,” writes Mark Buchanan. Peter bandied words like never and always but got stuck in a pattern of maybe and sometimes. He said things such as, No matter what, that really meant, If it suits me at the time. And yet Peter really wanted to get it right.

Peter once asked Jesus, “How many times should I forgive my brother when he sins?”

Peter suggests seven times. He thinks he is being extravagant. He thinks he is being spiritual. Jesus has another number in mind and it’s a lot bigger. Peter and the other disciples can’t understand how any good can come of forgiving the sinner over and over again. But they don’t argue. They simply exclaim, “Increase our faith!”

Our faith has a way of staying theoretical. Or we practice it when it suits us. Part of the problem I am convinced is that we don’t have faith in confession and forgiveness. We’re carrying our sins around with us instead of carrying them to the priest.

As Protestants I think we are missing out on a the great spiritual practice of confession. Many Catholics are also missing out on the practice, because they don’t practice either. The pity is, Protestant or Catholic, we all have the opportunity. We all have a priest to whom we can confess.


“Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4l.14-15


Jesus is the only priest that has come from heaven. Many priests are going that direction from earth to heaven. Only one has come to us from there. He’s the best priest. He’s what God had in mind for a priest.

And yet through and through, human too; someone who understands the weaknesses we have, the things we are tempted by. Jesus knows what it’s like to live our lives.

So we are urged to “hold fast to our confession.” Not just to our confession of belief, but literally to the practice of confessing our sins. Because to do so restates our faith in the power of forgiveness being greater than the insane and seemingly endless cycle of promise and failure that marks all of us. Do you want to be forgiven seven times? Or do you want to be forgiven 649 times? Or more than that on a bad day?

Jesus our High Priest forgives.
But there’s one more thing, and this thing no other priest, no one else can do for us:

Jesus our Priest was also our Sacrifice. By His death and rising again we are given power to become New People.

“Every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. . .by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

Jesus offering of himself not only covers over our sin, it removes our sin. Jesus breaks the power of sin over us and out of death comes rebirth for all who believe. Not just some, not just really religious, but all who believe. That’s the crux – somehow the death of one man two thousand years ago can change my life completely today.


Priest. It’s a good word. And it’s a good person, a changed person who goes to their High Priest often for forgiveness and power.