The Reverend Mike Riggins 2/27/22

Prophet, Priest and King

Psalm 99:1-5
Luke 9:28-36

I have spoken before of my first seminary preaching professor, the crusty

Scotsman Dr. Donald McCloud. One of his catch-phrases was, “If ye canna

comprehend it, how d'ya expect to proclaim it?” He pounded into his students that

unless we spent an hour a week preparing the sermon per minute we preached on

Sunday, we would be derelict in our duty before God and the Kirk. Twenty hours, half

a full-time work week, devoted to the sermon. For those keeping score at home, I do

not spend that kind of time on every sermon. I have spoken before also of my second

preaching professor, the home-spun Dr. Thomas Long. He advocated story-telling and

improvisation as powerful preaching tools. One of his catch-phrases was, “If you find

a hook, they will sing it all week.”

I think both men spoke the truth. Making sure I comprehend the Bible text, that I

can exegete it, is critical to effective preaching. Making sure I can sing it, that I can tell

its story, is critical to effective preaching. But I have learned another technique for

effective preaching: teaching. Teaching sermons are called didactic preaching. I

intentionally do a fair amount of this. Today's sermon is, from this moment on, entirely

didactic. Today's lesson is on the three roles Jesus played as the Messiah. Each role

springs from an Old Testament archetype. The Jews expected the Son of God would

fullfill each role. Those roles are prophet, priest and king.
 Today is Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical calendar, and we just read

Luke's account of the event. This is one of those biblical stories with layers of

symbolism and meaning; today—as we must also cover the priest and king roles—we

have time to highlight only a couple of points. The tableaux of the Transfiguration

presents us with two sets of three men. In the Hebrew mind the number three

represented wholeness and perfection. It is no accident that two trios appear here.

They augment the sense of awe already present in the unworldly appearance of

Moses and Elijah. For Peter, James and John this has become a holy moment.

The Transfiguration also proclaims that Jesus fulfills the prophetic role. To this

day the Jews consider Moses the first of the great prophets of old. He repeatedly

entered the presence of the Lord in the tented tabernacle, received the word of the

Lord, and then returned to the people to proclaim it. All the prophets received and

proclaimed that same word, although only Moses, so far as the Old Testament

doocuments it, actually saw the glory of the Lord. Elijah, of course, also a great

prophet of old, performed miracles and healings in addition to speaking the word.

Somehow Peter, James and John perceived that the two figures standing with Jesus

were Moses and Elijah. For them, the inescapable conclusion was that Jesus was

also a prophet. Thus he fulfilled one of the expected roles for the Messiah.

Jesus also fulfilled the role of priest. We turn again to Jewish thought. For the

Hebrews the priest's primary role was to perform sacrifices for the atonement of sin.

Aaron, Moses' brother, was the first high priest of the Chosen People. In Exodus we
read of him sacrificing animals on a fiery altar. In Jesus' day priests performed the

same rituals in the second temple in Jerusalem. Our next hymn, Since Our Great High

Priest, Christ Jesus, speaks of his priesthood. Its second verse tells us, “Since we

have a priest who suffered, knowing weakness, tears and pain...” Jesus “suffered” he

suffered temptation, but unlike the rest of us he did not sin. Therefore he remained the

perfect sacrifice when he suffered the ultimate pain on the cross. Therefore, by

performing the priestly sacrifice of his own body he became, as the third verse

concludes, “strong to help, supreme to save.” Jesus performed the role of priest.

Finally, Jesus performed the role of king. Once more Jewish thought informs us.

Psalm 99 belongs to a set of poems called the Royal Psalms. All of them praise God

as king. Ours begins, “The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned

upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!” Cherubim were (and perhaps are!) winged

beasts often depicted as guarding the Lord's throne room. Here the psalmist

envisions God sitting upon them, emphasizing his dominance, his power. And

whereas in both testaments messengers from God often counsel people to fear not,

here the author advises the reader to tremble and quake. The few kings and queens

we still have among us no longer command such fear; their reigns are emblematic and

ceremonial. In Bible times kings wielded power capriciously. They had the authority to

order murders, wage war, and take whatever property they desired. The one world

figure today who comes closest to resembling a king of the sort known by our psalmist

is Vladimir Putin.
 But Jesus did not act as a despot. The point is that while he has ultimate power,

he uses it graciously. He acts in accordance with Psalm 99:4, which fleshes out the

character of the ideal God/king, “Mighty king, lover of justice, you have established

equity; you have executed justice and righteousness...” Jesus often spoke of his

kingdom, in which justice and righteousness would prevail. Thus he claimed before

his followers his identity as the very king of which the Royal Psalms sing.

Jesus fulfilled the three roles the Jews, of his day and of ours, expect the

Messiah to embody. By so doing he established his credentials as that Messiah, the

Son of God and the Son of man. How shall we respond to him? We ought first, to

listen, really listen, to his prophetic voice. We ought to strive, as he so often said, to

have “ears to hear”. We ought to pray and to ponder what he had to say. We ought to

“get it”. Second, we ought to give thanks constantly that he made himself the

sacrificial offering that pays for our sins. He acted as priest on our behalf. Let us sing

his praises in worship, let us perform the acts of mercy for the least of these that he

commanded, let us find comfort in the salvation he made possible for us. Third, let us

obey him. Let us not cower before him but yet experience the awe his majesty

inspires. Let us accept his authority over us.

Prophet, priest and king. Though most us likely did not know about the Jewish

expectations for the Messiah to fulfill all three roles, though we might have needed a

didactic sermon to learn of them, we can nevertheless respond to his three-fold nature

as each role requires. Listen to, sing praise to and obey Jesus, the Messiah.