Priest, Prophet and King

Since Eusebius (c. 300 CE) it has been a defined doctrine of the Christian Church that Jesus’ ministry included three Biblical offices: Priest, Prophet, and King (PPK). Christians, and by extension all human beings, inherit this trifold existential mantle. Perhaps it is this (PPK) that defines ‘the human project’ in the broadest possible terms.

Jesus is “a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek,” King of Salem (‘Salem’ = Peace), now Jerusalem (Psalm 110: 4, Genesis 14: 18 – 20). His name means ‘Righteous King’ (Zedek Melik). Intriguingly, Melchizedek was not Hebrew; he was the first gentile to play an important, and positive, role in the lives of the Patriarchs. Yet he blessed Abraham! His priesthood preceded by generations the Levitical priesthood of Aaron and he was the first to consecrate bread and wine, figures of the future Eucharist. 

So associating Jesus’ ministry with Melchizedek’s priesthood makes sense. (Heb. 5: 1 -4)

Jesus is also the prophet foretold ‘by Moses’ in Deuteronomy: “A prophet like me will the Lord your God raise up for you from among your kindred.” (18: 15a) The early church identified Jesus as this prophet (Acts 3: 22 – 23). 

Finally, Jesus is the king spoken of by the Prophet Nathan (to David): “I will raise up your offspring after you, sprung from your loins, and I will establish his kingdom…Your house and your kingdom are firm forever before me; your throne shall be firmly established forever.” (2 Sam. 12b – 16)

Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage back to David (1: 1 – 17). Luke confirms it: “…the Lord will give him the throne of David his father and…of his kingdom there will be no end.” (1: 32b – 33) Finally, Pilate ‘seals the deal’ when he directs that an inscription be placed above Jesus on the Cross reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” (John 19: 19) 

What are the functions of these offices (munus triplex)? First, they are linked to the three ‘divine values’ - Justice, Truth and Beauty. The ‘king’ (judge, political authority) is responsible for maintaining a just socioeconomic order throughout the realm. 

The prophet is called to speak truth to power; the priest is tasked with sacralizing the world, removing the dross of sin so that the natural beauty of God’s creation may shine through everywhere all the time. According to Dostoevsky, “Beauty will save the world.” 

Jesus is the high priest whose sacrifice redeems the world. (Hebrews 10: 10 - 14) Liturgy, Jesus’ priestly presence in ritual, reveals the noumenal order (peace) that underlies the chaos (maya) of the phenomenal world. 

Second, these divine offices (PPK) deliver on the three petitions embedded in the Lord’s Prayer:

Justice: “Give us this day our ‘daily’ (necessary) bread.” (John Rawls, A Theory of Justice)

Beauty (harmony, grace, peace): “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Or in the words of Anaximander via Heidegger: “Grant reck!”

Truth: “Lead us not into temptation (error = sin) but deliver us from evil (sin = death), Amen (so affirmed, QED).”

These three petitions, evoking three faces of God experienced in our world, follow a doxology that concludes, “On earth as it is in heaven.” In the immortal words of Captain Piccard, “Make it so!” (Star Trek: The Next Generation) In so far as Justice, Truth, and Beauty are realized on Earth, things on Earth are as they are in Heaven. Therefore, the trifold charism is synonymous with Jesus’ mission, the redemption of the created world.

While Jesus is the archetypical Priest, Prophet and King, every human being is a potential accomplice. Each of us is called to ‘imitate Christ’ (Ignatius of Loyola) in our own lives; therefore, each of us is responsible for the munus triplex.

So when were you a king? Every time you lobbied for a just cause, every time you helped someone in need, every time you resisted the urge to engage in an unjust transaction or to exploit someone less powerful than yourself.

When were you a prophet? Every time you corrected misinformation, every time you discovered something new about the created world, every time you taught another.

When were you a priest? Every time you contributed to the manifestation of beauty in the world. Did you paint the Mona Lisa? Check! Did you plant a flower garden? Check! Did you clean out the trash in your back yard? Also check! 

There are many ways to answer our universal calling every day. So when do we fall short? Every time we let something become more important than God in our lives (idolatry): money, fame, power, sex, ‘substances’…or self (pride). Every time we give in to greed or envy or sloth. Every time we lack “the courage to change the things we can.” Every time we settle for ‘good enough’.    

Satan is preparing to indict God under the RICO statute, and he is currently compiling a list of Christ’s co-conspirators. Will your name be on that list? And if it is, will the Grand Jury find enough evidence to bring you to trial? And ultimately, will a jury of your peers find you guilty... or have you given them sufficient reason to harbor ‘reasonable doubt’?   

A 2014 book by Johathan Jackson, The Mystery of Art, showcases this concept of a universal vocation and highlights the special role of art and the artist in the cosmological drama:

Creating is an act of faith, a leap in the dark, making something out of nothing; life is art (we are living icons, images of Christ); art is prayer. By the grace of God, it is through us, his agents, that the Goodness of Heaven increases on Earth (“On Earth as it is in Heaven.”)

The concept of ‘sacrament’ is important here. In Christian theology, a sacrament is an outward sign, established by Jesus, of inward grace, conferred by Christ. In more contemporary terminology, it is the ‘inbreaking of the transcendent’ – exactly what Nietzsche said could never happen!

A sacrament is a worm hole connecting spacetime extension (chronos) to the eternal now (kairos). It is the ultimate realization of the Lord’s Prayer: “On earth as it is in heaven!” It allows us to peek under the veil (maya), to catch a glimpse of the noumenal (Kant). Sacraments equip us with the X-ray vision we need to see Aletheia through the fog of Doxa (Parmenides).

What does this have to do with Jesus Christ? Everything. Incarnation is the wormhole! Christ is the being who is simultaneously in heaven and on earth. He is the rainbow bridge. Every sacrament is a participation in the Incarnation. While the Incarnation is coincident with the Annunciation, it is recapitulated throughout Jesus’ life, most prominently in the Transfiguration, the Eucharist, and the Ascension. 

Sacraments, the actual presence of the Transcendent in the immanent world, are supported by sacramentals, elements of the created world that point us toward the wormhole, the Incarnation, Jesus, the Christ.

The created world itself became a sacramental when God “saw that it was good.” In fact, during the 6 ‘days of creation’ (i.e. stages of evolution), God “saw that it was good” 6 different times. Then, at the end of the 6th day, just prior to the Sabbath (day of rest) he reviewed all his handiwork and pronounced the whole, the finished product, ‘good’. 

The relationship of a whole to its parts is different in Incarnation Theology than it is in secular arithmetic. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the whole is one of those parts. Yes, the relationship is dynamic…and on-going, a spiral. This distinguishes non-linear reality from our abstract, linear representations of it. 

Whatever is good is sacramental. Therefore whatever manifests Beauty, Truth and Justice, the terrestrial manifestations of the Goodness that is God, is a sacramental, pointing us  toward the Transcendent, regardless of our religious affiliation, if any. 

All true art is non-linear; all true art is sacramental. It is iconography: it points us toward the Transcendent. “All icons are in essence icons of the Incarnation” (Alexander Schmemann); “Christ is the image (ikon) of the invisible God.” (Col. 1: 15) Art images Christ!

Of all the myriad fallacies of Modernism, one stands out: the notion that the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ can be confined to separate realms. Once that premise is granted there can be only one conclusion: everything is secular, nothing is sacred.

The ‘sacred’ by definition is whole. To assert that some part of the world is ‘other than’ sacred is to assert that there is no whole and if there is no whole (only parts) then no aspect of the world is sacred. The sacred is only ‘sacred’ if it is whole and entire.

Consider how Parmenides defined this ground level reality (Aletheia): “…What-is is ungenerated and imperishable, whole…and complete…it is now all together, one, continuous…Nor is it divisible since it is all alike.” (On Nature, Fragment #8)

Of course, Parmenides understood, as we do, that the unity of noumenal Being (Aletheia) supports a menagerie of phenomenal beings (Doxa). But the realm of Doxa complements Aletheia. It is its ‘flip side’: “To come to be and to perish, to be and not to be, to change place (motion), and to exchange bright color.” 

The secular realm is not disjoint from the sacred; rather it is a subset of it. Art turns an immanent sheet of canvas, block of marble, string of words, or sequence of tones (Doxa) into an arrow that points unambiguously toward Aletheia or the Kingdom of God. 

All art, if it is true art and regardless of the conscious intention of the artist, is ultimately iconography; it must render immanent an image of the Transcendent. Art is ‘meaningful novelty’, and novelty is the inbreaking of the Transcendent. What else could it be? How could true novelty occur ‘spontaneously’ within Nietzsche’s flat world? (There is nothing new under that sun!)

Of course, the Transcendent need not be understood in Judeo-Christian terms; for example, it could be the Zeitgeist, the Spirit of the Age, or Nirvana (not the heavy metal band). But however you understand it, it must transcend what is immanent. 

The artist, like all of us, is priest, prophet, and king…but on steroids. We are all called to be ‘artists’ in the way we live our lives. We are flesh and blood icons, immanent images of the Transcendent, reflections of the Incarnation, agents of the divine. We are all PPK! May we all be found ‘guilty as charged’!

*****

Michelangelo's The Last Judgment, a fresco painted between 1536 and 1541, covers the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and measures 13.7 meters by 12 meters.

The work reflects the same themes as Priest, Prophet and King, placing Christ at the center of judgment and redemption while challenging each viewer to consider their own role in the unfolding spiritual drama.