¹For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; ² he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; ³ and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, but also for himself. ⁴ And no one takes the honour to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was. ⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”; ⁶ just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” ⁷In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. ⁸ Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb5:1-10).

Given that the letter to the Hebrews was written sometime in the second half of the first century (probably pre-AD70), the “high priests taken from among men” (v1) is likely to refer to priests appointed for service in the Jewish temple. Jesus has been made High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek” (v6), but according to the writer to the Hebrews, the latter existed throughout the Old Testament period alongside (or arching over) the Aaronic priesthood. Likewise priests continue today, to lead (under bishops) their congregations and administer the sacraments.

Priesthood of ALL believers

But is not the whole Church “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession (1Pet2:9). Absolutely, but that only becomes truly meaningful in the context of a sacerdotal Church.  Each participant of the Mass/Divine Liturgy^NOTE1 effectively acts as a priest by joining in the sacrificial offering of the Eucharist, receiving the sacrament in prayer and thanksgiving, offered in the hands of the celebrant, who in persona Christi acts as a high priest of the New Covenant, approaching the holy altar to offer the pure gift with incense. Unlike the Great High Priest of Whom the writer to the Hebrews speaks, high priests taken from among men, “since he himself also is beset with weakness is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, but also for himself (v3).  Thereby the Church as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood offers up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1Pet2:5).

Providential implications

As ever I am looking for any broader providential implications, and they follow from what has just been written concerning the priesthood of all believers. For if the Church be a priesthood it cannot be offering sacrifices exclusively for itself. It also exists for the benefit of “the ignorant and misguided” (v2).  The Church shares in the sacrificial offering with her Head. Those outside her therefore must potentially benefit; not just from her enlightenment and good works within wider society but through her priestly intercession and sacrifice. Once the implications of this are worked through, it resolves many biblical tensions and explains the broader reconciliatory picture painted particularly by Paul.

That in turn pertains to justification within the eluded Universal Covenant. It is not directly linked to association with the Church but through an association with the cross of Jesus Christ (cognisant or otherwise) who has atoned for the sin of the world. That leads to an indirect association with the Church as God’s royal priesthood making present that historical Sacrifice. Thereby all people of good will benefit in an expiatory (guilt removing) and propitiatory (God appeasing) sense from the sacrifice that the Christian faithful as God’s nation of priests offers on the world’s as well as its own behalf at the Eucharist. But only those partaking of the body and blood may benefit in a salvific or soul-healing sense, for which reason Catholics say, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”.

NOTE#1 Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church regard their Eucharist as a sacrifice, a re-enactment, a means of nourishing the faithful and providing forgiveness of  sins. Luther rejected the sacrificial nature of the Mass, which as well as other consequences of his actions, I proposed in chapter one of the “Little Book of Providence” were foretold in scripture.