The Prophet shows God to us; the Priest leads us to God; and the King joins us together and glorifies us with God.
Francis Turretin
Francis Turretin
In this chapter, we will look at how Jesus' identity as Bridegroom intersects with his threefold office of prophet, priest and king. We will discover how Jesus unites all the different expressions of God’s love for his Old Testament Bride in his loving pursuit of his New Covenant Bride. God had showed his love to her by sending her prophets to woo and speak to her, priests to cleanse and teach her, and kings to protect and care for her. But none of these could match Jesus’ love. He uncovers “the secret counsel and will of God for our deliverance” as Prophet, proclaims that he “sets us free by the one sacrifice of his body” as Priest and demonstrates that he “guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us” as King.[1] His love is multifaceted and holistic, full of passion and humility as well as power and efficacy.
A Powerful Prophet
The Old Testament prophets were mediators and witnesses of the covenant relationship between God and his people. They were included in God’s council and were taken up into the Spirit’s presence and glory. We read in Exodus that Moses’ face shone so brightly after being in God’s presence on the mountain, that he would cover his face with a veil so the people wouldn’t be blinded or judged by the Glory.[2] Elijah was caught up in the glory-cloud as well and even ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:11).[3] There had been an old prophecy given to Moses which looked forward to a future day: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18) Should it surprise us then, that Jesus appears on the Mount of transfiguration alongside Moses and Elijah and in a cloud?Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, (exodus) which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (…) As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” (Luke 9: 28-31, 34-35)
The three of them discussed the new Exodus that Jesus was planning, a new deliverance of God’s betrothed. Remember, the first exodus was considered a divorce from Pharaoh, the abuser, and God bringing the people out to betroth her to himself. [4] In this new Sinai-like event, God himself confirms Jesus’ identity as the prophet like Moses promised in Deuteronomy, sent by God to achieve this powerful deliverance and inaugurate a New Covenant relationship with his people. Jesus performed many miracles that surpassed the prophetic work of Moses.[5] He also recapitulated the work of the prophet Elijah as the healing and providing prophet. In Luke 7 we read the story of the widow of Nain, who had just lost her only son.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!” And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. (Luke 7:13-17)
Not only was the widow mourning the loss of her only son, she was also looking at a life without anyone to provide for her. Widows in Jesus’ time were dependent on sons to make a living and provide for their basic needs. In bringing her only son back to life, Jesus simultaneously restored her relationship to her grown son and provision for her livelihood. This story would have caused onlooking Jews to wonder. There are many parallels between this miracle and the prophet Elijah’s restoring the widow of Zarephath’s son in 1 Kings 17. The latter stretched himself on the child three times and pleaded with God. The prophet said: “See, you son lives” and the woman said: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”(v.24)[6] His prophetic actions validated his identity and his words. The prophet mediated God’s power to care and provide for a woman in need. But for Jesus, it is different. He is God’s only Son, the chosen One, called by God to accomplish the greatest miracle of salvation of all time. He is the prophet like Moses, sent to carry out the new Exodus of Israel. He will bring her out of the slavery to sin and death, draw her to himself, establish a new intimate relationship with her. He is also a new healing and providing prophet like Elijah, caring for her spiritual livelihood. All other prophets only mediated God’s love for Israel. Jesus embodies it fully in his person. He is the new lawgiver and the provider to whom his Bride can cling.
A Perfect Priest
A priest’s robes were made to reflect the tabernacle, the place where God’s glory would reside.[7] Its fringes or tassels on the cornered garments were made of the same material as the tabernacle tapestries. They were to be a symbol of the people’s promise to God that they would avoid spiritual idolatry.[8] God had commanded how to make them: “And these are the garments which they shall make: the breast-plate, and the shoulder-piece, and the full-length robe, and the tunic with a fringe, and the tire, and the girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests.” (Exodus 28:4) He also gave a reason for why they were made with such care and detail: “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” (Exodus 28:2). Of course, Jesus would have worn no such garment. He did not look like a high priest, at least not to the naked eye. But the eye of faith saw him for who he really was.
A Perfect Priest
A priest’s robes were made to reflect the tabernacle, the place where God’s glory would reside.[7] Its fringes or tassels on the cornered garments were made of the same material as the tabernacle tapestries. They were to be a symbol of the people’s promise to God that they would avoid spiritual idolatry.[8] God had commanded how to make them: “And these are the garments which they shall make: the breast-plate, and the shoulder-piece, and the full-length robe, and the tunic with a fringe, and the tire, and the girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests.” (Exodus 28:4) He also gave a reason for why they were made with such care and detail: “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” (Exodus 28:2). Of course, Jesus would have worn no such garment. He did not look like a high priest, at least not to the naked eye. But the eye of faith saw him for who he really was.
As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (Luke 8: 42-42)
A ritually unclean, bleeding woman touched Jesus in her hurt and desperation. She has been bleeding for 12 years and spent all her fortune on doctors who could not help her. She would have been disqualified from worship since she was in a state of perpetual cultic uncleanness. For the same reason, she was probably unmarried, since intercourse what forbidden during times of bloody discharges.[9] She, like many women I know, probably suffered under the hurt of rejection and infertility. The symbolism in this passage is striking. The woman, in need of healing, didn’t go to the priests, but found her way to Jesus. Her shame is so great, she touches the fringe of his garment from behind, secretly, thinking he might not notice. The word fringe here is the same word used for the fringe of the priest’s robes.[10] When she touches the fringe of his garment, Jesus feels power leaving him. This strange statement sounds almost magical! But what sort of power was it? I’d venture to say it was the power of the priest to mediate God’s forgiveness, glory, beauty to his Bride. Jesus had the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, restore and make her fit for relationship with himself. It is the divine power to cover shame, transform hearts and sanctify lives. The story reminds us of the state in which God first found his Bride in Ezekiel:
And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ (…) I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. (Ezekiel 16: 6, 8-9)
Water was the symbol of purification, and oil the symbol of the anointing of God’s Spirit, both priestly activities. Notice how Jesus remains unaffected by the woman’s cultic impurity, while she is transformed by his holiness. Jesus’ power flows out of him to heal and purify her ritually unclean womb and restores her to worship and community with the rest of God’s people. Jesus does not condemn her. In fact, he commends her as a daughter of faith, seeking healing with the sinless great high priest.
The woman’s humble initiative to seek Jesus out as her priest is the beautiful climax of this passage. Yet, her story is an interruption to another daughter’s healing. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, had been pleading with Jesus to come heal his 12-year-old daughter who was dying, when the woman with the flow of blood touched Jesus. He arrived at the house too late. She was already dead. But Jesus takes her by the hand and says: “Child, arise.” (v.54). Here too, Jesus is sovereign over ritual uncleanness. He touches her. Touching dead bodies was taboo! This young girl had died before becoming a full-fledged woman.[11] It is no coincidence that Jesus restores the life-giving ability of two daughters of Israel on both ends of the spectrum of fertility: The Israel burdened and condemned by the ceremonial law, trembling at Jesus’ feet, and the Israel cut off from future fruitfulness, lying lifeless under the curse of sin and death. The restoration of both comes through the priest who came near, becoming the sacrifice who would pay for her sin by his atoning death. In other places, Jesus’ healing miracles are tagged with “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” (Matthew 8:17) Jesus’ effectual work as great high priest,[12] whose “soul makes an offering for guilt”[13] produces the beauty of holiness and the glory which will adorn his Bride. As a result, she will offer herself to him willingly and become fruitful in his service.
The woman’s humble initiative to seek Jesus out as her priest is the beautiful climax of this passage. Yet, her story is an interruption to another daughter’s healing. Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, had been pleading with Jesus to come heal his 12-year-old daughter who was dying, when the woman with the flow of blood touched Jesus. He arrived at the house too late. She was already dead. But Jesus takes her by the hand and says: “Child, arise.” (v.54). Here too, Jesus is sovereign over ritual uncleanness. He touches her. Touching dead bodies was taboo! This young girl had died before becoming a full-fledged woman.[11] It is no coincidence that Jesus restores the life-giving ability of two daughters of Israel on both ends of the spectrum of fertility: The Israel burdened and condemned by the ceremonial law, trembling at Jesus’ feet, and the Israel cut off from future fruitfulness, lying lifeless under the curse of sin and death. The restoration of both comes through the priest who came near, becoming the sacrifice who would pay for her sin by his atoning death. In other places, Jesus’ healing miracles are tagged with “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’” (Matthew 8:17) Jesus’ effectual work as great high priest,[12] whose “soul makes an offering for guilt”[13] produces the beauty of holiness and the glory which will adorn his Bride. As a result, she will offer herself to him willingly and become fruitful in his service.
A Passionate King
Would the Messiah come as a mighty warrior-King to defeat the Roman oppressors and reestablish the Kingdom of Israel to its former glory? This is what most Jews at the time of Jesus believed. When Pilate asked him, “‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ (…) he answered him, ‘You have said so.’ (Luke 23:3). Jesus does not deny it, but in John 18:36, Jesus explains, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” He is passionate about something else. When Jesus “conquers” Jerusalem, he rides in on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of the King who would come to rescue his City-Bride. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
When Jesus sees his beloved city, he weeps and cries out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37) Here, Jesus, in equating himself with the passionate King of the universe who longs to free Jerusalem from outer and inner oppression and unite her in righteousness and justice. He mourns for his Bride and her children, knowing what will happen to her if she persists in her rebellious ways. One common way of reading the mother hen imagery is an attempt to prove that Jesus possessed a gentle feminine side. Gentleness certainly is one of Jesus’ qualities, but one should also remember that avian brooding and wing imagery usually stands for the creative and protective activity of God in creation and redemption. “Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.” (Isaiah 31:5)[14] It was the king’s job to ensure Jerusalem was united, safe and living under God’s rule. The promised king would “whistle for them and gather them in, for (he had) redeemed them.” (Zechariah 10:8) Jesus the Bridegroom-King longed to bring his lost, vulnerable Bride under his protective pinions, in order to keep her close to his heart and re-create in her a heart that would love him. However, Jesus also knows that reclaiming her would cost him his own life: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10) Jesus, aware he is on his way to being pierced on the cross, is more concerned about the welfare of the daughters of Jerusalem than his own.
And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ (Luke 23:27-29)
What may sound like a rebuke is in fact a tender warning to the weeping women. Jesus is implying that there will come a day of judgment. He desires for his Bride and her children to come under his protective wings before that event. The Bridegroom-King has the power to bring peace and security to his Bride, but there is a warning in his wooing: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2) There is an escape from God’s righteous wrath. Salvation is found only in the refuge of Jesus’ wings, in the shadow of the King’s cross.
The Promise of another Helper
We have seen how Jesus fulfills a threefold office of prophet, priest and king on behalf of his Bride and how his identity as Bridegroom intersects with these offices. The help that God offers his Bride through these 3 offices is holistic. It addresses her need for revelation concerning her deliverance, provision of healing and forgiveness, and a relationship with the benevolent, passionate Bridegroom-King. Those who do not understand this about him yet, are exhorted to reconsider and repent. Those who do, willingly love and follow him while they pine for his return.Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (John 16:20-22)
Jesus also promised that the Spirit would continue his comforting, gathering, recreating work in his absence: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” (John 16:7) And, as a loving, responsible bridegroom in Jesus’ day would, he too will go prepare a place for his Bride:
Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14: 1–3)
Our heavenly Bridegroom has left to prepare a glorious place of residence for his us, his Bride. He is coming back to take us to himself so that we might be with him forever, united to him and free from the Serpent’s deadly influence!
This is a chapter that may not be included in a book I'm writing, but didn't want it to go to waste. The context is the church as bride of Christ.
[2] Exodus 34:29-35
[3] Notice that Jesus too ascended into heaven like Elijah in Luke 24:51
[4] For further reading on this topic, see Nicholas Lunn P. 2014. “‘Let My People Go!’: The Exodus as Israel’s Metaphorical Divorce from Egypt.” The Evangelical Quarterly 86 (3): 239–51.
[5] He interprets and fulfills the law (Matthew 5:7); he provides miraculous bread from heaven (John 6:31-35). He survives the test in the wilderness (Matthew 4), he walks on water (Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:45-56; John 6:16-24), he is the healing from the biting snakes in the desert (John 3:14-15) he is the Passover Lamb, slain for our sins, (John 1:29) he leads the people into a new promised land (the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven), he gives them rest (Matthew 11:8), etc.
[6] The prophet Elisha, Elijah’s follower, also healed a widow’s only son in a very similar. He gives him back to her saying: “pick up your son.” (2 Kings 4:36)
[7] See Meredith Kline, Images of the Spirit, p.42
[8] Kline, p.51.
[9] Leviticus 15:19-33
[10] In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament
[11] 12 was considered the youngest age to be betrothed in the Jewish world of that time
[12] The author of Hebrews describes Jesus’ priestly calling as follows: “So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.’” (Hebrews 5:5-6) Melchizedek was the “priest of God Most High” who blessed Abram in Genesis 14:18.
[13] The Suffering Servant has a priestly task Isaiah 53:10
[14] For more examples, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” (Exodus 19:4) or “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.” (Deuteronomy 32:10-11)
