Prayer: A Heavenly and Exclusive Privilege
Welcome to the priesthood. As a Christian, you are a priest. That may surprise you. You might think, “I’ve heard such things before, but it always sounded like some kind of word picture rather than reality.” It is a word picture, because the word “priest” evokes several mental pictures that we can use to understand it. One might be from your contact with the Roman Catholic or Orthodox churches, where their parish ministers are called priests. Fewer may have had contact with Scandinavian Lutherans, who use the same word in their own language.
A second mental image about the word priest comes from the Old Testament, where the Israelie priests had sacred duties that centered on offering sacrifices for all of God’s people. The Roman Catholic church considers its priests to be doing something similar when they change the communion bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and then offer it to God as an “unbloody” sacrifice that continues to provide the atonement sinners need to appease God’s wrath. This teaching has been called the “Sacrifice of the Mass.” It gave rise to the custom of paying a priest to conduct the Divine Service without anyone else present, so that the atoning merit of this sacrifice could be directed to the benefit of a specific person. The practice continues today, giving special meaning to the Roman Catholic office of priest.
Jesus did not provide his Supper for such a practice. His instructions are hard to misunderstand: “Take, eat,” and “Take, drink.” When He said “do this,” He meant the things that our pastors do when we take the wine and bread, bless it with his words, and distribute it to those who are prepared to receive it. By following his instructions with faith in what He says, we receive the full benefit of Jesus’ original sacrifice: full and complete atonement paid for with his body and blood on the cross. There is a technical label for the Roman Catholic sort of priesthood, sacerdotalism, based on the Latin word for priest. This is the belief that a human being can intercede for fellow humans before God to make atonement and obtain his favor.
The Old Testament priests did intercede for the sinful people of God, but their sacrifices did not make full atonement for sin. The writer to Hebrews (chapters 9-10) points out that their sacrifices had to be offered again and again. Instead of winning atonement, these sacrifices served to deliver atonement and God’s favor, for the sins that had already been committed.
What was the source of God’s forgiveness for the Israelites? Jesus. As the letter to the Hebrews states, He provided the one sacrifice sufficient to win atonement and to reconcile God to sinful man. He was both the sacrifice and the priest, as our communion hymn states. No other priest could make an offering that would win salvation for all people. No other sacrifice but the life of a man who is also true God could be enough. His sacrifice was more than enough. The entire priesthood and the Tabernacle of the Israelites was arranged on the model of Jesus as the eternal high priest. God provided it to teach them about how He would finally do away with sin, and how sinners must receive this blessing by faith and then live according to it.
We can still learn much about Jesus and our salvation through the worship of the Israelites. For one thing, it helps explain when St. Peter calls Christians “royal priests” (1 Peter 2:4-10). This true priestly office in the New Testament doesn’t offer an atoning sacrifice that wins salvation, but instead is authorized to make other offerings connected to it. As Christian priests, we have the divine privilege to make intercession for others. You can be confidently bold to approach God’s own throne in your prayers and other worship, for our High Priest (Jesus) has authorized you to do so.
This is no small privilege. There was a time described in Number 16, when the non-priest Levites staged a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, claiming the right to approach God themselves, without the priesthood of Aaron. Moses made a public test of their claim, where God himself would confirm who was authorized to offer incense, an act that embodies the “official” prayers of the Isralites. It did not go well for the rebels. They perished, confirming that only the descendants of Aaron had the privilege of priests. But now in the New Testament, you have a similar privilege. Through Christ, God hears your prayers at all times. You can intercede for others in your private life, even acting as God’s instrument to deliver the message of sins forgiven and reconciliation. In the Catechism, this private intercession is part of the Office of the Keys.
Your priesthood before God exists despite your own sins, because the blood of Jesus washes them away. He accomplishes this without any effort on your part, not because there’s anything in you to deserve it, but because of God’s love expressed in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This means that Christian parents and grandparents are authorized and even responsible before God to teach the Christian faith to their children. This is a priestly duty and privilege. Even without children in the home, Christians have a priestly responsibility and privilege to continue our daily prayers and personally receive our Lord’s spiritual blessings in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6:6-9. Nobody but the New Testament priesthood (a.k.a. Christians) are able to pray for our homeland and for the salvation of our neighbors with the confidence that God will hear us. Therefore, recall our theme verse for this year, Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”