(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

To process out loud, I want to chew on this comment by Mike:

Exodus chapter 28 verse 1 stood out to me in today’s readings – “Your brother, Aaron, and his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, will be set apart from the common people. They will be my priests and will minister to me.” Here we see that the priests are being set apart as mediators between the people of Israel and God. And this role is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ as our high priest. Jesus is now the mediator between God and us. Personally, I still do see so much value in priests and ministers and pastors and clergy in our lives and churches today. We’ll study more about these important roles in Paul’s writings in the New Testament.

Let me ask:

If Jesus Christ is the last and perfect High Priest, do we need priests to mediate between God and us? Why have we surrendered our charge to minister directly to “one another” and placed it into the hands of a special caste of believers? On what basis have we transformed the act of shepherding (i.e. pastor-ing) into the formal position of shepherd (pastor)? Why do we divide Christ’s one body – in which “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female” (Galatians 3:38) – into clergy and laity? In short, why do we echo the Israelites and say to our certain members of the church, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die?” (Exodus 20:19) Have we rehung the curtain (Exodus 26:31-33) that Jesus by his death tore in two?

I’m not picking on Mike, but these are some of the questions rolling around in my head these days, questions I hope to delve further into soon. Also, I’m not picking on the men and women who make up our clergy; my direct experiences have all been good. I am, however, wondering about the system itself.

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