On everyone’s minds, I am sure, was the tense week spent at the nearby temple. That grand edifice used “for the glory of God” had been the setting for intense exchanges between Jesus and the priests of Jewish religion. “The kingdom will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it,” Jesus had told them before he stormed out. They had made the Father’s house into a den of thieves, and Jesus had a mind to restore it as a place of prayer.
Yet the drama at the temple was not yet over. Jesus became deeply troubled at supper, and said, “One of you will betray me.” Judas left to make final arrangements to deliver Jesus to the temple guard.
Though troubled himself, Jesus encouraged the disciples to not be troubled. “In the Father’s house,” he said, “are many dwelling places. I am going to prepare a place for you and come back for you.”
Of course Jesus alluded to the cloister adjacent to the temple where priests lived while serving their course. The implication was clear. Jesus’ disciples had been trained to become priests in the temple he would build in the kingdom, and he would return after his death to anoint them.
When God established priests he intended them to represent God to the people and the people to God. They offered sacrifices and prayers on behalf of the people to God, and taught the Torah to the people. They were to be ministers of God, and and on his behalf, not their own. They were bound to function the way God had intended for them to function. They were stewards. The priests of Jesus’ time had failed their stewardship, and their commission was taken away.
Jesus explained the new priesthood this way. “I am in the Father,” Jesus said, “and the Father is in me. I do not speak from my own authority but from that of the Father. He indwells me and empowers me.”
Jesus said those who believe in him, entirely and completely base their lives on him, would have the same priesthood, experience the same indwelling, and perform the same works. This is based entirely on believing in Jesus.
He explained the agency further. “Whatever you ask in my name that I will do, that the Father be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name I will do it. That suggests complete adherence to what Jesus has said and directed.
Years later Peter extended the priesthood to Christ-followers he had discipled in Asia Minor. Explaining that Jesus is the living cornerstone of the new temple, they should become living stones built up into the spiritual house, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God.
Then he wrote, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, God’s own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Before you were not a people but now are the people of God. Before you did not have mercy, now you have received mercy.”
The grand temple in Jerusalem was replaced by an even grander temple, not made with hands, where God resides in his Holy of Holies among his people, where Jesus the Great High Priest ever presents the once-for-all sacrifice on behalf of his believers and ever intercedes for us.
Meanwhile we serve double-duty. We are at once living stones, part of the structure where God abides, and priests representing Jesus to the world around us and offering sacrifices of ourselves and prayers on behalf of the people.
Such is the Father’s house. There is a place to live at the Father’s house, for those who believe in Jesus, who live and function on his behalf as a part of the royal priesthood.
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP)John 14:1-14 (5 Easter A 2014)
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