Who Are We? A Royal Priesthood 1st Peter 2:9-10 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
Last week I
suggested to you that one of the reasons that we see so much violence in places
like Charlottesville and all the unrest that has ensued since over the issue of
monuments, flags, and even army base names, stems from the fact that we have
forgotten who we are. I continue to hear
the arguments that we need to keep all those things in place to remember our
history and remember who we are as a people.
What I would suggest, however, is that more than any of that, we need to
turn to God’s Word to remember who we are, for we are blessed to be Americans
by birth, we are blessed even more to be Southerners by birth, but, and this
ranks higher than all the rest, we are Christians by the grace of God. I think
if God’s people would remember that, then regardless of what the rest of the
world is doing, we would see things change.
We began trying
to remember our identity last week—using 1st Peter 2:9-10 as the
launch for remembering or understanding, Peter declaring, “You are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you
may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy.”
Last week we
examined what it means to be a chosen race.
We eliminated the idea that it had anything to do with the color of our
skin, our ethnicity, the language we speak, or any other physical characteristic…being
a chosen race simply means being those chosen by God and with Christ all of
those other worldly labels are wiped away…as Paul would say, “for in Christ
Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ. There is
no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”[i] We realized that being God’s chosen race
means that: we are loved, we have value, and we have a purpose.
Tonight we move
into the next phase of our remembering.
We ask Peter again “Who are we?” and hear Peter respond, you are “a
royal priesthood.”
What does it mean
to be found in the royal priesthood? To truly understand what it means to be a
priest in service to God, we must move from 1st Peter all the way
back to the origins of this understanding, and the establishment of the role of
priest, to the book of Exodus.
In Exodus, we see
the line of the priesthood established Aaron and his descendants. The priests
were to represent the people before God, making sacrifices on behalf of their
sin (because it was understood that the sin of the people prevented them from
safely coming into the presence of God)…and in turn represent God to the people—mediating
God’s forgiveness and blessings to those who had brought their sacrifices to
atone for their sins and to offer God thanksgiving. As they fulfilled their
duties, the priests would lead the people to turn their hearts and lives toward
the worship, love, and service of God.
In Exodus, Moses tells the people they are to be kingdom of priests—they
are fulfilling the role that God promised Abraham, that Abraham’s descendants
would be a nation through which the rest of the world would be blessed...[ii]
Peter, wanted the
early church, persecuted and scattered throughout Asia Minor, to make the
connection and know that role has been passed to them. They were called to serve as those who would
come stand in the gap between God and those who found themselves estranged or
separated from God. Peter was calling
them to stand as a royal priesthood in the midst of all of their struggles—in
many ways they were called stand as representatives of God to a people who were
hostile towards God and His people.
Their role is our
role as well…we are called to be a royal priesthood. We are all called as part of this—this verse
is not one that is directed to clergy, but to all believers. From the time of Martin Luther, to now, this
has come to be known as “The Priesthood of All Believers.” This is centered in understanding that
through Christ, we have all received the blessing of direct access to the
throne of God and no longer need someone to stand as that representative in
between God and His people.
So, you may be
saying, “Preacher, what are you getting at?
We understand that you are saying that we are to be a bunch of
priests…but we have no idea what that means.”
My brothers and sisters, that is a good question, it is probably the
same question that many of God’s people had from the Exodus onward…Aaron and
his descendants struggled with fulfilling their role as priests, and the people
struggled with understanding what it was to live out being a “kingdom of
priests.” However, my friends, we have
an advantage…if we want to see what it means to live out our lives as a royal
priesthood, we have simply to look at the One who was, is, and forevermore will
be the High Priest of all high priests, Jesus Christ himself.[iii]
To understand our
role as a royal priesthood, we look to none other than Christ, for rather than
finding ourselves in the line of Aaron and his descendants, we find ourselves
in the line of the High Priest of high priests and the King of kings…we are
truly members of a royal priesthood, and as such, we are called to live out the
priestly role of Jesus in the world.
Priests
throughout the Old Testaments were mediators of God’s forgiveness. Jesus, throughout His ministry, in a way that
often found himself at odds with the religious leaders of His time, pronounced
forgiveness on those who came before him in need:
“And just then
some people were carrying a paralyzed man lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”[iv]
“Then he said to
her, “Your sins are forgiven.”[v]
“Jesus
straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, were are they? Has no one condemned
you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus
said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your
way, and from now on do not sin again.’”[vi]
Many in Jesus’
time wanted to “tote around signs” condemning those who were sinners, excluding
them from community, and only worthy of God’s judgment and punishment. They ridiculed Jesus every chance they had,
often berating Him for eating with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other
sinners. However, we hear the words of
the ultimate High Priest:
“Those who are
well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. God and learn what this means, “I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”[vii]
“Indeed, God did
not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through him.”[viii]
This role as
mediators of forgiveness becomes our role as a royal priesthood. Too often we find ourselves pronouncing God’s
judgment upon those we consider unclean, the tax collectors and prostitutes of
our day: the drug dealers, the murderers, the adulterers, the homosexuals, and
those who have personally wronged us.
Too often we want them cast away or kept away from our community for
fear their sin will contaminate us. We
want them changed and made perfect before they dare darken the doors of a
church, some of them we may even want to declare unforgivable because of what
they have done. Yet they are the very
ones, just as we once were, that Jesus calls us to mediate God’s forgiveness
to—to invite them into relationship and share with them the very grace of God,
letting them know that they are forgiven, and calling them to a life with
Christ.
Deuteronomy reveals
to us that the part of the role of the priests also included being mediators of
God’s blessings.[ix] They would simply pronounce God’s love and
blessings upon the people…in Jesus, our Perfect High Priest we see God’s
blessings poured out time after time…in the healing of the infirm, the
returning of sight to the blind, the feeding of the 5000, the resuscitation of
the dead, and the freeing of the possessed.
My brothers and
sisters, as a royal priesthood, we are called to be mediators of the blessings
of God in the same way as our Kingly Priest—to feed those who are hungry, to
befriend those who are lonely or who have been cast aside, to free those who
are possessed by the demons of addiction, mental illness, or poverty, to free
others from the bonds of slavery and exploitation, and to offer to all of these
and any we encounter the assurance of God’s love and presence in their
lives—not in word alone, but through the reality of our acceptance and presence
in their lives.
None of this will
be easy. Nothing ever suggests to us
that following Jesus will be easy. It
will be difficult. We will find
ourselves opposed by many—by the world and those who are bound by the religion
of proclaiming judgment more than grace.
As we encounter resistance, we are called to remember the key role of
the priest—that of offering sacrifice.
Before the priests of the Old Testament could offer forgiveness or
blessings, a sacrifice had to be made, whether it be sacrifices of animals or
crops. Jesus put an end to the practice
of offering animals and crops by offering Himself in their place, the complete
sacrifice for the salvation of all.
We will not be
called upon to sacrifice goats, sheep, doves, grain, or any other part of God’s
creation, for Christ put an end to those once and for all—we may, in our role
as priests in the line of Christ, be called to sacrifice in line with Christ—sacrificing
ourselves in order to make God’s forgiveness and blessings upon those in the
world who are in need of knowing the love of Christ—it may mean sacrificing a
meal out at a restaurant in order to use those funds to feed several hungry
persons in our community; it may mean sacrificing free time we could use to
fish, play golf, or sit and watch a movie in order a day serving in response to
a disaster; it may mean sacrificing our relationship with some in order to take
a stand against racism or any form of ethnic prejudice; it may mean sacrificing
a secure income in order to respond to a call of God to mission or ministry.
My brothers and
sisters, what a blessing it is to have been chosen by God—to be His chosen
race, and to be called to serve as the mediators of His forgiveness and His
blessings…we a blessing it is to be declared by God to a royal
priesthood—servants of God in the line of Christ Himself.
Who are we? In
the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we are a royal
priesthood! Amen.
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