Christ the Priest
The authorship of the Book of Hebrews remains a mystery.
Still, it's widely believed to be a message directed toward Jewish Christians grappling with the intersection of their newfound faith in Jesus and their age-old traditions. In this letter, the author of Hebrews paints a vivid picture, likening Jesus to a High Priest. Priests in the Bible are mediators between God and the people. They were the only ones allowed to travel into the most sacred spaces of the Temple and offer sacrifices on behalf of the people.
Priests also handled "sin offerings," animal sacrifices believed to cleanse the impurity that sin caused in the community. These sacrifices often involving the shedding of blood. Blood, as depicted in the Bible, represents Life, and the act of sprinkling blood was seen as a means for the priest to combat the effects of sin, which is Death. Through the sacrificial rituals, individuals were meant to witness the consequences of sin physically.
"In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews 9:22)
For ancient Jews, the absence of Life meant a lack of opportunity to be forgiven of sin.
Throughout the Bible, sin is often considered a collective action that affects the entire community. (The Bible usually makes mention of "Israel's sin.") Imagine sin as an infection, a stain affecting the whole community. Many Christian mystics and theologians have also thought about what "sin" is. The famous theologian Thomas Keating most profoundly said, "The chief thing that separates us from God is the thought that we are separated from God." It's a profound truth echoed in Colossians 1:21, which says,
" Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."
It's impossible to function in the likeness of an image you feel you are separate from. Throughout the trajectory of the Biblical story, God has worked to dwell with his people in growing intensity. As God is the source of everything and in whom all things exist, it's important to remember that he has always been present. Sin and injustice cause a rift in our ability to experience the presence of God. However, God understands our human limits, so he chooses to work with our religious ideals and cultural contexts, often subverting them to show us his power.
In Hebrews, Jesus is depicted as the ultimate High Priest and sacrificial offering, bridging the gap between humanity and the divine. His death on the cross is viewed as the ultimate purifying sacrifice. The sprinkling of His perfect blood vanquishes Death once and for all. His Resurrection undoes the power of Death, which is the fear of Death, by proving it to be a doorway (Hebrews 2:14-15). While the concept of sacrificial rituals may seem archaic or cruel for us today, it underscores the human tendency to scapegoat—to attribute blame to others for our failings.
Scapegoating comes from the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16. The High Priest would place his hands on the head of a goat and confess over it the sins of the Israelites. Then, he would send the goat out into the wilderness. The goat carried all the people's sins, which were forgiven for another year.
Think about it this way: Jesus didn't just offer Himself as a scapegoat; He became the scapegoat for all humanity. On the cross, we see God sacrificing himself to us; it's a reverse ceremony. God is breaking himself down to create access for us. In his brokenness, Jesus shows us that God is near to us in suffering, especially unjust suffering. When Jesus the High Priest declared from the cross, "It is Finished," he was signaling an end to scapegoating. His Death reveals to us our human capacity to miss the goodness of God in what we don’t fully understand. This is the redemption found in the Cross of Christ. That despite our cruelty, Jesus pursued us. In the face of what appeared to be a loss, he demonstrated the love of God.
“ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ” (Romans 5:8)
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Jamieson, Bobby. “After Calvary: How the Day of Atonement Highlights Jesus’s Heavenly Offering.” TheGospelCoalition.Org, The Gospel Coalition, 12 Apr. 2020, www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/day-atonement-jesus-offering/.
“Jesus: Prophet, Priest, and King.” Loyola Press, 28 Apr. 2020, www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/scripture-and-tradition/jesus-and-the-new-testament/who-do-you-say-that-i-am-names-for-jesus/jesus-prophet-priest-and-king/.
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Mackie, T., & Collins, J. (2015, August 27). How God Deals with Evil Without Destroying Humanity. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_OlRWGLdnw&t=317s
