Christ the King-Priest

The word of the Lord came to me: “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak. Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ The crown will be given to Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the Lord. Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God.” (Zechariah 6:9-15 NIV)

Who is Jesus? That’s what we’re asking today. Well, if we want to learn who Jesus is, where should we look? In the Bible! So where in the Bible? If you want to learn about Jesus, the place to start would be the four Gospels in the New Testament. Remember them? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those four books tell us about Jesus’ life. But even before the Gospels were written, Jesus said, “These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39). Do you know what Scriptures he was talking about? The Old Testament. According to Jesus, whom is even the Old Testament about? Jesus! From start to finish, the Bible teaches us about Jesus.

Sadly, it’s common for people today to pull the Bible apart. “I like this part. I don’t like that part. This part sounds good. That part is too old-fashioned.” Ironically, we would never do that with any other story. You never pick up a book, read the first chapter, then the eighth chapter, and then the last paragraph. If you did that, would you understand the book? No! The Bible is one united story from the Old Testament to the New Testament. An ancient pastor named Augustine said, “The new is in the old concealed; the old is in the new revealed.” The Old and New Testaments work together. If we want to know who Jesus is, we need to study the whole Bible.

Me included. I took a class this summer in which we studied the whole book of Zechariah in Hebrew. I had never done that before. Before the class, I read through Zechariah and picked out what I thought were the best sections to preach on. Do you know what section I did not pick to preach on? This one! I bet you can see why. It’s just a bunch of names. And something about a crown. Not that important, right? At least, that’s what I thought. But then I studied it. I realized something: It’s all about Jesus! If we want to know who Jesus is, we need Zechariah chapter 6.

On the surface, our lesson today sounds unimportant. The prophet Zechariah was commanded to take gold and silver from some men with strange names: Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah. Heard of them? Me neither. Nobody knows anything about them. Zechariah was to take that gold and silver to the house of Josiah. We don’t know anything about this Josiah either. Then Zechariah was to fashion that gold and silver into a crown and place it on the head of the high priest named Joshua. And maybe you’re thinking, “I can see why Pastor was going to skip over this chapter!”

All of this was happening in the context of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. Now, 70 years later, the Jews had come back to Jerusalem. They wanted to rebuild the temple. But there were supply chain issues. Even back then! It wasn’t going well. So putting this crown on Joshua’s head was somehow going to spur on the people to rebuild the temple. This priest on his throne would finally carry out God’s will. Got all that?

When I first read this earlier this summer, that’s as far as I got. But then I studied it with other pastors. There is always so much more to God’s Word than what you see at first. There are some unexpected things in this lesson, starting with the word “crown.” In Hebrew, the word “crown” is plural. “Crowns.” Zechariah was to put crowns on Joshua’s head. Try to picture that. It doesn’t work very well. Crowns? You don’t ever wear more than one crown! What’s this talking about?

There’s something even more unexpected. Joshua was the high priest. Do you know what high priests didn’t wear? Crowns! Who wore a crown? You know this: The king. The high priest wore a turban. The king wore a crown. So why were crowns being put on the head of the high priest? That high priest Joshua never became a king. But our lesson says, “He will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.” Joshua was going to rule as a priest on his throne. Make sense?

No! That’s impossible. It was impossible for a priest to be king. Do you know why? God said so! According to God’s promise, all the kings in Jerusalem were going to be descendants of a certain king. Remember whom? David. David traced his ancestry back to one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Know which one? The tribe of Judah. All kings were descendants of David from the tribe of Judah. What about priests? According to God’s promise, all the high priests were to be descendants of a certain high priest. Remember whom? Aaron. Moses’ brother Aaron was the first high priest. Know which tribe of Israel Aaron was from? Levi. Kings came from the tribe of Judah. Priests came from the tribe of Levi. Nobody could be a king and a priest at the same time.

On purpose. God is smart. We don’t say that enough. God is smart! God knows what he’s doing. God wouldn’t let a king be a priest because he knows people need two different things. We need someone to guide what happens in society. We need kings and presidents and governors to bring peace and justice and to punish evil. Anarchy is not a good thing. We need kings, or society falls apart. But that’s not all we need. We also need someone to guide our souls. We need forgiveness for our sins. We need an answer to our guilt. We need priests to guide us in our relationship with God. God is smart. He sets up king-type people to rule life in the world. He sets up priest-type people to guide our hearts and souls closer to God. We need priests and kings. Would you agree?

And it’s almost always bad when they mix together. When priests—or pastors—get into politics, what happens? Our souls suffer. Why? It’s not good for Christian pastors to forsake the Word of God to set up earthly kingdoms. What are priests to deal with? The heart. On the other side, when kings get into religion, what happens? Society suffers. Why? It’s not good for kings to force their religious beliefs on people. What are kings to focus on? Justice and peace in society.

That’s why it’s so surprising to hear in our lesson of a priest ruling on his throne. A priest-king. The truth is, this coronation of Joshua the high priest was a symbol. It was a prophecy for God’s people. How do we know that? There’s a special name mentioned. Look at verse 12: “Here is the man whose name is the Branch.” The Branch. Have you heard that before? The “Branch” is a special name for the promised Messiah, starting in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah said God’s people were like a tree that was going to get cut down. All the way down to the stump. But, from that stump, a Branch would grow (Isaiah 11:1-10). Jeremiah added how that Branch would save and rule God’s people—“a King who will reign wisely” (Jeremiah 23:5). Who is the “Branch”? Jesus.

When Zechariah put those crowns on Joshua’s head and proclaimed that a priest would sit on his throne, he was prophesying about Jesus. One day, there would be one special person who would be a King and a Priest at the same time. That King-Priest is Jesus. When that day would come, people would come from all over to build up God’s temple. That temple is God’s church. That’s the promise. At the end of our lesson, they were supposed to put those crowns in the temple as a memorial. As a reminder. He’s coming! Our Priest-King. Our King-Priest. Jesus. He’s coming!

This is good news, because we need a priest. You can feel it in your heart and in your soul. We need more than food. And protection. And air conditioning. We need forgiveness for our sins. We need an answer to our guilt. We need peace with God. So Jesus came. Jesus as our Priest sacrificed himself on the cross. He died in our place. He paid for our sins. So we have peace with God! Why don’t we have to feel guilty? Jesus is our Priest. How are we forgiven? Jesus is our Priest. Who is Jesus? Jesus is our Priest who forgave our sins through his death on the cross.

But that’s not all we need. We need a king. You feel that in your heart too. All the worry. All the doubt. All the anxiety. Think of the questions in our minds: “Who’s in charge? What’s going to happen? Will we make it?” We need to know that someone is in control. So after Jesus died and rose again, what did he do? He ascended to his throne in heaven to reign as King. Why don’t we need to worry about the future? Jesus is our King. Why don’t we need to get anxious about what’s going to happen in our lives? Jesus is our King. Jesus is a Priest who rules on his throne. Jesus brought the high priest and the king into one person with two crowns. He does both for us.

So which do you need to be reminded of? Jesus your Priest or Jesus your King? We each tend to emphasize one or the other. I’ve visited a lot of Catholic churches in Mexico. They often have statues of Jesus suffering and dying. Jesus is often suffering and dying. So which role of Jesus do they emphasize? Priest. Know who was in front of those churches? Mary. Why? Jesus can’t die and reign at the same time, right? Somebody else must be king. Who? Mary. I think many American Christians do the opposite. When you listen to Christian music, what’s it often about? “Jesus reigns. Jesus is in control. Jesus rules!” Great! What’s missing? Sin. Forgiveness.

We’re used to departmentalizing things. When you get to middle school, no teacher teaches everything. You have an English teacher. And a math teacher. And a science teacher. And a gym teacher. Just like no doctor treats everybody. There’s the foot doctor. And the eye doctor. And the cancer doctor. We’re used to departmentalizing things. That’s how most religions work. There are multiple gods for all our different needs. Need crops to grow? The rain god. Need to find a spouse? The love god. We’re used to departmentalizing things. Nobody does it all, right?

Except Jesus. This is the beautiful truth of the Bible: Jesus does it all. If you trust in Jesus as your Priest and your King, it will make all the difference in the world. Some days your heart is filled with guilt. Regret. Sin. Where can you turn? Jesus. He died for you. He’s your Priest! Other days your heart is filled with worry. Fear. Doubt. Where can you turn? Jesus. He reigns for you. He’s your King! Jesus is your Lawyer and your Judge, at the same time. Jesus is your Friend and your Boss, at the same time. Jesus is your Sacrifice and your Savior, at the same time. It’s all Jesus!

Maybe we need to switch up the name of our church a little bit: Christ the King-Priest. That doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? But it’s true! The One who reigns over everything loves you enough to die for you. The One who loves you enough to die for you reigns over everything. The One who gave up everything for you has all power. The One who has all power gave up everything for you. Can you see how this works? The One who saves rules. The One who rules saves. Can you see the comfort this gives your soul? Take your worries to your King. Jesus! Take your sins to your Priest. Jesus! He does it all. Who is Jesus? He is Christ the King-Priest.