Of high priests and supreme court justices

Israel had her high priests; we have our Supreme Court justices. Two vastly different systems, of course. But it is fruitful to compare.

In the Old Testament, the high priest represented all of the people to God. He was the intermediary linking daily life to heavenly favor. His ritual conduct and the daily sacrifices he oversaw granted the people limited acceptance by God Almighty.

The New Testament argues that this system was faulty because high priests were themselves fallible people. They needed the same forgiveness for sin that they appealed to heaven for on behalf of the people. And so there was an endless succession of high priests and, more troubling, endless daily sacrifices made for sin.

But the righteous demands of the heavenly Law were never completely satisfied by animal sacrifices offered by sinful people -- even people donning high priest’s robes. The Scripture says “the law made nothing perfect,” not because the Law was faulty, but because the human condition was faulty.

Hey, here’s an idea: why not just change the righteous standards of the Law to be more of a fit with the moral profile of the people?

This idea apparently never occurred to Biblical peoples either Old or New.

No, the idea that Law is something socially constructed, and ever morphing as society morphs, is a much more recent innovation.

Then all we need to do is ensure that the high priests representing us – otherwise known as Supreme Court justices – have the same morphing profiles as we do.

And so now there is an endless battle for who will don the next justice’s robe to invent the next construction of what the Law should be, because the Law doesn’t need to be in the image of God, or even in the image of any fixed standard.

The new idea is that, well, Laws-R-Us.

In all of this, the meaning of Law is negotiated away, the meaning of representation is negotiated away, and the meaning of a Holy Standard larger than ourselves is negotiated away. The meaning of sin and sinfulness is negotiated away.

The real solution, however, is not negotiated away because a High Priest not from this legal system – the universal system that judges all men on the basis of qualifying standards -- has ascended to the priesthood, who offered himself as sacrifice, who himself is perfect for all time, and who himself intercedes for all who look to him. For all time.

Logos2Go

Hebrews 7.18-28 There is, on the one hand, the abrogation of an earlier commandment because it was weak and ineffectual (for the law made nothing perfect); there is, on the other hand, the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God. This was confirmed with an oath; for others who became priests took their office without an oath, but this one became a priest with an oath, because of the one who said to him, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest for ever'" - accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant. [23] Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever.