This Easter season I’m struck by the picture of Jesus and the High Priest of Israel, Christ and Caiaphas, face to face on the stage of history.
Caiaphas, the kohen gadol, the high priest, ordained by the very God who stands before him incarnate on that Good Friday, the representative head of not only Israel, but of all who would seek reconciliation with Yahweh. The only man with access to the Holy of Holies, that most sacred inner chamber of the temple itself.
The one who on Yom Kippur slays the sacrificial goat and bull, sprinkling blood upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant and upon the horns of the altar itself, making atonement for the uncleanness of the people and for all their sins. Making atonement to the LORD, the very One who stands before him, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, through whom and for whom all things were created – Christ, in whom the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily.
And in an act of utter irony, this high priest offers condemnation in place of the pleasing aroma of righteous sacrifice. Servant before master. Man before God. In ignorant rebellion toward the very God whom he was commissioned to serve, worshipping through form, but devoid of substance.
This high priest, who descended from the line of Aaron, the last vestige of a dead and dying system of ordinances and regulations, with no power to save, and unable, unwilling to recognize and acknowledge the One who can, blinded by self-deluded visions of power, unwittingly and unwillingly consummating the salvation of Israel through a final sacrifice. not of a bull, but of the One who embodies the bull.
This high priest, who’s hands are covered with the blood of goats and bulls, which has in it no power to save, spills the blood of the one who does. An even greater high priest. Was there ever a greater irony?
Christ and Caiaphas.
God and man.
Forsaken and forsaking.
Savior and servant.
May the unfathomable mercy of God humble you and fill you with joy and peace this Easter and may you echo the words of Thomas, before the risen Christ, “My Lord and my God!”