What was the role of the priests in ancient Israel, and what does their ministry teach us about our relationship with God today? In this reflection on Leviticus 6–10, we explore the instructions given to the priests, the ordination of Aaron and his sons, and the sobering story of Nadab and Abihu. These chapters also open the door to an important Christian belief: the priesthood of all believers. As a United Methodist pastor, I reflect on the sacred responsibilities of ordained ministry, the celebration of communion and baptism, and the truth that every Christian has direct access to God through Jesus Christ. Our pastors have an important role to play, but we don’t need someone to stand between the Father and us. Through Christ, we are all invited to approach God.
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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that your week has been going well.
I hope you had a good experience voting yesterday. As you know, I record these reflections ahead of time, so you can see my little “I Voted” sticker here. I’m actually recording this Tuesday afternoon.
It was quick and easy for me, and I appreciate all the poll workers and everyone who worked to make the election run smoothly in Starkville. I hope that was your experience, wherever you voted.
And as you’re watching or listening this morning, the election results may have already come in. So let me remind you of something we talked about last week when we looked at Psalm 2: “Why do the nations rage?” The psalm reminds us that the Lord is still on the throne.
I shared something on Facebook earlier this week that I think is worth repeating: We don’t follow the elephant or the donkey. We follow the Lamb.
And all will be well. We keep chasing after Jesus, and he will lead us where we need to be. Our primary purpose in life is to follow Jesus.
Now, we’re continuing our big-picture look at Leviticus. As I said yesterday, this is the book that trips up many a person trying to read through the Bible in a year. So I thought it would be helpful to step back and look at some of the bigger themes.
Yesterday, we looked at the five primary offerings and what they meant. Today, we’re going to look at Leviticus chapters 6 through 10.
These chapters deal with the responsibilities of the priests, their ordination, and their role in the worship of Israel.
This is important because, in the Old Testament system, the priests served as intermediaries between the people and God. They had a particular responsibility for bringing the people’s offerings before God and leading the worship of the community.
Understanding that helps us understand some important things in the New Testament, particularly when we read about Jesus as our great high priest in the book of Hebrews.
It also helps us understand one of the foundational beliefs of our Protestant tradition: the priesthood of all believers. We believe that all of us have access to God through Jesus Christ. We don’t have to go through another person to approach the Father.
So let’s look at how we get there.
First, the end of chapter 6 and most of chapter 7 give us additional instructions about the offerings. These chapters explain the responsibilities of the priests, how the offerings are to be handled, how the altar fire is to be maintained, and what portions of the offerings belong to the priests.
There are specific instructions about the grain offering, the purification offering, and the other sacrifices. There are also instructions about respecting the blood and the life it represents.
In other words, these chapters give us more detail about how worship is to be conducted.
And I think there’s something important here. We see throughout Scripture that God is not a God of chaos but of order. There are instructions and patterns for how God’s people are to live and worship.
And as a good Methodist, that makes my heart happy! As my people have heard me say quite often, I like rules. Give me rules and systems to live into, and I’ll do my dead-level best to live into them well!
But chapters 8 through 10 are where we really begin to focus on the priesthood itself.
Chapter 8 deals with the ordination of Aaron and his sons.
The Lord gives Moses instructions to bring Aaron and his sons, their priestly garments, the anointing oil, and the offerings. The entire congregation is gathered at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Moses then carries out the instructions for their consecration. Aaron and his sons are clothed in their priestly garments, anointed with oil, and set apart for this particular responsibility.
This is their ordination. They are being set apart for a particular vocation within the life of Israel.
Chapter 9 shows us the beginning of their ministry.
Aaron and his sons begin presenting the offerings before God. Aaron offers sacrifices for himself and then presents the offerings for the people.
We see the priestly responsibilities that had been described in the earlier chapters now being put into practice.
The priests are serving the people by carrying out the worship and sacrificial responsibilities God has given them.
Then we come to chapter 10, and things take a very serious turn.
Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, bring an unauthorized fire before the Lord—something God had not commanded them to do.
The result is devastating. They die before the Lord.
Moses tells Aaron that God will be shown as holy among those who approach him, and Aaron remains silent.
There’s a great deal to unpack in this passage, and we’re not going to try to answer every question it raises today. But it does remind us that the worship of God was not something to be treated casually. The priests had been given a sacred responsibility, and they were expected to approach that responsibility with reverence.
And that brings me to something personal.
One of the things I consider most holy in my ministry is the opportunity to serve communion.
Every time I preside over the sacrament, I feel a sense of holy reverence. I recognize that God is using me in that moment to offer grace to the people—not because I’m doing something on my own, but because God is working through the sacrament to draw us closer to him and to help form us into the people God calls us to be.
I believe we should approach the sacraments with reverence and respect. We should approach the altar with an awareness that God is meeting us there.
As a United Methodist pastor, there is a priestly dimension to my vocation. One example is the pastoral prayer. When I lead the pastoral prayer, I’m praying to God on behalf of the people of the congregation. That’s something I take incredibly seriously. It’s a holy responsibility.
The same is true when I celebrate communion. I pray over the elements, asking God to set them apart for holy use and to make them for us a means of grace—drawing us closer to Christ and helping us grow in holiness.
And the same is true in baptism. We pray over the water and ask God’s blessing as a person is baptized and welcomed into the body of Christ.
Those are powerful and sacred moments for me as a pastor. They’re among the great privileges of my ministry.
But here’s where I want to make an important distinction.
In the United Methodist tradition, as in many Protestant traditions, the pastor does not stand between the people and God.
If you’ve paid attention to the way we celebrate communion, you’ll notice that the pastor generally stands behind the communion table rather than between the table and the congregation. That’s a visual reminder that the people aren’t coming through the pastor to get to God. Through Jesus Christ, we all have access to the Father.
You can see this same idea in our liturgy for the confession and pardon.
When we confess our sins together, I pronounce the words of forgiveness to the congregation: “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.”
And then the congregation turns around and says those same words to me: “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.”
We’re reminding one another that forgiveness comes through Jesus Christ. We share in that grace together.
That’s one of the foundational concepts of our Protestant tradition. It’s called the priesthood of all believers.
Now, I have a particular responsibility as an ordained pastor. I’ve been set apart for a particular vocation in the church. I have responsibilities related to preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and the administration of the sacraments.
But my calling is not greater than yours.
We are all called to serve God. Every baptized Christian has a calling and a mission. We each have a role to play in the life of the church and in the world.
And that’s what the priesthood of all believers means.
Yes, I have a priestly function in my vocation as a pastor. But you don’t need me to get to the Father.
You don’t.
When the veil of the temple was torn at the death of Jesus, it signaled that the way to God had been opened. That’s one of the things the book of Hebrews reminds us of over and over again. Jesus is our great high priest, and through him we have access to God.
You have all the access you need to approach the Father through Jesus Christ.
I hope I can help your faith. I hope I can pastor you, care for you, teach you, and encourage you. That’s part of my calling, and it’s something I take seriously.
But you don’t need me to stand between you and God.
We believe that all of us who are in Christ have access to the Father.
So today, if you’re a Christian, if the Spirit of God is at work in your life, go to the Father. Pray. Read Scripture. Learn. Seek God’s face.
You don’t have to go through me. Through Jesus Christ, you can approach God yourself.
And when we seek him, we will find him.
Thanks for being with me today. We’ll pick up tomorrow with some more big-picture thoughts about Leviticus.
Have a great day. See you tomorrow!