Christ’s High Priestly Benediction

The gospel of Luke concludes with a benediction. Having offered the perfect sacrifice that was accepted by the Father, Jesus Christ then pronounced blessings on the church-the blessings that come from him as a result of his mediatorial work; the blessings of repentance and forgiveness; and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

The idea that Luke 24:50-53 speaks about the benediction of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, was spoken of by John Calvin and Thomas Goodwin, as well as by Dr. Kelly Kapic (Kelly M. Kapic, “Receiving Christ’s Priestly Benediction: A Biblical, Historical, and Theological Exploration of Luke 24:50-53,” Westminster Theological Journal 67, no. 2 [fall 2005]: 247-260). I also agree with this understanding. In the last four verses of this gospel, we find the Greek wordeulogêô, which means “to bless,” three times. Jesus blessed the disciples and they, in turn, blessed God.

What Is Blessing?

What is meant by this benediction that Jesus pronounced on the church? The Old Testament describes blessings in both material and spiritual terms. In fact, blessings are mentioned in the Old Testament more times than in the New. In the New Testament, blessings are described more in spiritual terms.

As Americans, we tend to speak of blessings in purely material terms. For us, the good life consists in the abundance of things, and we are constantly working to accumulate more and more possessions.

It is true that we need material blessings, and the God who gave us physical bodies will also provide for them. Thus, Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and he will answer that prayer. And when we seek first the kingdom of God, the Lord promises that he will give us “all these things,” meaning he will provide for our material needs (Matthew 6:33). But in this passage, Jesus is blessing his disciples particularly with spiritual blessings.

We want to examine three points from this passage: First, our perfect high priest-our perfect mediator, representative, and covenant-keeper; second, the perfect sacrifice offered by this great high priest that reconciled us to God the Father; and, third, the perfect blessing that flows to us from Jesus Christ, whose atoning sacrifice was accepted by our heavenly Father.

A Perfect High Priest

Adam and Eve’s sin alienated them from God. Yet God had a plan, not to destroy them, but to reconcile them to himself and bless them with eternal life in his presence. This plan was not only for Adam and Eve, but for us also, who are Adam’s descendants and by nature sinners as a result of Adam’s sin.

Let me tell you, a man without God is nothing and can do nothing. Without God, man is like a fish out of water, without life and without hope. And when such a man dies, he enters into an eternity of separation from the very presence of God.

We sinners need a representative, a mediator, a kinsman-redeemer, a perfect high priest, who can bring us back to God’s presence and give us eternal life. The Bible says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18). But who is able to remove this just wrath of God from us? God the Father himself has a plan to do so. In eternity, he asked the eternal Son to die on the cross in our place, and the Son agreed to do so. No other death, no other bloody sacrifice will do, for the Bible says that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins and cleanse our filthy consciences (Hebrews 10:4), and certainly no sinful man’s blood would be sufficient. Nor would the death of a sinless man accomplish this, could such a man be found, for even perfect Adam failed to obey God, thus plunging us into this fallen condition. Yet, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins (Hebrews 9:22). We covenant-breakers need a perfect covenant-keeper to bring us back to God. We need a God-man to bless us with eternal life

So the eternal Son said, “Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7; Psalm 40:7-8). Obeying God actively and passively, Jesus lived and died for elect sinners, and he will bring many sons to glory. Through his substitutionary life and death, he gives us perfect righteousness and total forgiveness of sins. In him and through him we may approach the throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and find grace to live.

The wages of sin is death-eternal death. We deserve death; there is no argument about it. Yet someone else died in our place: God’s eternal Son. So we read in Hebrews, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity,” meaning the Son became incarnate, “so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (2:14-15).

In Jesus Christ, we have a perfect high priest and mediator. He is greater than the holy angels, greater than Moses, and greater than Aaron. In him we also have a perfect sacrifice to lead every elect sinner to perfection, in which we may approach God and dwell in his holy presence.

The writer of Hebrews says, “Such a high priest meets our need-one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (7:26) and “Although he was a son,” meaning the eternal Son, “he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect,” through perfect obedience, unlike Adam, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:8-9). We are also told, “He is able to save completely those who come to God through him” (7:25). Jesus Christ is our perfect high priest.

A Perfect Sacrifice

In accordance with the Father’s plan, we are therefore made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, “because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Hebrews 10:14). God the Father sent us a mediator, a perfect one, the God-man who perfectly obeyed God in everything, who is the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and who is characterized by the power of an indestructible life.

But not only is Jesus our perfect high priest, he is also the perfect victim whom all the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament foreshadowed. In the fullness of time, God sent his own Son, “born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). The law cursed us because we transgressed it. But “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. . . . He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14). Elsewhere we read, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. He is our salvation, the perfect sacrifice in our place. He is everything for us.

The Word became flesh, the Son of God became man, to die in our behalf. He was born to die. So Jesus told his disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9:22 italics added). He set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem to be killed, buried, and raised from the dead, so that he could pronounce blessing on us and bring us to God. Jesus died for our sins that we may be blessed with life.

In the Old Testament, the priests daily offered sacrifices in the morning and evening. And on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies twice with the blood of sin offerings. Having offered all requisite sacrifices, he would then come out to bless the people. Of course, the people could not go into the presence of God, for the middle wall of partition had not been broken by the death of Jesus Christ, so they had to stand at a distance. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the sacrifice, the priest would bless the people with the presence of God. He would stand up, raise his hands, and say, “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

We find such high priestly benedictions throughout the Scriptures. Leviticus 9:22 says that, after offering the required sacrifices, “Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them.” In the same way, Jesus lifted his crucified hands to bless the people in this Lukan passage. The picture is that of the high priest offering the perfect sacrifice. Deuteronomy 10:8 tells us, “At that time, the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.” And Deuteronomy 21:5 says, “The priests, the sons of Levi, shall step forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister and to pronounce blessings in the name of LORD. . . .” Second Chronicles 30:27 speaks about the celebration of the Passover by King Hezekiah. At the conclusion of the ceremony, “the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people, and God heard them, for their prayer reached heaven, his holy dwelling place.”

We see this benedictory function of the priesthood also in the New Testament. Luke 1 says that when Zechariah the priest went into the temple to burn incense one day, an angel of the Lord appeared and told him he was going to have a son through his barren wife, Elizabeth. Because Zechariah did not believe what the angel said, the angel told him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time” (Luke 1:19-20). Verse 21 continues, “Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.” You see, they were waiting outside for the priest to come out and give them the benediction. But read verse 22: “When he came out, he could not speak to them.” Thought Zechariah was supposed to pronounce a blessing, he could not, because of his sin.

But Jesus is our perfect great high priest after the order of Melchizedek. As such, he offered a perfect sacrifice in our behalf to make atonement for our sins. After he was arrested, abused, condemned, and crucified in Jerusalem, he died and was buried-a perfect sacrifice in our stead. He was the sacrifice provided by God the Father himself, and God the Father accepted his sacrifice in our place. He proved it by raising Christ from the dead on the third day.

This was all part of God’s eternal plan. Jesus himself told his disciples on the road to Emmaus, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26) Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures, telling them, in essence, “The entire Old Testament-the law, the prophets, the writings, the psalms-speaks of me. The message of the Old Testament is that the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.”

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ turned away God’s wrath from us. He is our God-sent, perfect propitiation. Christ died; Christ rose; Christ accomplished redemption; and now blessing flows to us from Christ.

A Perfect Benediction

At the end of forty days of post-resurrection appearances, Jesus led his disciples-probably about one hundred and twenty people, including his mother and brothers-to the Mount of Olives. There, as the great high priest who had offered himself as the perfect sacrifice of atonement once for all, he performed his last act on earth. He did what the other priests had done only typically before-he lifted up his hands and began to bless his disciples. (PGM) And I am sure when they looked at Christ’s hands, they could see the nail prints marking his sacrificial death on the cross.

From the crucified hands of Christ now flowed benediction, blessing, life, and salvation. Such a benediction, as noted before, was the peculiar function of the priests after they had offered acceptable sacrifices to God. Here the Great High Priest himself lifted up his hands and blessed his people. He offered the blessing of God’s presence and peace, the blessing of being reconciled to God. Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification. The covenant curse has been removed from us, and the covenant blessing from Christ flows to us. As a result, God now smiles at us; his face is shining, and so we shine. By dealing with the problem of our sin once and for all, Jesus Christ brings us sinners to the shining face of God.

Psalm 67 speaks about this shining of God’s face: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations” (vv. 1-2). This is why repentance and forgiveness need to be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. Likewise, in Psalm 80 we read three times about this shining of God’s face (verses 3, 7, and 19): “Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” God was angry and not smiling because of our sin. But here the psalmist is praying, “Please restore us. We want to see your smiling face, for then we too will smile and experience joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Thank God for Jesus Christ, who took care of the problem of our sin, guilt, and alienation! Not only did he bring us to the Father, but he brought the Father to us. Jesus is the high priest who made perfect atonement for our sins. And so on the Mount of Olives, outside the temple, Jesus lifted up his crucified hands and blessed his people.

This same Jesus even now says to us who have believed in him, “The Lord bless you and keep you-keep you forever, keep you from all harm. May the Lord smile at you and may his face shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious to you and give you peace.”

What is the nature of this high priestly blessing? It is, first of all, the gift of repentance. No one will repent unless God gives him repentance. In Acts 3:25-26 Peter declared, “You are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring'”-that is, through Jesus Christ-“‘all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” That is his business, as Matthew 1:21 tells us: His name is Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins.”

This blessing is also the gift of faith-saving, living, active, obedient, persevering faith. It is the gift of forgiveness of all our sins. It is the gift of the robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness. It is the gift of sanctification and of the Holy Spirit, who applies this redemption to us. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. It is life eternal.

And what is the result of this blessing? Now we have no condemnation, no anxiety, no fear, no slavery to sin and Satan, and no hell. In Romans 6 Paul speaks of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ: “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (v. 18). He says again in verse 22: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God.” Oh, what a happy eternal condition! We are now slaves to righteousness and slaves to God.

People often speak about their independence, but there is no true independence; we either serve Satan or God. But there is such a thing as true freedom: it is when we are set free from sin and Satan, and made slaves to righteousness and God. Through the cross of Christ, we have been brought to God, and God has been brought to us. Now we can live in God’s presence forever, and nothing-not even death-is able to separate us from this union and communion with our triune God.

Application

What truths can we learn from this passage and apply to our lives, that we might experience blessing?

1. All blessings are found in Jesus Christ. We must be very clear about this: “There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Why? There is no other mediator. There is no other high priest. There is no other covenant-keeper. There is no other atonement. There is no other savior except the God-man, Jesus Christ. Thus, we believe in exclusivism, not in inclusivism or pluralism. Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of the world; there is no salvation outside of Christ.
2. Because there is no salvation outside of Christ, “What must I do to be saved?” must be the question of every sinner. And the answer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:30-31), and from him we will receive the blessing of forgiveness, righteousness, and peace. His business is to bless us.
3. It is the will of Jesus that those who have been blessed should, in turn, bless the nations by proclaiming the gospel to them. Man’s deepest need is not more things; man needs Jesus, and the repentance and forgiveness of sins that he gives. This was the plan of God revealed to Abraham: “In thee”-that is, in your offspring-“shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3 KJV). The blessing of the Father comes through Christ to the world through the gospel. That is how it came to us. Someone spoke to us about Jesus Christ, and God gave us repentance, faith, and forgiveness of sins.
4. Let us, then, become blessors like Jesus. In the Old Testament, the power to bless rested in the Father and in the priest. Now the Bible says we all are priests, for we believe in the priesthood of all believers. As God’s holy priesthood, we have a purpose in life: to bless others. Fathers, your job is to bless your children. Pastors, your job is to bless your flock. People of God, your job is to bless all those you come in contact with. That is our commission, to go into all the world and bless people by declaring the gospel to them.
5. What should be our response to this blessing that God has given us? First, as Luke 24:52 tells us, having received this blessing, the disciples worshiped Jesus: “then they worshiped him.” This is the first time Luke uses the word “worship” with reference to Jesus Christ. It means his disciples now recognized him as God incarnate; there was no more doubt. Yet they also realized that this God became man to die in their place. Thus, they worshiped him. Those whose sins are forgiven will worship their triune God.

   What else did the disciples do? They “returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” There is no other way to express our interior liberation from sin and Satan than with “joy unspeakable and full of glory”! And verse 53 tells us they did one more thing: “they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.” The word here is “blessing” God, which means praising him. So God blesses us, we are blessed, and we in turn bless him.

6. Suppose we go out to bless people, but they do not want to receive our blessing? What if someone does not want to believe this proclamation of the gospel? In Matthew 10:11-16 Jesus instructed us, “Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting.” What is the greeting? It is the Aaronic benediction, the “Shalom aleichem-peace to you.” So Jesus said, “If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not,” that is, if someone rejects it, “let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” It is a serious thing to reject the free offer of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice.
7. Jesus is still blessing us. Luke 24:51 says that while he was blessing the disciples, Jesus was taken up into heaven. We also read that he is now seated on the right hand of God the Father (Colossians 3:1), and that he still blesses us. Every day, every moment, he intercedes for us as our high priest. He is still blessing his church. He is still blessing us this very day.

Praise God for his great plan of salvation! God is most holy and we are most sinful. But God is also most compassionate; so he sent us a perfect high priest, a perfect mediator, a perfect covenant-keeper, a perfect savior, and a perfect kinsman-redeemer who offered a perfect sacrifice in our stead. God accepted his sacrifice and raised him from the dead; and now he is raising his crucified hands and blessing us. May God help us to receive the blessing of salvation in Jesus Christ even this day. Amen.