Jesus the Great High Priest

The Identity of Christ in the Book of Hebrews

Ο Χριστός Μέγας Αρχιερεύς (“Christ the Great High Priest”) by Priest Nicholas, 17th century. Public Domain.

In my last post, I explored Jesus’ role as a prophet—someone sent by God to share God’s word with the world. Not only was Jesus a prophet, he was the special prophet God had promised Israel back in the time of Moses.

Today we will explore another role that Jesus plays in our lives — the great high priest. Now one thing to keep in mind is that Jesus never called himself a priest. He didn’t dress like a priest or even come from the priestly tribe of Levi. But make no mistake—Jesus is the perfect high priest in the house of God.

But what exactly does that mean? Let’s begin with a quick look back at the role priests played in the Old Testament.

Priests in the Old Testament

Priests played a central role in the religious life of ancient Israel. They were responsible for overseeing the Temple (and the Tabernacle before that), offering sacrifices, conducting worship services, praying, seeking God’s will, and speaking blessings over the people. In addition to these religious roles, they occasionally wore other hats like physician, judge, teacher, or administrator.

Really the biggest thing to keep in mind is priests served as mediators or intermediaries between God and God’s people. On the one hand, the priests represented the people of Israel as they ministered in the Temple. Part of their priestly attire included stones engraved with the names of all twelve tribes of Israel (see Exodus 28:9-12). As the priest stood at the alter offering gifts and sacrifices, they bore the name of all of God’s people. But on the other hand, the priests also represented God. They spoke God’s blessings over the people (as in Numbers 6:22-27, “The Lord bless you and keep you…”), which God described as putting his name on the people of Israel.

Because of that, we can say that the priests of Israel facilitated two-way communication between God and his people: They would sacrifice to God on behalf of the people and speak to the people on behalf of God.

Jesus is our Mediator

Although the Apostle Paul never refers to Jesus as a priest, he does use the term “mediator” in 1 Timothy 2:5-6:

“5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” (NIV)

Just like a priest, Jesus is a mediator between God and his people. And yet Paul takes things one step further: Jesus is not only a mediator, he’s also the sacrifice that set us free from the power of sin. The priests of Israel offered thousands upon thousands of sacrifices — but they never offered their own lives on the altar. Only Jesus is both the priest presiding at the altar and the sacrifice that is slain on it.

And that leads us to some important passages from the book of Hebrews, which talks about Jesus’ role as priest more than any other place in the Bible.

Jesus the Priest in the Book of Hebrews

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Over and over, the author of Hebrews describes Jesus as the high priest over the house of God. He refers to Jesus’ role as a high priest at least once in chapters 2-9. Jesus is portrayed as a faithful, merciful, blameless high priest who truly understands us and truly meets our needs. As a fully human priest, he is able to empathize with our weaknesses and temptations. As the fully divine son of God, he is able to triumph over sin and death. And as the lamb of God, he has sacrificed himself for the sins of the world.

There are many wonderful passages in Hebrews that talk about these ideas, but perhaps we can focus on just one, Hebrews 7:23-28:

“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.” (NIV)

In this passage, the author of Hebrews is answering a rhetorical question he asked back in 7:11, “If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?”

In other words, if God’s people were able to experience everything they needed from the traditional priests in Israel, why would God need to send another priest at all?

The fact is that a new kind of priest was desperately needed—a perfect priest who could offer a perfect sacrifice that would break the power of sin and death once and for all. Old Testament priests were flawed men, just like us, who offered animal sacrifices in a physical temple. Those offerings provided an important (but temporary) blessing to God’s people. Jesus, on the other hand, was a perfect priest who offered a perfect sacrifice in a spiritual temple that could never been tarnished or destroyed. And his offering has brought about an eternal blessed for all who are found in Christ.

To sum things up, Jesus Christ is the priest we truly need. He lives forever, he offers complete salvation, he’s actively interceding for us, and he’s the one and only perfect sacrifice for sins. He is the ultimate and perfect fulfillment of the sacrificial system God instituted for the nation of Israel.

Everything is Fulfilled in Christ

N.T. (Tom) Wright and Michael Bird. Source: @profntwright on X.

New Testament scholars N.T. Wright and Michael Bird make the point that Israel’s scriptures were always pointing ahead to something new and better—and that everything they had been anticipating has been fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ. In fact they argue that this is one of the central themes in the book of Hebrews:

“The letter [Hebrews] points out that Israel’s scriptures were always looking ahead to something yet to come: a new covenant, a new type of priesthood, a new altar, a better sacrifice, a city to which the present Jerusalem would only be an advance signpost. We could summarize Hebrews this way: the scriptures had always pointed ahead to something new and better, and it has now arrived in Jesus.” (The New Testament in Its World, p. 711)

Summary

Although Jesus wasn’t recognized as a priest by his contemporaries in Israel, in hindsight it’s easy to see that he served in that capacity. The author of Hebrews consistently refers to Jesus as our High Priest because of the way that Jesus mediated a new covenant between God and his people. But Jesus wasn’t just another priest or even another high priest. He was the perfect high priest who was beyond all comparison. He was a perfect, sinless high priest who offered the only sacrifice that could truly break the power of sin and death — his own life on the cross.

“Priest” might not be one of the first words that comes to your mind when you think about the identity of Christ, but it’s definitely one of the most significant roles that Jesus plays in our lives.