The Priest’s Progress…
04.30.23
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegorical tale about “Christian’s” journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. In his striving toward salvation, he is diverted by multiple characters who try their best to misdirect him away from reaching his destination of “that which is to come.” Full disclosure, this is a fictional tale, that is also full of problematic imagery and ideas, but as I thought about our lives as this “royal priesthood” and meditated on our passage from 1 Peter, I was reminded of how easily our minds can be diverted away from the truth of who we are, right now, in Jesus.
Let’s reread the text from 1 Peter again:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
The purpose of Peter’s letter is to be a reminder to the Church of their position and calling within the Kingdom of God through our new covenant in Christ Jesus. In fact, the words in this passage are an almost exact echo to the words found in Exodus as God revealed a glimpse to Moses of God’s desire to restore this Kingdom through their “treasured possession” (which is us…)
So, why did God need to tell Moses this? Why did Peter need to give us this reminder? It is because of what I am going to call the cycle of self. It goes like this:
- Something tragic or amazing happens in our life that holds our attention.
- Our trust in God goes down or our trust in ourselves goes up to an unhealthy level.
- We lose sight of our purpose or our identity as “God’s special possession.”
- We give into the temptation of letting the world determine our identity and purpose.
- We are led on a path of rising selfishness or falling self-esteem (bad news either way.)
This is why these words were written, both for their original audience and for us. When we forget our identity as the royal priesthood, and we when forget that we are God’ prized possession, we also forget our simple yet special calling to allow the love of Jesus to generously flow in and through us. This is not a command to tirelessly climb the ladder to high priest, it is an invitation to embrace the freedom of this new covenant, to walk with our High Priest that is Jesus the path of generous love.
The kingdoms of this world (even religious kingdoms) often teach us to see ourselves as tools. The problem with this is that when a tool is not useful enough, becomes obsolete, or worse becomes broken, it is no good and discarded. Remember that God’s holy purpose is not to use us to build something for someone else. We are not a means to an end, and neither are the people we are called to serve. The Kingdom of God that is now here through Christ Jesus is a new cycle, a cycle where the love of God is redeeming the world around us as we obey and serve God while at the same time redeeming us.
So, instead of identifying with “Christian” and striving to reach the Celestial City and being motivated by his pursuits of perfection, let’s remember who we are and remember the purposes God has for us right here and right now.
Just like we cannot truly give something that we do not own, we cannot truly receive something unless we encounter the One who is offering what we need.