In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at the...
Illustration
In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, at the Christus Biblical Gardens one finds an excessively inspiring and life-size collection of scenes from the life of Jesus. The scenes are sequential and escort you from the birth through the ascension. It is the ascension scene I contemplate when reading this Scripture passage.
In that scene, Christ is ascending but seems suspended and stopped so some work can be accomplished. That work is the ministry of the intercessory priesthood. I got that idea by looking, almost simultaneously, at the fingers and toes of the Lord. His fingers are stretched in maximum extension in the direction of heaven and his toes are equally elongated in downward motion toward earth.
Christ is reaching to God and to God's people at the same time. He's between earth and heaven to speak to God on behalf of us and to speak to us on behalf of God. Confession and forgiveness. Asking and receiving. Seeking and finding. Jesus is a marvelously effective go-between, an interceder par excellence.
He is not only our priest --he is our high priest.
--Barnhart
In that scene, Christ is ascending but seems suspended and stopped so some work can be accomplished. That work is the ministry of the intercessory priesthood. I got that idea by looking, almost simultaneously, at the fingers and toes of the Lord. His fingers are stretched in maximum extension in the direction of heaven and his toes are equally elongated in downward motion toward earth.
Christ is reaching to God and to God's people at the same time. He's between earth and heaven to speak to God on behalf of us and to speak to us on behalf of God. Confession and forgiveness. Asking and receiving. Seeking and finding. Jesus is a marvelously effective go-between, an interceder par excellence.
He is not only our priest --he is our high priest.
--Barnhart
