Christian ministers are not priests
Occasionally someone calls me a priest. I have been given all kinds of labels, from pastor to minister to teaching elder, and I can live with most of them. Yet the word ‘priest’ is not appropriate. The task of a Christian minister after the time of Jesus is not to be a priest in the Old Testament sense, and we should be careful not to confuse the two roles.
In the Old Testament, God set aside one of the tribes of Israel, the tribe of Levi, to be priests. Instead of farming and fighting, they had a specific role to play within the nation. They were responsible for the temple and the whole sacrificial system. It was the priests who actually offered the animals brought as offerings to the temple. They mediated between a sinful people and a holy God, which meant that they needed to be specially cleaned and set apart for their role. They also had a role in teaching the Law to the people so they knew what God wanted of them.
The Old Testament priestly role pointed forward to what Jesus came to do. Jesus was the true mediator between God and people. God is holy, and people are sinful. Jesus paid for the sins of all who believe on the cross, separating the barrier between Christians and God. He acted as the true high priest for us. And the result of all this is that Christians are connected to God in a special way as God’s children. We can speak directly to God and we have the Spirit in us who helps us understand the Scriptures and points us to Jesus. We can speak to God anytime in prayer.
This means that we no longer need priests to intercede between us and God. Any Christian can speak to God directly. We can understand and teach others the Bible. This is a priestly function, which theologians call ‘the priesthood of all believers’. We don’t need special holy people to connect us with God; because of Jesus, all believers are saints, special holy people.
The Roman Catholic churches still calls its ministers ‘priests’. They believe that the priests are the ones who distribute the grace Jesus won to those in their parish. When the mass is offered, the priest stands with his back to the believers as if they are connecting to God through the priest. This devalues the work of Jesus. It is Jesus who connects us with God, not the priests. One of the joys of being saved is knowing that our sins are paid for and we can commune directly with our Father in heaven; we don’t need another person to do this for us.
I am not a priest, which means you don’t need me to sacrifice animals for you. My task is to point you to Jesus, the real sacrifice. You don’t need me to be your mediator with God. You can pray to God directly because of Jesus (though I am always happy to pray for you as well). I do have a somewhat priestly task in teaching the Scriptures, but even then I just explain what is there and show how it connects to Jesus. When we overemphasise the role of the Christian minister, we end up devaluing Jesus and putting a status and pressure on a person who should never have those things.
It is a great joy to know that Jesus is the high priest, not a person. We have a high priest who understands us and whose sacrifice was enough to pay for our sins. We have a high priest who is perfect in every way. What grace this is!