By: Henry Vargas Holguin
Jesus is priest, prophet and king. In baptism, Jesus is anointed by the Father as a priest who lives in communion with God, as a prophet who knows and interprets history from God’s point of view and speaks in his name, and as a king who, as the Son of God, lives on freedom.
Jesus is a priest (Heb 4,14-16; Jn 19,23; Rev 1,13)
Jesus Christ can present himself before the Father and plead for his fellow men. He is the true one, the only one, the “High Priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb 5, 10; 6, 20). He’s the authentic “mediator between God and men” (1 Tm 2, 5), as the Catechism explains (numerals 1544-1545).
For something the Church celebrates the solemnity of Christ, High and Eternal Priest. Jesus is the priest who offers himself as a victimHe is the Son of God and Son of men. The Father, from heaven, looks at his Son, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, the High Priest who pities his brothers.
And although Jesus never proclaimed himself a priest, nor did the evangelists give him that title, his priesthood is the central theme of the Letter to the Hebrews. In this letter, Jesus is presented as the High Priest of the New Covenant.
Moreover, it is above all in the quality of priest that Jesus appears seated at the right hand of the Father: “This is the main point of what we have been saying, that we have such a high priest, who sat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb 8,1).
Jesus is a prophet (Lk 24,19)
Jesus is a prophet because he is the very Word of God incarnate to men; and He is aware of his prophetism when he says of himself that no one is a prophet in his own land (Mk 6, 1-6) and later comments with his disciples that it is not convenient for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem (Lk 13 , 33).
There are several examples in which we see that the prophetic dignity of Jesus. Let’s see some. After the multiplication of the loaves we heard from the lips of the crowd the exclamation: “This is without a doubt the prophet who was to come into the world” (Jn 6, 14).
And the people also said: “A great prophet has arisen among us… And what was said about him spread throughout all Judea and throughout the surrounding region” (Lk 7, 16-17). Then we also see that the Samaritan woman was impressed to see how Jesus knows his life and will also say: “Lord, I see that you are a prophet” (Jn 16, 19).
Also the two disciples who walk towards Emmaus will say to the pilgrim: Are you the only one who lives in Jerusalem and you don’t know what has happened here these days? That of Jesus the Nazarene, who became a powerful prophet in deeds and words before God and all the people (Lk 24, 18).
Jesus is king (Jn 6,15)
Jesus is king or is the anointed (the Christ or the Messiah). Jesus was clearly aware of being the only begotten Son of the Father, the awaited Messiah, the Savior of the world. “You have said it, I am a king”, Jesus tells Pontius Pilate (Mt 27,11).
God “has sent his Word to the Israelites giving them a message of peace through Jesus, the Messiah, who is also Lord of all” (Acts 10, 36).
Christ is King and Lord of the Universe, because for having been obedient to death and having made himself the servant of all, he was exalted by the Father who submitted all things to him.
Jesus is King though his kingship has nothing to do with the concept of king that we have and see in the human sphere; Jesus said it well: “My kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18, 36).
And Saint Peter recognizes, by divine inspiration, that Jesus is the messiah even though he had not initially understood what Jesus’ kingship was like: “You are the Christ (the messiah, the king), the son of the living God” (Mt, 16, 13).
Jesus is a king who has come to serve and we acknowledge his royal dignity when we say LORD to Jesus.
This article is the first part of a two-part response to a reader’s question about the sense in which every baptized person is a priest, a prophet, and a king.