Jesus Christ's Inauguration as High Priest

 Most of us are probably aware that Jesus Christ is our High Priest, something which the Book of Hebrews calls Him at least 11 times. We’re also probably aware that we, God’s people, are spiritual priests in training under Jesus Christ. Our destiny, should we be blessed to be in the First Resurrection, is to “be priests of God and of Christ” (Rev. 20:6). We “are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

But most of us have probably never considered how Jesus Christ became High Priest, or what it meant for Him to be appointed as such. Most churches today teach nothing about the Messiah’s appointment as our High Priest. The reason why will become apparent by the end of this article.

Nevertheless, God’s Word does tell us that Jesus Christ had to be appointed as our High Priest, and it tells us when, how, and what that meant for us. This wasn’t something that just happened; He didn’t just become our High Priest; He had to be appointed by God the Father.

The Necessity of Inauguration

Hebrews 5 begins with the high priests under the Old Covenant, observing, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. ... And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was” (Heb. 5:1, 4).

Someone could call himself a high priest, as various pagans did, but that didn’t make it so. In order to be a high priest to God, a man had to be a Levite, a male descendant of Aaron, and to be free of any physical defects or blemishes (Lev. 21:16-23). Having met these qualifications, this fellow then had to be appointed as high priest, go through a consecration process, and be accepted by God before he could assume office.

Then, building on this example, Hebrews says, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’” (Heb. 5:5-6).  Again, in v. 10, we read that Christ was “called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek.’”

Now, Jesus Christ was neither a Levite nor a descendant of Aaron; He belongs to a different priesthood. Nevertheless, He is without any spiritual blemishes, just as they had to be without any physical blemishes. And, like the earthly high priests, Jesus didn’t choose or appoint Himself as High Priest. He had to be appointed and accepted by God the Father. Like an earthly high priest, He had to be inaugurated or consecrated before assuming His office.

But when and how did this happen? The Book of Hebrews pointed to the appointment of high priests under the Old Covenant as an example, and Scripture tells us about that process in detail. So let’s start there.

Consecration of a High Priest

In Exodus 29, God gave Moses detailed instructions for consecrating Aaron as the first high priest in the earthly sanctuary, and of his sons as assistant priests. Leviticus 8-9 describes Aaron’s inauguration in fulfillment of God’s instructions.

If you’re so inclined, please look up those passages and read them in their entirety. Here, for the sake of space, we’re simply going to summarize.

First, God told Moses to gather all the people and to bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the newly-built tabernacle. Along with them, he was to bring “one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers [made of wheat flour] anointed with oil” (Ex. 29:1-2; Lev. 8:2).

Next, Moses washed Aaron and his sons with water. Then he clothed Aaron with the high priest’s garments, and anointed his head with oil. Afterward, he put the priestly garments on Aaron’s sons. (Ex. 29:4-9; Lev. 8:6-13.)

After this, Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the head of the bull, and Moses killed it as a sin offering at the door of the tabernacle. Moses put some of the blood on the horns of the altar, and burned its fat on the altar. Then Moses offered one of the rams on the altar as a burnt offering. As for the second ram, Moses killed it, cut it in pieces, and placed some of the pieces in the hands of Aaron and his sons, along with some of the unleavened bread. Aaron and his sons lifted the pieces of the ram and the unleavened bread up to God, and waved them as a wave offering. Afterward, these were burned on the altar. (Ex. 29:10-25; Lev. 8:14-28.)

Then, Aaron and his sons boiled the remaining flesh of the ram and ate it with unleavened bread before the door of the tabernacle. God commanded that whatever remained of the ram and the unleavened bread be burned with fire. (Ex. 29:31-34; Lev. 8:31-32.)

Finally, God instructed that Aaron and his sons remain inside the door of the tabernacle for seven full days, day and night. This was critically important; God warned of death if they departed from the tabernacle during these seven days! Throughout these seven days, another bull was offered each day as a sin offering. (Ex. 29:35-36; Lev. 8:33-35.)

If anyone was wondering, this seven-day consecration wasn’t a one-time ceremony for Aaron alone. God commanded that it be repeated any time a new high priest took office: “And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons' after him, to be anointed in them and to be consecrated in them. That son who becomes priest in his place shall put them on for seven days, when he enters the tabernacle of meeting to minister in the holy place” (Ex. 29:29-30).

The High Priest Begins Service

At the end of these seven days, the high priest began his service. “It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel” (Lev. 9:1). As high priest, Aaron offered burnt offerings, sin offerings, and a grain offering on the altar. Moses explained, “For today the LORD will appear to you” (Lev. 9:4). All Israel now assembled before the tabernacle, and Moses repeated, “The glory of the LORD will appear to you” (Lev. 9:6).

As he offered all these offerings, Aaron also offered “the burnt sacrifice of the morning” (Lev. 9:17), the first of the daily offerings which God commanded to be offered on the altar. “Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings” (Lev. 9:22).

Then, we read, “And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” (Lev. 9:23-24).

So after Aaron blessed the people on his first day as high priest, the glory of the Lord entered His tabernacle, in view of all the people, and His fire consumed the offerings on the altar. This happened shortly after the regular morning sacrifice, in addition to the other offerings that Aaron offered on this day.

Our Heavenly High Priest

Now God obviously didn’t establish this Old Covenant ceremony for no reason, nor did He cause it to be detailed twice in Scripture for no reason. God doesn’t do things without reason, and there’s no filler in His Word. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

As we already saw in the Book of Hebrews, the earthly high priest foreshadowed the heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ. The earthly high priest served the earthly sanctuary, “the copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5). Jesus Christ is High Priest of the original, “a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Heb. 8:2).

The high priests under the Old Covenant even bore a title that is now reserved for Jesus Christ. Remember that the high priest, upon taking office, was anointed with oil. For this reason, he was referred to as “the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil” (Num. 15:35), and also called simply “the anointed priest” (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16). “The anointed priest” is ha-kohen ha-mashiakh in Hebrew, mashiakh (Strong’s # H4899) being the origin of our English word “Messiah”! Messiah literally means “Anointed One.” The Greek equivalent is christos (Strong’s # G5547), from which we get the word “Christ.”

So when did Jesus Christ — the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Anointed Priest — become our High Priest? When was He appointed and consecrated as such?

When He ascended to heaven and sat down at His Father’s right hand, as we see in Psalm 110: “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’ … The LORD has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath” (Psa. 110:1, 4-5).

As Heb. 8:4 points out, Jesus couldn’t be a priest while still on earth: “For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law.” God’s law required priests to be from the tribe of Levi, whereas Christ was from the tribe of Judah: “For it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood” (Heb. 7:14).

Other passages, too, show that Jesus Christ assumed office as High Priest after He returned to heaven. “We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (Heb. 4:14). “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19-20; NASB).

Jesus’ return to the Father happened on the 40th day after His resurrection. The Book of Acts begins: 

1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,

3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1-3.)

So Jesus died on Nisan 14, “the Preparation Day of the Passover” (John 19:14). He was in the grave for three days and three nights (Mat. 12:40): Nisan 15, 16, and 17. As we’ve detailed previously, this means that Nisan 14, when Christ was crucified, fell on a Wednesday. The 17th was the weekly Sabbath, and He rose near the end of that day, about 72 hours after His burial. The next day was Sunday, Nisan 18, and He appeared to His disciples on that day.

Sunday, Nisan 18, therefore began the 40 days that He was seen by His disciples after His resurrection. If you count 40 days, beginning on Sunday, the 40th day will always be Thursday. Now, the month of Nisan has 30 days, so if we count 40 days from Nisan 18, we come to the 27th day of the next month, Iyar. Jesus ascended to heaven to sit down at His Father’s right hand on Thursday, Iyar 27.

Remember that the high priests under the Old Covenant could not leave the sanctuary for seven days, night or day, during their consecration. For Christ to fulfill this ceremony, He would have remained in the heavenly sanctuary for seven full days after He ascended there.

Jesus Begins His Service as High Priest

After this seven-day consecration period, the high priest began his service on the eighth day. In the case of Aaron, after completing his first offerings, including the morning sacrifice, he blessed the people. At that moment, the glory of the Lord appeared to them all, and the fire of God consumed the offerings on the altar.

Did anything like this happen when Jesus Christ assumed office as High Priest? As a matter of fact, yes!

Moments before Jesus ascended and returned to His Father, He told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem and wait for His blessing: “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now’” (Acts 1:4-5). Then we read, in Acts 2,

1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4.)

Just as Moses assembled the people when Aaron began his service, so Jesus’ disciples were here assembled. Just as the glory of God appeared at the moment Aaron blessed the people, so the Spirit of God fell upon His people here. Just as the fire of God fell upon the offerings on the altar, so the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus’ disciples in the appearance of fire.

And what time of day did this happen? Why, it happened at the third hour, as Peter told the assembled multitude: “For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day” (Acts 2:15). This corresponds to about 9 AM. What time of day did the glory of God appear to the Israelites? Just as Aaron had finished offering the morning sacrifice, which, as Kyle Bacher has explained elsewhere, would seem to correspond to the third hour, or about 9 AM. The same time Jesus was nailed to the cross (Mark 15:25).

There can be little doubt, then, that this was the day Jesus began His service as High Priest. This was the day He blessed His people and filled them with His Spirit. This was the eighth day after He had ascended to heaven and remained in the heavenly sanctuary for seven days, just like the high priests under the Old Covenant. What an incredible sequence of events! What an incredible fulfillment of the high priest’s inauguration under the Old Covenant!

So what day was this? Let’s count it out on the calendar. Remember that Jesus ascended on Thursday, Iyar 27. His first full day in the heavenly sanctuary, the first of seven full days, was therefore the next day, Iyar 28. Iyar 29 would be the second day. And Iyar only has 29 days, so the third day would be Sivan 1. The fourth, Sivan 2; the fifth, Sivan 3; the sixth, Sivan 4; and the seventh, Sivan 5. At that point, Jesus’ inauguration as High Priest was completed, and He would begin His service the following day, the eighth day, Sivan 6. That was the day He blessed His people with the Holy Spirit, about the time of the morning sacrifice. Now, we already saw that this day was also the Day of Pentecost. Sivan 6.

The Implications

And now we come to the reason you’ve probably never heard this before. As beautiful of a picture as this may be, the mainstream Churches of God have never taught this. Why? Because it’s incompatible with their traditions about Pentecost!

You see, Sivan 6 fell on a Friday that year. Let’s count it out and see. Remember that Iyar 27, the day Jesus ascended to heaven and returned to His Father, was a Thursday, 40 days from the Sunday on which He first appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. That means that Iyar 28 was a Friday; Iyar 29, a Sabbath; Sivan 1, a Sunday; Sivan 2, a Monday; Sivan 3, a Tuesday; Sivan 4, a Wednesday; Sivan 5, a Thursday; and Sivan 6, a Friday. And since that day was Pentecost, that places Pentecost on a Friday!

The timeline isn’t complicated; a child could count it out. After Jesus ascended to the heavenly sanctuary, the Father appointed Him as High Priest, the Anointed Priest, the Messiah. He remained there in the heavenly sanctuary, “the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man” (Heb. 8:2), for seven full days. And on the eighth day, He began His service as High Priest, blessed His people with the Holy Spirit, and the glory of God rested upon them.

But all that’s incompatible with a Sunday Pentecost without distorting the timeline beyond all recognition. It places Pentecost instead on Sivan 6, counted 50 days from the Second Day of Unleavened Bread rather than from the Sunday during Unleavened Bread. This was the documented practice of the Jews, as recorded in the Septuagint, Philo, and Josephus, and they still count Pentecost the same way to this very day. But that’s another topic.

We’ll leave off there for now. Hopefully, this post will give everyone who reads it some food for thought, some things to chew on!