Christ, the Heavenly High Priest St. Paul was raised under the feet of Gamaliel, the leader of one of two traditional Jewish schools. Everyone was hoping that he would succeed his teacher because of his inflamed zeal toward the heritage of his fathers and their traditions, which had captured all his feelings and emotions in loving the temple with all its rituals. Now he is confronting the Christians, of Hebrew origin, to talk to them about a new reality which may seem contradicting to their past experiences, which is that the new High Priest is heavenly, and He came to raise man's life, behavior and worship to the heavens. He raised us to the heavenly matters, with no retreating to the darkness. He offered us Himself as a new High priest, new Sacrifice, and made us enter into His new temple for a new work on our behalf. 1. Heavenly Priesthood 1-6. 2. Heavenly Covenant 7-13. 1. THE HEAVENLY PRIESTHOOD "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" [1]. The main point or the goal of what we want to say is that we have a heavenly High Priest who serves in our name and on our behalf, and is sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Since the Lord Christ is the unique High Priest on the order of Melchizedek, who came by an oath, carries an eternal priesthood, and serves in the heavens, then the Levitical priesthood, associated with serving the tabernacle or the temple at Jerusalem, disappears. All this is for us "we have," as if St. Paul wants to emphasize that what is written is not for argument thought, but it is a practical gain, where we have a new Priest with His new ministry. What the Christian of Hebrew origin have lost by their faith in the Lord Jesus is their loss of the shadow, for the sake of the enjoyment of the truth, and the deprivation of the form of heavens to enter heavens itself. We have a High Priest who offered Himself, so we may have Him and say, "I am for my Beloved" (Song 2:16). In the Old Testament, the high priest used to represent me, and serve in the holies as my representative, but I cannot take him inside me. However, the new High Priest gave me Himself, so I can possess Him. This what the angel emphasized to the shepherds, "Unto you is born..." (Luke 2:11) and what Isaiah the prophet enjoyed through the prophecy saying, "For unto us a Child is born..." (Isa. 9:6). The Apostle does not belittle the Levitical priesthood, for the priests "who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, 'See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain" [5]. But the ministry of the New Testament is the ministry of the better covenant by entering in the heavenly matters. Since the priests of the Old Testament were from dust and God chose them to serve Him, they still served the shadow of the heavenly things. However, our Priest is heavenly, and His temple which He serves is heavens itself. This heavenly temple is the Chapter 1 2 Church of the New Testament which carries the heavenly traits, for our citizenship is in heavens. (Phil. 3:20) and our worship is also heavenly. St. John Chrysostom says, [The Church is heavenly! It is heaven itself!1] [The heavens became instead ours of the temple, after He led us into the heavens. These matters were symbols for what has become a reality. Through them, the ministry of the New Testament was glorified and the (proper) glory of priesthood appeared2.] He also says, [Our affairs are heavenly, the heavenly matters became ours, even if they are practiced while we are still on earth, like the angels who are called heavenly ones even while they are on earth. The Cherubim appeared on earth, but they are heavenly... Also our citizenship is in heavens (Phil. 3:20), even while we live here on earth. Since we are heavenly creatures and has obtained such Sacrifice, let us fear, and stay no more on earth! We are able to choose to live in heaven from now, while still on earth (if that’s what we want)! It is said that God lives in heaven. Why? Not because that He is limited to stay in a restricted place (the heaves) God forbid! Nor does this mean that the earth is void of His presence. However, this is due to His relationship with the angels and their attachment to Him. If we are close to God, we are close to heaven. What do I mean by heaven? I see the Lord of heaven and I myself become heaven! For He says, "We will come to him and make Our home with him." (John. 14:23) Then, let our souls become heaven3.] 2. A NEW COVENANT Through our entrance into the new heavenly temple in a heavenly ministry instead of the old temple, through the leadership of the heavenly High Priest, we entered in the New covenant for which all the prophets were longing. St. Paul says, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them. He says, ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord” [7-9]. This is the purpose of the Holy Bible: man entering into a covenant with God. In the beginning, in Paradise, when man committed sin, God did not forsake him, but entered into a covenant with him that the Seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). When the world was under the punishment of the flood and the creation was renewed by the waters, the Lord made a covenant with Noah and gave him a sign in nature (rainbow) (Gen. 9:9). This sign appears around the divine throne (Rev. 4:3; 10:1) The Lord made a covenant with Abraham, the Patriarch, through the flesh, which was, circumcision (Gen. 17). Then God entered into a covenant with the people during the time of Moses, on Mount Sinai for He drove them out of the land of captivity holding their hands and leading them to the promised land. The sign was the blood which was 1 In Hebr. Hom., 14:3. 2 Ibid., 14:4. 3 Ibid., 16:7. Chapter 1 3 sprinkled on the tablets of the covenant or the book of the covenant, the temple and everything that is used in worship. We are going to elaborate on using the blood as a sign of confirmation in the next chapter. Thus, the covenant passed through many stages, first, merely, as a promise with Adam, then by a sign in nature with Noah, then a sign in the flesh with Abraham, finally the sign of blood with Moses... What was the fate of that covenant? The people worshipped the golden calf before Moses went down from the mountain, for he heard God's voice saying: "Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves" (Exod. 32:7). God considered the people that they belong to Moses (your people), and not God's people, for they rejected the covenant until Moses' anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain" (Exod. 32:19). Moses declared the breaking of the covenant and man's inability of keeping it. That is what made the prophets of the Old Testament look forward to a New Testament with new traits capable of changing man's heart, and entering into an inner life, so man may not break the covenant anymore. Jeremiah the prophet said, "Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer. 31:31-33). Also Ezekiel the prophet said, "Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Ez. 37:26,27). The new covenant is not like the old covenant carved on outer stones, but the Holy Spirit records it in our depths, for He touches our inner lives where the kingdom of God is inside us. The Lord says, "I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" [10]. The Holy Spirit engraves this covenant in our inner man, and the Lord Himself becomes our Teacher. St. Paul says, "None of them shall teach their neighbor and none his brother; saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them" [11]. In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus does not come to us as an outside Teacher presenting His commandments, but He is inside our lives to change our nature, and renew it by the Holy Spirit... He becomes the commandment, life, resurrection, and righteousness inside us! As St. Athanasius of Alexandria says, in his articles against the Arians: [If we are not created in Him, then the Lord is not inside us, and He becomes just a teacher whom we accept from Him the teachings. If this is the case then sin does not lose its dominion over the body, as an heir to it and not rejected from it. But the Apostle objects to this teaching for he says, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus...4" (Eph. 2:10)] 4 Against the Arians, Discourse 2:56.
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