Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
When we hear the words ‘priest’ and
‘sacrifice’ what do we think of? If we think of them at all, we think of
‘priest’ as what we don’t call our ministers, in opposition to Roman Catholics, and
of ‘sacrifice’ as something you give up for the sake of something else.
But we also don’t think much of the words,
‘priest’ and ‘sacrifice,’ because human beings don’t offer sacrifices as such
anymore. Sacrifice was everywhere in the ancient
world. Every culture offered some sort of sacrifice to their gods – sacrifices
of the first of the grain or fruit, sacrifices of animals, even sacrifices of
human beings. People would offer sacrifices for many things – for the return of
the spring, for instance; for fertile fields and fertile wombs; in thanksgiving
for the harvest, and for atonement for sin, both individual and communal.
Why has sacrifice, by and large,
disappeared from the world? The answers are manifold. Many people believe that
sacrifice has disappeared from the world because there is no God to whom to
sacrifice. Human beings have developed beyond the need for a god, in their
view. They believe that with the advent of science, people understand that
sacrifices are not necessary or effective in delivering the goods of the world.
Other people believe that there is a God,
or that there are gods, but that he or they have revealed that there is no need
for sacrifice, that what God demands is moral living and justice and
well-doing. Certainly in the Bible we have that understanding: ‘He has told
you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?’
But there is a third understanding, which
is the one given in the letter to the Hebrews. The writer is trying to explain
to his fellow Jews why he believes they don’t need the Temple any more, which has been
destroyed by the Romans, the Temple with its sacrifices and priests. His answer
is not that there is no god, nor is it that God doesn’t want sacrifice. His
answer is that the great high priest has come, and the final sacrifice for sin
has been made, and that therefore there is no more need for priests or a
temple.
Who has performed this sacrifice – it is,
as you may have guessed, our Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews, Jesus is depicted
as the great high priest who offers a sacrifice for himself and for his
brothers and sisters, God’s people. This is a sacrifice for sin – but the only
effective one, once for all.
In today’s reading from Hebrews, the writer
tells us that Jesus is a priest, but one of a different order than the
Levitical priesthood which had served in the Temple. Jesus is instead of ‘the
order of Melchizedek,’ a ‘priest of God most high’ who is mentioned in Genesis
and the Psalms. In ancient Israel, the king was called a priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek.
Since Jesus is of David the king’s lineage, these words apply to him.
But what is the sacrifice offered by Jesus?
Is it the blood of bulls and goats, an offering of first-fruits or grains? No,
it is himself. He is both priest and sacrifice, so that we can be in right
relationship to God. In next week’s reading from Hebrews, we will hear these
words: ‘Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day
after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he
did once for all when he offered himself.’ And so also our Gospel for today
says: ‘For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his
life a ransom for many.’
All this may have been very interesting to
Jewish believers of the first century. But what does it say to us? It says that
we have no more need to make atonement for our own sin, that atonement has been
made, and that this is the reason there is no more sacrifice. Even Catholics
and Orthodox Christians, who have priests, understand ‘sacrifice’ in a
different way than did the ancient world or even first-century Jews. And in a
sense, we can understand the Eucharist as a sacrifice, in that we join our
faith to the once-for-all sacrifice Christ made on our behalf, and receive with
Christ our great high priest the sacrificial meal of thanksgiving, just as our
forebears would share with the priests a meal of the sacrificial grains or
animals.
But there is a sacrifice we make, isn’t
there? It is not a sacrifice of atonement, for that has been made once for all
by Jesus, both priest and sacrificial victim. In our Eucharistic Prayer, we
pray to God, ‘we implore you mercifully to accept our praise and
thanksgiving.’
The Apostle Paul urges us, ‘I appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which
is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that by testing you may discern
what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
In our Gospel reading, aren’t James and
John being conformed to this world when they ask for the high places of honor
next to Jesus when he is acknowledged as king? And does not Jesus show the way
of transformation when he enjoins upon the disciples the way of service as the
path to true greatness? We serve the neighbor by acting done for the neighbor,
such as listening to them, helping them in their needs, and bearing with and
forgiving their sins,
but animating these acts is a spirit of servanthood, one that holds the needs
of others and the needs of the Church and the world as the heart of one’s life.
It is in this way that sacrifice still exists in the world in a very different
way.
Indeed, this is the meaning of the Lutheran
saying, ‘the priesthood of all believers.’ It is not that all who have faith
are therefore called to be pastors and to preach. Some have far higher
callings. But all believers are called to pray for others before God and to
offer their own lives as a living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God,
in service to their neighbors. Since we believe that Christ has offered himself
once for all for our sins, both priest at the sacrifice and himself the
offering, let us continue to have this attitude of serving sacrifice, seeking
at every opportunity to be of use to our neighbors and to glorify Jesus, who
lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
MCF +
