As we prepare the celebrate the birth of our Lord, I am reminded of a hymn (not a carol) that we sang recently at our worship service - Fanny Crosby's "Praise Him! Praise Him!" One line in that song says, "Praise Him, Praise Him, Prophet and Priest and King." Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of every one of these offices of redemptive history. I just wanted to take a moment and reflect on Jesus Christ in the fulness of His Messianic work.
For Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed (literally, the "smeared") One. Smeared with sacred oil, the oil of the Holy Spirit, to "proclaim good news to the poor ... to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-9, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2, NIV). How did He fulfill this calling?
First, Jesus was and is the ultimate PROPHET. Now when most people say today that Jesus was a great prophet, that is no small thing. A prophet was one who heard and spoke the very message of God to His people. Prophets were anointed by God in the Old Testament to proclaim His Word. They did not give their personal opinions, but they prefaced what they said with, "Thus says the Lord..." They were not always appreciated at the time of their ministry, but they were given respect in hindsight. God had promised Moses, "I will raise up a Prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words into His mouth. He will tell them everything I command Him." (Deuteronomy 18:18, NIV). But what made Jesus the prophet stand out was that He was not just a first among equals, but was in a class by Himself, because He not only delivered the Word, he WAS the Word (John 1), living and incarnate. Remember, Jesus taught by saying, not, "You have heard it said..." but "I say unto you..." You don 't have to read much of what Jesus said about Himself, especially in John's Gospel, to understand this: As a prophet, Jesus declared, prophetically, that He was more than a prophet. In other words, as R. C. Sproul puts it, "the central message of the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ - was Jesus Christ!"
Second, Jesus was and is the ultimate PRIEST. This is what the disciples didn't get until after Easter. They were very ready to accept Him as a prophet, right up there with Elijah or Jeremiah, and even to declare Him to be the Messiah. But when Jesus referred to the priestly ministry He would have to perform to fulfill His mission, Peter said, "Never!" and had to be rebuked by Jesus. Priests were literally anointed with oil for their office in the Old Testament. Now the difference between the work of the Prophet and the Priest was simple: The priest would speak to God on behalf of the people, and the prophet would speak to the people on behalf of God. The way the priest would speak for the people was to pray for them and to offer sacrifices for them, so that their relationship to God could be restored whenever it was broken. But again, Jesus stood out from the rest in His priestly ministry, because he not only offered the sacrifice for the people, He BECAME the sacrifice. You can see this in what we commonly refer to as the seven last words from the cross. In the first three statements, Jesus was acting as priest, as offerer and intercessor on behalf of others ("Father, forgive them..." "Woman, behold your son..." "Today you shall be with Me in paradise..."). But after 3 PM, when all became dark, and He bagan to bear our sin and God's wrath, His words became the words of the offering itself, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world ("My God, my God, why...?" "I thirst."... "It is finished!" ... "Father, into Your hands...") He offered the supreme sacrifice to God for us and He WAS the supreme sacrifice to God for us. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Finally, Jesus was and is the ultimate KING. Kings were also anointed for their role with the people of God. Jesus came, even in His humility, born of the line of David through Hs foster father, Joseph, and showed dominion over death, over demons, over disease, over nature itself, and over the souls of men and women. Now he lives and reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The shepherds and the Magi understood this and bowed before Him. He was given gold, a gift fit for a king. Simeon and Anna understood this. The thief on the cross got it, too, and asked for Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom. And one day, the promise of the book of Revelation will come true once and for all, the promise that we sing every year at this time: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah!" (Revelation 11:15, NIV)
This is why we treasure Him and worship Him and Hold Him as supreme. The Messiah had to be a prophet like Moses, He had to be of the line of David and the head of an everlasting kingdom, and He had to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Only one Person in history perfectly fulfilled this resume - the one we welcome again at this Christmas season. All glory goes to Him forever.
"And He is the Head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him. ... In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." (Colossians 1:18-19; 2:3, NIV). So let us honor Him at Christmas like this is true.
