Theology @ Work – Priesthood

Priests don’t belong in the workplace, right? Though the armed forces, medical facilities, prisons and the like may have chaplains, there’s no place for religious professionals in your work place or mine. Or is there?

In my last Theology @ Work post (Temple) I pointed out that we have, according to the New Testament, become the “temple of the Holy Spirit” – the place where heaven and earth come together. Part of our calling as followers of Jesus is to be that place to which people can come and see this coming together of the divine and human realms, the Kingdom of God. The New Testament has another word for this role – “priest”. From the earliest books in the Bible it is apparent that in some way God intended all His people to be priests – not necessarily in the official capacity of the Levitical priesthood, but in the general capacity of being intermediaries between God and people – presenting God to the people, and bringing the people’s requests before God, at least until the relationship with Him is established and they no longer need a priest.

Jesus provided the way for this intimate relationship to be created, and it is by our dying and rising with Him in His crucifixion and resurrection that we are able to approach God safely, knowing that we are justified by Him (i.e. that His sinlessness makes us right with God). As a result, we’re able to fulfill the role of priest with those we move among who have not yet arrived at relationship with God through His Son. Just as Jesus is declared by the author of Hebrews to be a “priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7:17), the king-priest to whom Abraham paid homage (Genesis 14), so we are also to become a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2). This is a serious and challenging calling, but one that we are authorized and enabled to take on because we are in Christ.

Every time we in some way exhibit Jesus to others around us, we are fulfilling this role, particularly as others are drawn toward Jesus in some way through us. In the same way, every time we bring the concerns of others to God in prayer, we are fulfilling the calling to be priests. We are the connection point with God that everyone needs (and most people actually want). We are, as temples of the Holy Spirit, the go-between people, linking humanity and deity, linking heaven and earth, drawing others to Jesus. This is every bit as true at work as anywhere else – not through our words or even our actions, not because of overt (and sometimes obnoxious) proselytizing, but simply because we are privileged to be those in whom the Spirit dwells. In a sense, as priests, we really are “religious professionals” – our calling, our profession, our occupation as Christians is indeed that of priest, in whatever context God has placed us. What a calling!