Christ our High Priest

And a psalm of penitence

This morning’s Daily Lectionary readings were from Psalm 61, Exodus 30, and Hebrew 4. Psalm 51 has long been one of my favorite psalms, possibly because I always remember the congregational sung response from the Lutheran Book of Worship that I grew up with: “Create in me a clean heart, O God…” I always enjoyed the tune and the text, so it’s stuck with me for the past several decades.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with your free Spirit. LBW

The Bible readings connect with one another: the Exodus reading is about Aaron as high priest, while the Hebrews reading is about Jesus as high priest, with a reference to Aaron.

Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. Hebrew 5:1–4, NIV

It’s always cool when the Old Testament reading and New Testament reading align like this (which happens fairly regularly, as that is kind of how the Lectionary is designed).

I don’t have any deep insights on these readings, but I do wonder if the Jewish interpretation of what a high priest is would differ from Paul’s interpretation of Jesus as high priest. Probably.