Standing or Sitting

I remember my mother busy working all day long — cleaning, washing clothes, cooking, going out to do the shopping, and attending to so many other chores around the house. She was a hardworking woman. But in the evening she would finally sit down and rest. That meant that the work she had to do for that day was finished.

The Bible draws a contrast between the Levitical priests of the Old Testament and Jesus, our great High Priest in the New Testament.

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:11–12, ESV).

On the one hand, we see the Levitical priests standing; on the other, Jesus is seated. The work of the Jewish priests was never complete, because the sacrifices they offered “can never take away sins.” That is why, day after day, they remained standing at the altar.

The same cannot be said of Jesus. He came into the world to offer an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and he did so by offering himself on the cross. He did not come to offer many sacrifices, but one sacrifice. One sufficient sacrifice. One sacrifice, once for all. Jesus, “after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3, ESV).

This raises a question in my mind, and perhaps you too have noticed something that seems striking. Have you ever noticed that in church the priests stand at the altar to offer the sacrifice of the Mass? Like the Levitical priests of old, Catholic priests continue, day after day, to offer the same sacrifice. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, just as the Old Testament sacrifices had to be repeated because they could never take away sins, the same question must be asked about the sacrifice of the Mass. The priest standing at the altar seems to testify that the sacrifice being offered has not finally taken sin away.

My mother would get up again the next morning for another day’s work. She used to say, “Housework is never finished.” But the atoning sacrifice is finished. Two thousand years have passed — Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and remains seated to this day, because through his one perfect sacrifice he cleanses from sin every person who trusts in him.

You and I need a priest who can bring us to God — a priest who truly has the power to cleanse us from our sins. So it is worth asking a simple and direct question, so that we do not place our trust in the wrong place: Is my priest standing, or is he seated?