Pontifex Maximus and minimus
Revelation 1:12-18
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Now this is strange; if you read all four gospels you will not find one single detail about Jesus’ appearance. Every biography will tell you what the subject looks like, but not the biographies of Jesus you find in the Bible (or even the documents which claim to be gospels which are not in the bible). No, the only description of Jesus physical appearance is found in John’s apocalypse and here it is a vastly symbolic description – though there is no reason to doubt that John saw what he describes.
“I turned and saw the voice” – God has been speaking for centuries, and John turns round and sees God’s Word incarnate. What did he look like?
Revelation 1:12-13
Go back to the Old Testament and you realise that Jesus is dressed in the robes worn by the priests of ancient Israel. [1] This is a vision of Jesus as a priest.
What is a priest, and what is he meant to do?
Pontifex Maximus
I was in Rome a week or two ago and noticed that one of the Pope’s titles is Pontifex Maximus – Latin for High Priest – it is a title that goes way back to the priests of ancient Rome, one of whom would be elected as Pontifex Maximus. There is a river running through the middle of Rome – the Tiber – and there are many bridges joining the two halves of the city, the Ponte Palatino, the Ponte Garibaldi, the Ponte Sublico.
I was jogging across one of these bridges one morning when I realised that Pontifex and ponte sound very similar. I looked it up when I got home; in the ancient city of Rome a pons was a bridge, and facere meant to make something – a Pontifex is someone who makes a bridge.
This is exactly what a priest does – he forms a bridge between the perfect world of the God we worship and the imperfect world of the people we live with.
This is what Jesus did – he sacrificed his life on the cross so that we could cross the bridge of his obedience and enjoy the friendship of God.
This is what Jesus still does – look at verses 9 to 11 – still telling us what the Father thinks, praying for us:
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
I don’t know about you but there are times in my Christian life when I doubt that I will make it through to the end – we get weary and tired, don’t we? But because Jesus will never stop being a bridge between us and God, the imperfect and the perfect, he will never stop praying for us – I know I am going to make it.
I know I am going to make it, not because of my superior will power, but because of the faithfulness of my great Pontifex Maximus – Jesus Christ the Son of God.
Pontifex Minimus
Jesus is the Great High priest, but he is not the only priest in the Apocalypse, check this out:
Revelation 5:9-10
We are remembering today that Jesus died on the cross for us. This passage reminds me that his death was the purchase price for my life, my whole being (9b – ‘you purchased men for God’). This has massive implications for every one of us that has taken the bread and wine this morning. Paul puts it like this:
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
I am no longer my own, my life belongs to Christ, to serve him as he directs me. Has it ever dawned on you that this must be true?
But what does he want us to do? Well, he has brought us into a kingdom of priests; he wants us to be priests, bridge-builders, connecting the perfect world of heaven to the imperfect reality we live in.
You may not go through times when you feel that you may not make it through to the end – but I bet you know someone who does! Christ tells us to get alongside that person as a bridge-maker bringing the resources of heaven into their life – through love, through prayer, through acts of mercy and compassion. You are not your own, you belong to Christ, now do it!
We are all surrounded by people who are clueless about God. They don’t give him a thought from one day’s end to the next – your family and friends, colleagues at work and classmates. Christ tells you that you are the bridge (perhaps the only one they will ever know) and it is your job to bring the realities of heaven into their lives – through your love for them, through your prayers, through acts of mercy and compassion, by being wholly and authentically an apprentice of Jesus.
Do you have to be perfect ? No, Jesus was a perfect bridge because he was from heaven – he is Pontifex Maximus – the Great High Priest. You are an imperfect bridge because you are from earth – if you like, you are a Pontifex Minimus a pale imitation of the real thing. So you will have to do! You and I are not perfect but we are good enough.
Do I have a choice ? Are you serious? You were purchased, bought from death by the blood of Christ.
You are no longer your own – get it?
[1] The word used here is the word used in the Greek Old Testament for the High Priests clothing. The description also tallies with Josephus description of the priests active in the temple in first century Jerusalem – John is seeing someone dressed like this.