The concept of priests and priesthood probably strikes most Protestants as a little…..different. For those with closer ties to Catholicism, it may smack of tradition and ritual, of unintelligible and unknown church teachings. For those more well-versed in the Old Testament, it might bring to mind the image of sacrifices, blood, and altars, of inspections of skin disease. At the very least, there’s an element of mystery or the unknown, and that tends to provoke a little discomfort in many of us.
That’s not exactly mitigated – for me, anyway – when I read 1 Peter 2. Reading that we as believers are a “royal priesthood” does nothing to dispel that discomfort and vague disquiet. It reveals, I think, some of the holes in our knowledge and theology. What, exactly, does it mean to be part of a priesthood? We don’t really know.
It’d be easy to get lost in the tasks. We know at least a portion of the priesthood’s responsibility: offering sacrifices on behalf of the “common” people, tending the showbread and the lampstand, burning incense, and other similar tasks. None of those seem to have much place in our 21st-century lives, or even in the lives of the first century Christians to whom Peter was writing. If we move a little further past the Pentateuch, Ezekiel gives us a few more clues, in that the priest teaches the people to distinguish between holy and common, but that’s not as specific as we might like. In the New Testament, Hebrews gives us probably the clearest idea of priesthood. Hebrews 5:1 tells us that high priests stand between men and God and act on behalf of mankind, but focuses more on Jesus’ role as priest than ours.
Quite welcome, then, was a book that speaks into gray mist of 21st-century priesthood. Ed Welch, in Created to Draw Near, makes comprehensible our role as royal priests. Yes, he covers the tasks, but delves deeper into the symbolism and meaning and purpose of the tasks, and translates them into something we can understand. This could have been a book heavy on academia, and I’m sure someone has written that. It’s not though. It’s practical and easily digestible, with short chapters that won’t bog you down. Perhaps most surprising is the relevance of the questions for reflection that close each chapter. They call for not merely reflection, but response, and should not be passed over blithely.
If like me, you are also mystified by what it means to be a priest of the Lord, allow me to recommend Created to Draw Near.
I took your lead and looked up the book online. It gives you the first few chapters to read. You are right, this book asks some probing questions at the end of the chapters that requires more than a surface response. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, it will be the next one on my list to get!