The first duty of the royal priesthood of the baptized is to pray — to pray in faith toward God and in love for one another. To pray to your God and Father in heaven through Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord — in and with His Holy Spirit — is to worship the one true God, the Holy Trinity. And to pray and intercede for your neighbor — for your family, friends, and enemies, for the Holy Christian Church, and for the whole world — is to love your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you.
To pray to the Lord your God in this way, in holy faith and holy love, is also to sacrifice yourself to Him — that is, to entrust yourself to God for the benefit of others — just as the Offertory and the Prayer of the Church belong to each other in the Divine Service. To pray is to sacrifice.
So has Christ Jesus done for you. And so does He continue to pray for you as the One who has been sacrificed for you and for all people on the Cross, who has risen from the dead and ever lives to make intercession for you and all the saints according to the good and gracious Will of God.
To pray and to sacrifice — in Christian faith and love — as a royal priest of the most high God in Christ Jesus — is to stand in the presence of God the Father in Peace, to live and abide before His Face, to share in His divine Glory, and to partake of His divine Nature by His divine Grace.
And to be such a priest, to pray and to sacrifice in faith and love, is to be united with God in Christ Jesus, in the Unity and Love of the Father and the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, the Bond of Peace.
It is to have the Spirit, heart, and mind of Christ, and so to be of one heart and mind with His Body, the Church — gathered together in the upper room with the whole assembly of His many brethren, with the glorious company of the Apostles, the noble army of martyrs, the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the faithful women, disciples young and old, male and female, slave and free, from all the nations of earth — united in prayer for the world, for the Church, and for the coming of Christ.
To pray and to sacrifice in this way is, indeed, to speak by the Holy Spirit in and through Christ Jesus, sharing His divine Sonship, and knowing and loving God the Father in Him — even as you are known and loved by the same God and Father in Christ Jesus, His only-begotten Son.
By contrast, the fallen world does not know or comprehend God the Father; and neither do you know Him according to your fallen flesh. You do not know Him, nor what He is like. And so you cannot find Him or go to Him, either. You cannot love Him, nor can you call upon His Name.
The world’s notion of God, of fatherhood, of love and unity and peace, of forgiveness, life, and salvation — it’s all confused and wrong; it’s all twisted, distorted, and false. Indeed, so far from the Truth is the world’s “knowledge” and “wisdom,” that you don’t even realize how false it is.
It is only by and through and in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, that you know and love the Father, and come to Him, and stand before Him, and live and abide in His presence. It is only by and through and in Christ Jesus that you pray and sacrifice and worship God rightly — not as though to appease His wrath or bargain with Him, but as a dear child and heir, as a son of God in Christ, as a royal priest in Him who is your great and merciful High Priest in all things pertaining to God.
It is in His Office and Vocation as your great High Priest that Christ Jesus prays and intercedes for you, as He does for His whole Church, for His disciples and His Holy Apostles, and for all who believe in Him through their preaching of His Word. He prays and intercedes in harmony with His singular Sacrifice; indeed, He prays in and with His Sacrifice, with His own Body and His Blood.
He has come down from the Father in heaven in order to reveal His God and Father to you, to embrace you in and with the Father’s Love, and to anoint you with the Holy Spirit from the Father.
All of this He has done deep in the Flesh, in His own holy Body and with His precious Blood — by His holy Incarnation; by His humiliation and obedience, unto His innocent suffering and death upon the Cross; and by His Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the whole world.
So does the Father reveal Himself and give Himself to you in the Person of His own dear Son.
Then, also, in human Flesh and Blood like your own — in His own truly-human Body, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Word and Spirit of God — Christ Jesus reconciles you and all the world to His Father, as He returns to the Bosom of His Father in heaven by way of His atoning Sacrifice upon the Cross, and in His Resurrection and Ascension. So it is that, in Christ, you are raised up to God the Father and brought into His Presence, named with His own great and holy Name, which is above every name that is named, and glorified with His own divine Glory.
Such a Glory it is! Do be aware of this, and understand, it is the Glory of the Cross and suffering. It is the Glory of self-sacrifice, of love for your enemies and those who sin against you. It is the Glory of forgiveness and of prayer for others, even for those who hurt you to the point of death. Not pain and suffering for the sake of pain and suffering, in some perverse and sadomasochistic manner, but the willing sacrifice of your self and your life in loving service to your neighbor.
You may not realize at the time what the point or purpose of your sacrifice and suffering are; but when you proceed by faith in the Word of God within those vocations to which He has called you and in those places where He has positioned you, in love for the neighbors He has set before you, you may be certain that your labors are not in vain, nor your hardship, pain, and sorrow. The Cross conforms you to the Image of God’s beloved Son, and it works in you what is good and blessed, both for you and for others. It teaches repentance and compassion; it strengthens faith and love.
Such things are not the glory of the world, to be sure. But the Cross is the true divine Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; for that is the Glory with which He loves you, and gives Himself for you, and forgives you all your sins, and serves you in peace, all at His own expense, for His mercy’s sake.
That is the Glory of God to which you also are called — the true divine Glory that you are freely given in Christ Jesus — the Glory of His Cross, bestowed upon you by and with His Holy Spirit through the forgiveness of all of your sins in the Liturgy of His Holy Gospel.
The Unity for which Christ Jesus prays — Unity with God and each other in Him — that Unity is granted to you with the Name and Spirit of God in the living and Life-giving waters of Holy Baptism. That is the blessed River of Life which flows from the Cross of Christ, from the Lamb upon His Throne, and from His wounded side at the very Heart and Center of the City of God.
That is the River which cleanses and refreshes you, which washes away your impurity and every unrighteousness, and which quenches your deepest thirst with the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself.
It is by and through that sacred River of living Water — it is by and through that Water of your Holy Baptism — that you have come into the Holy City and are seated at the Lord’s own Table, where you are given the right and the glorious privilege to eat and drink from the Tree of Life.
The Leaves and the twelve great Fruits of that Tree are the Apostles’ Doctrine and Fellowship, the Breaking of the Bread in the Holy Communion, and the priestly Prayers of the Church of Christ.
Those Fruits of the Tree of Life, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Lamb — offered as a Sacrifice upon the Cross, and given to you here as a eucharistic Feast — these are indeed your Life and your Salvation. And the Leaves of that same Tree, that is, the Word of Christ, the Holy Absolution of His Gospel, and the apostolic preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name — those Leaves are for the perfect healing of your heart, mind, body, and soul, unto the Day of Christ.
Whatever frailty and weakness you may have, whatever sickness or infirmity afflict your flesh, you are made brand new, whole and perfect and complete, holy and without blemish in Christ Jesus. That is most certainly true, although you cannot see it or feel it now. It is given to you by God in the crucified and risen Flesh of Jesus, who has received the Glory of the Father on your behalf.
He binds Himself to you, not only by His Incarnation and by His bearing of your sins and death in His Body on the Cross, but also by giving Himself to you with all the Fruits and Benefits of His once-for-all atoning Sacrifice. He does it in the Holy Sacraments, as in the washing of the water with His Word and Spirit in Holy Baptism, whereby you have been — and you are — united with Him in His Cross and Resurrection. And He does it by giving you His Body to eat and His Blood to drink, whereby He unites Himself to you — and you to Him — more profoundly, more intimately, more personally, and more permanently than the world could ever begin to imagine.
So it is that the Glory of the Cross of Christ is yours. His priestly prayer, His suffering and death, His sacrificial love and forgiveness — all of these are yours. And His vindication by the Father, His victorious Resurrection from the dead, and His Ascension into heaven — these, too, are yours.
The Love of God the Father for His only-begotten Son is yours. The divine Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is yours. The perfect Unity of the Holy Trinity is the Unity that you share by Grace in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son now rests and remains on you.
God the Father in heaven, who is so foreign to the world and to sinful man, is now familiar to you in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son. He has become your own dear Father, and you His dear child.
Therefore, the priestly prayer of Christ Jesus to His God and Father is, as I said, now also yours. You crawl up into His lap, as it were; you snuggle yourself into His arms, you sob into His chest, or you whisper into His ear — and He hears and answers Christ Jesus in your prayer. He hears and answers your prayer, as surely as the Son of God in the Flesh has been crucified for you and all your sins and has been raised from the dead for your justification by the Glory of God the Father.
So has the Lord made Himself your Refuge and your Strength, your very present Help in trouble.
So has He brought you safely and securely into His City, into His Home and Family, into His Holy of Holies — eternal in the heavens, but now also established here for you in His Church on earth.
So does He cover you with His Pinions and shelter you under His Wings. So does He love you, forever and always, and grant you His abiding Peace through His forgiveness of all your sins.
And so do you live and abide in the presence of the Holy Triune God in His own righteousness and purity, in the innocence and blessedness of Christ Jesus — as surely as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever in His own Body of Flesh & Blood like yours.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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