Day 16- High Priest

Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. [Heb 3: 1]

Today, we will look at Jesus as the High Priest. First, we must see that in the book of Hebrews, the writer (Paul? Luke? Apollos? Doesn't really matter.) articulates the supremacy of Christ over all the created world as well as the old covenant. Throughout the book, Jesus is described as greater than Moses, greater than Melchizedek, greater than the angels. He is greater than all the greatest beings that the Jewish people have admired and emulated throughout the ages. To understand what it means that Jesus is the high priest, we must first look at the old testament understanding of the high priest.

Who was the high priest in the old Testament? What was his role?
The first high priest we find in Scripture was Aaron, Moses' brother. Subsequent high priests were all descendents of Aaron.

It was the high priest's job to offer daily sacrifices, maintain the Tabernacle, and play the role of host for the regular yearly feasts. On the Day of Atonement, it was uniquely the high priest's responsibility to take the blood of the sacrificed goat into the Holy of Holies on behalf of all God's people, for forgiveness of their sins. This awesome responsibility, which could even elicit death if not performed in accordance with the law, required a sanctified person (Exodus 29), the high priest, dressed in "holy garments".

Who is Jesus as the high priest?
We learn from Hebrews 4 that Jesus as the high priest is sympathetic to our weaknesses. This is incredible considering the fact that He does not need to offer a sacrifice for His own sins as the old testament high priests had to because He was, in Himself, sinless. Sinless yet sympathetic. Such is the paradox of our God. Holy and merciful.

Jesus is the last high priest. He will not need to repeat the sacrifice day after day or year after year as the old testament high priests did. The sacrifice He made upon the cross is good for the sins of all of God's people for all time. There is no need for a high priest to come after Him. He has provided the perfect sacrifice in His blameless body and blood. Nothing can be added to Him or taken away from Him. He is sufficient.

Christ as high priest continues to maintain the tabernacle as the old testament high priests did, though the new testament has redefined the tabernacle as the Holy Spirit inhabiting the people of God. He maintains this tabernacle, the church, by continuing the work of sanctification until His people are made to one day look like Him and be united, despite all other barriers, in Him alone.

Lastly, Christ still plays host at the feasts of His people. He Himself hosted the first Lord's supper on earth with His disciples and continues to preside over the Lord's supper that His people celebrate to remember His body broken and His blood shed for us. One day, He will be the figurehead at the greatest feast ever to be celebrated when His people from all nations and generations come together at the banquet table to celebrate the bridegroom and His bride.

Jesus is not just a better version of all the old testament high priests. The old testament high priests were a shadow of Christ. Their role, and many even suggest, their "holy garments", all pointed forward to Christ, the great high priest whom we confess.

There is so much more to this title of Christ that I would like to explore. In fact, there are so much more to many of these titles that I'd like to delve into. Since we have been hard at this for 16 days, I fear we may lose all that we've learned if we don't take some time to go back and meditate on that which we have studied and maybe even examine them a bit further. As such, from Monday to Thursday, we're going to take some time for reflection and review. I'd really love to hear some comments from you about how you are coming to treasure Christ and His role in the godhead more throughout this time.