Lent V

From the Epistle: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:11-12)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

One thing which causes a lot of confusion is the word “priest.”

If we read the New Testament in Greek, there would be no problem.

In Greek names of the three orders of Jewish ministers are: archiereus, hiereus, and leuitEs (le-wē'-tās).

The names of the three orders of Christian ministers are: episkopos, presbuteros, and diakonos.

If we used Greek, there would be no confusion.

The ministers of the middle rank, (hiereus in the Jewish ministry, presbuteros in the Christian ministry) are clearly different things.

The trouble comes when we translate the Greek into English.

The English word “priest” comes from the Greek, “presbuteros” (which simply means “elder”) which became “presbyter,” then “prester,” then finally, “priest.”

Unfortunately, the translators of the New Testament translated the name of the second order of Jewish ministers, “heireus,” as “priest”; this is the source of endless confusion.

I am not, properly speaking, a priest; I am a presbyter, or and elder.

There is no way to avoid this confusion except to remember that when we see the word “priest” in the Bible it refers to Jewish clergy and when we see the word “elder” it usually refers to Christian clergy (it can also mean simply an old person, you must decide which from context.)

Jewish and Christian clergy are different, but they are related.

Like so many things in God’s economy of salvation, things we find in Judaism prefigure things in Christianity; we call this the “type” and the “antitype.”

The reason for this is easy to understand.

It is easier to come to grips with something new if you can relate it to something you already know about.

The term “analogy” refers to this kind of reasoning.

For example, most of us were taught in school that the atom is something like the solar system, with the electrons orbiting the nucleus just like the planets orbit the sun.

Like all analogies, this one, known as the Rutherford model of the atom, is fine up to a point, but totally fails if you push it too far.

The problem with the Rutherford model is that the electrons would instantly radiate away their energy and fall into the nucleus; the fact that stable matter exists shows the model is incomplete.

The Jewish ministry is the “type” of the Christian ministry.

There are many similarities; for example, there are three orders in each, both are involved with the offering of sacrifice, and so forth.

There are, however, great differences.

These differences relate to the different sacrifices.

To be sure, almost all religions involve the offering of sacrifice to God.

From the earliest days, long before there were churches or clergy, men sacrificed precious things to their gods.

For example, one of the first stories in the Bible is the story of the offering of sacrifice by Cain and by Abel.

If you will recall, Cain’s sacrifice of grain was not pleasing to God, while Abel’s bloody offering was, the jealously this engendered in Cain led him to murder his brother.

There are various explanations as to why God was pleased with Abel’s offering and displeased with Cain’s, but the one which makes the most sense based on other Scriptural evidence suggests that God demands bloody sacrifices to expiate sin.

Only after the sin problem is dealt with by bloody sacrifice can the offering of other things, such as agricultural produce, known as the “fellowship offering” or “thank offering” be made acceptably.

In our Epistle for today, the author draws an analogy between the Old Testament ministry and the ministry of Christ.

The Epistle to the Hebrews is indeed an extended analogy.

The author’s purpose is to exhort Jewish Christians to remain faithful to Christ because the purposes of the Old Covenant have been superseded by the New.

In the section from which our text is drawn, he compares the Old Covenant ministry with the New, arguing the New Covenant offers better promises.

This is evident from the fact the blessings offered in the Old Covenant, while surely granted to the worshippers, if offered in repentance and faith, were blessings only for this life.

The Old Covenant did not promise eternal life; it is silent on the matter.

Thus, Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Or again, John tells us, “this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.” (1 John 2:25)

On Holy Saturday, Jesus descended into Hell (Hades, the “place of departed spirits,” not Gehenna, the lake of fire) to extend these promises to those faithful souls who had never had an opportunity to confess Christ, His not having been born yet. (1 Peter 4:6)

The author readily admits, “the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh.” (Hebrews 9:13)

But he quickly goes on to show the superiority of the New Covenant,

“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” (Hebrews 9:14-15)

The natures of the two Covenants, with their different promises, call for different worship.

The Old Covenant required the offering of physical sacrifices, the blood of animals, and the fruits of the field, to gain the physical blessings of the Old Covenant; the New Covenant requires the offering of the spiritual sacrifice of the life of Christ, to gain its spiritual blessing of life everlasting.

When I say Christ’s sacrifice offered to God is spiritual, I mean what is offered now; the sacrifice he made on Good Friday was very physical indeed.

Finally, the different worship requires a different priesthood.

The worship of the Old Covenant had an earthly tabernacle and many earthly priests to offer earthly sacrifices; the New Covenant has a heavenly tabernacle and one Great High Priest, who eternally offers His one full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world to the Father on our behalf.

In our Communion service, as members of Christ’s earthly body, we are privileged to take part in Christ’s presentation of his Sacrifice to the Father.

Thereby we receive the promised blessing of eternal life.

Jesus made this explicit when he promised, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54)

This leaves the very real question, “if Jesus continually offers his spiritual sacrifice to the Father, of what use are earthly clergy? Can’t we just rely on what Jesus is doing for us and skip the whole going to church business?”

While I will be the first to admit earthly clergy can be annoying sometimes, the fact remains Jesus gave the commandment “do this” to the apostles, who passed that commandment down to their successors, the bishops, and the bishops ordain men to act in their name in the local churches.

It seems the clergy really are necessary to our participation in Christ’s continuing presentation to the Father.

From a purely practical point of view, the clergy do assist Christ and his people in directing the service, following Saint Paul’s injunction “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)

But also, from a more spiritual point of view, the priest at the altar is an icon of Christ, making visible the invisible, or, if you will, the outward and visible sign of what Christ is doing for us in Heaven.

As a friend of mine once said, “I am not Jesus, I am just have the great privilege to play him at the altar.”

In closing, let us give thanks to God for sending Christ to give his life a ransom for many.

Let us give Him thanks for allowing us the privilege of taking part in Christ’s presentation of that Sacrifice to the Father.

Above all, let us give thanks for the blessing of eternal life we receive thereby.

The one thing we must avoid is thinking eternal life is something which begins when we die.

Eternal life is not “pie in the sky when you die by and by.”

If we are to live eternal lives, we are living them right here and right now.

As C. S. Lewis wrote, “for those who are being saved, this life is the outskirts of heaven, for those who are being lost, it is the outskirts of hell.”

We do not have to choose between the Old Covenant’s earthly blessings and the New Covenant’s heavenly blessings.

As C. S. Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

Amen.