Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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How does Christ fill the office of a priest?

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Question 25 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, How does Christ fill the office of a priest?

The answer given is, Christ fills the office of a priest in his once offering up of himself to God as a sacrifice, to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God; and in making constant intercession for us.

I notice first the word “once” which is used to modify the verb offering. Christ does not continually offer himself up as a sacrifice, nor does the sacrifice need to be repeated on a daily or weekly basis. It was completed once and is effective for all time.

The answer also provides the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice. It was done to satisfy divine justice and provide the means were we can be reconciled to God. In other words our relationship with God was broken and we needed Jesus to intervene to restore the relationship. We bring sin and failure to the table and Jesus takes it and gives us his righteousness in return.

But perhaps the most comfort of all can be obtained from the last part of this answer. Jesus functions as a priest by continually interceding on our behalf.

This really hits home with me right now. I have gone through a period of time when I wasn’t really sure who was fully in my corner supporting me. When life is difficult and nothing seems to be going right, it makes all the difference in the world to know that Jesus has not given up and has not abandoned me. The reminder that Jesus is making the effort to intercede on my behalf makes it possible to persevere and avoid despair.

If you are in need of encouragement right now, may I suggest that you take a few moments and read the prayer In John 17 and spend some time letting it marinate? By reading this prayer, we get a deep view into how Jesus intercedes for us.

Second place is first winner

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In America, we have imbibed the idea that winning is everything. You may have even heard someone say, “second place is first loser.” We apply this principle to our sports teams and to life in general. While this attitude may be helpful with regard to sporting endeavors, it is absolutely devastating in the church.

This morning, I was reading in 1 Samuel where Saul began to be jealous of David because people were ascribing greater success to David as a battle commander. Saul’s resentment of David went so far as to cause Saul to attempt to kill David.

Contrast this with the attitude of John the Baptist when he said of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). John understood his role and was willing to step aside an allow Jesus his rightful prominence.


(c) Can Stock Photo / DinoZZZ

Unfortunately, I have seen the drive for success to cause some church leaders to act more like King Saul than like John the Baptist. While these leaders may verbally acknowledge that Jesus is the head of the church, they find “spiritual” reasons to make sure that they stay in the prominent role.

When I have seen controlling pastors, I suspect that they are controlling because of underlying insecurity. My observation is that they lack confidence in Christ’s ability to lead his church and as a result feel pressure that was never theirs to bear.

On a positive note, I know of a situation where the founding pastor of a church has retired and remained in the church to encourage and support the man who replaced him. The founding pastor is willing to be in the background and allow the new pastor to grow into his larger role.

The question for all of us is whether we are willing to accept the role that we have been given. The even harder and more foundational question is “for whose glory am I working?” If my heart is in the right place and I am working for God’s glory alone, then I will be willing to accept whatever role is given to me by God.

In the case of John the Baptist, he rightly understood that Christ alone deserved the honor and that his role was to point people to Jesus.

In the case of King Saul, he failed to understand that the role of Israel was to point to the glory of their God and his role as king was to be an example of doing so. David was God’s provision for the needs of the Nation of Israel and to fight against David was to fight against God.

In the same way, the church is to be pointing all the glory to God and as church leaders we need to be supporting anyone who is is doing that well. We need to make sure that we are not skimming off some of the glory to feed our own insecurity.

In leading the church, we need to understand that second place is first winner when we surrender to Christ and allow him to build his church. We win because Jesus can make something more beautiful than we can even imagine.

If we let him do so.

Touching the leper

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Matthew 8:1-3 records the story of a leper who came to Jesus to be healed.

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 8:1–3 (CSB)

There are several things that are noteworthy about this story, but the most shocking thing of all is that Jesus touched the leper.

Why is this shocking?

It is shocking because no-one touched lepers. It was not done. First, there was the fear of catching the disease. Second, leprosy was a sign of judgment, so no-one would want to associate with someone whom God had cursed (or so they thought). Thirdly, in most cases, the disease would have ravaged the victim to the point where he would have been physically repulsive.

Still Jesus touched him.

There are some implications to this that I would like to explore.

First, by touching the leper, Jesus met a need that had gone unmet for a long time. One of the other gospels adds the detail that the leper was “full” of leprosy. In this case, the leper had been suffering the effects of the disease for a long time. He likely had not be touched or hugged or had any physical contact with anyone other than another leper since he had been diagnosed with the disease.

Secondly, by touching the leper while working the cleansing, Jesus gave a visible indication that the leper was restored to society. The leper was no longer an outcast, he rightfully belonged in the company of his people.

Thirdly, by touching the leper, Jesus demonstrated his power over disease and brokenness. The combination of words and action on the part of Jesus affected the cure of the leper.

But how does this apply today? It is easy to assent that this is a very cool story that happened long ago, while remaining unaffected by it.

One way to apply this is to see leprosy as a metaphor for our sinful condition and need of a savior. The healing of the leper provides a beautiful picture of our spiritual condition before and after an encounter with Jesus. Jesus steps into the ugliness of our lives and provides healing and restoration of all the mess that we bring to him.

I should note that while the physical healing of the leper was instantaneous, our spiritual healing is a process. When I forget this, I get discouraged by the fact that I am not completely cured of resentment, anger, prejudice, pride and other sins. While I can see progress over the years, my growth has not been linear; there have been ups and downs in the trend line.

Another application of this passage is that the church (those of us who claim to be believers in Jesus) should emulate Jesus in associating with and helping those whose need is greatest. Too often the people who have made a mess of life find condemnation in the church where they should find acceptance and love.

We need to emulate both Jesus and the leper in this story. We emulate the leper by coming to Jesus as the only means of curing our spiritual disease. We emulate Jesus by being the conduit for Jesus to show his love to others who are in desperate need of it.

How does Christ fill the office of a prophet?

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Question 24 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, How does Christ fill the office of a prophet?

The answer given is, Christ fills the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his Word and Spirit the will of God for our
complete salvation.

The purpose of a prophet is to speak the words of the one who sent him. Many of the prophets ended their declaration with the words “says the LORD” or “declares the LORD.” The Old Testament prophets came on the scene with a message to the nation of Israel that was given to each prophet by God.

In John 14:9, Jesus made an astounding claim when he said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

In Jesus, we have the ultimate prophet who reveals the words, actions and character of God the Father. Because Jesus is the eternal Son of God, he can perfectly reveal God the Father to us.

It is never a bad thing to point out that Jesus did not come with a message of judgement. As Jesus said to Nicodemus:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

John 3:17–19 (CSB)

Jesus is the prophet who came to bring the light of God’s love and show us a way out of the darkness.

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