Priests Among Us
One of the tenants of the Protestant Reformation is the “priesthood of all believers”. For me the word “priest” has often brought to mind images of old guys dressed in impractical robes. The result of this image is a loss of significance for what it means for every Jesus follower to be a priest.
We need to put meat on the bones of what it means to be a priest and replace the images that get in the way. In order to do this, I would like to look at how doctors embody what it means to be a priest (in what follows, doctor can be substituted with any medical professional, PA, LPN, RN, CNA, Medical Administrator, etc.).
Doctor and priest sound like very different professions. In order to change that perception, it’s useful to look at what Jesus said each time he healed people with leprosy “…go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” (Matt 8:4 see also Luke 5:14, 17:14) Jesus gives this instruction because the priests had the role of a public health official prescribed by Moses. Leviticus 13 contains the instruction on how priests deal with skin disease. In this chapter the priest is instructed to examine, diagnose and treat the infected person. If a skin disease persisted the priest would quarantine their patient, acting as an ancient version of the Center for Disease Control.
The priests had this role as society’s medical professionals because they were responsible for maintaining boundaries and order within the culture. These boundaries were maintained on national, family and individual levels. Leviticus is not a complete medical manual, but the representative ailment discussed is skin disease. Skin is the body’s boundary. Leprosy, boils or other skin diseases compromise the body’s boundary. On the individual level, the one suffering from a skin disease needs maintenance or treatment of the body’s largest organ. If the ailment was untreatable and contagious, the culture at large was protected by boundaries the priests would then establish through quarantine. The words defining that boundary were “clean” and “unclean”.
In modern medicine, doctors and care providers can also be described as doing boundary maintenance and bringing order to the body’s systems. Beyond skin disease they deal with ailments that breach the bodies systems. The invaders include viruses, harmful bacteria or cancerous cells - none of which belong. A number of medical conditions are often referred to as disorders (e.g. genetic disorders). The care provided is intended to provide or restore healthy, orderly function.
Leviticus, the “priest manual” in the Bible, fills out the profile of a priest. When reading Leviticus, a recognizable central trait of a priest is that they move towards people in pain. This is also true of doctors who choose to move towards people in pain. The ailments range from the mundane to the mortifying. The physical pain doctors deal with is only one level. There is also the emotional pain, often in the form of the struggle for life or loss. Not only do doctors deal with patients, but they also engage patients’ families. They encourage, council and advise families who are making choices about care in difficult situations. The care giver’s medical acumen is important, but what often sets good doctors apart is their “priestly” bedside manner. This characteristic allows them to treat physical as well as emotional needs. This often involves navigating challenging or broken family situations (the kind of family stuff you might imagine a priest dealing with) that present in a medical crisis.
Another trait common to priests is they devote themselves to preparation. The first form of this is learning. Priests commit themselves to gaining understanding, insight and wisdom. Doctors similarly are dedicated to learning - often at a high cost in terms of time and money. Like a priest, their preparation and study are done for the benefit of others.
The second form of preparation is self-care. As described in Leviticus, priests were responsible to maintain the order and boundaries in their life before they assisted others. The demands of caring for others meant priests were required to maintain a high level of self-care. This comes across in ceremonial form through the different washings and preparations that were required (cf. Lev 8). Priests needed to be free of the things that did not bring life before they could minister life to others.
This is an area where our medical system has room for improvement. Doctors are often not given the option of appropriate self-care because of dynamics like long shifts, mountains of debt from school followed by low paying residency. On top of the physical demands of long stressful hours is the emotional burden. Doctors care for others knowing that many of the stories will not have a happy ending. Depending on the type of care, many doctors deal with death on a regular basis. Doctors treat and get asked the painful question “Why?”. Often there is no satisfactory answer, but they treat and care anyways. Without the space to process and like a priest practice a ritual of “cleansing”, self-care and preparation, many doctors are at risk. The temptation to extend the physical and emotional limits through various forms of self-medication is real. At their best, doctors care for themselves first. When done properly they are able to provide a full career of sustained care for others - without human sacrifice (their own life or their families - forbidden in Leviticus).
The fundamental role of a priest is to minister life. Doctors and medical caregivers embody the role of a priest as they minister life. In our culture, which can be described as secularizing, we maintain many public health care institutions. Despite the belief held by many that public spaces should be void of “religious” elements, the role of ministering life is inseparably rooted in honoring the author of life. This means that even doctors who declare there is no God, honor Him when they work to bring about life for their patients. It may be less than ideal as well as inconsistent for such physicians, but life always comes from God.
The medical professional that I’m closest to at one point wrestled with the idea of switching to the role of a hospital chaplain (they knew chaplains do amazing work). This person decided to stick with the medical role, because they understood they could be a chaplain to the patients who would never be willing to call a chaplain. To this day, this priest ministers life to cancer patients - praying for them and even with them for the ones who are willing.
What’s written above is a glimpse at the role of a priest being embodied in one profession. Many of the ways a doctor embodies priestly behavior can easily be recognized in other roles. Counselors, pastors, parents, first responders are just a few where it’s easy to picture those people moving towards others in pain in order to minister life. Add to this list the professions that establish or maintain order in a community. These are all formal roles, but think of the priestly behavior that goes beyond these defined roles. A counselor I know once stated his estimate, that ninety plus percent of counseling was done by friends. One of his goals was to “train the friends”. Remember the times you’ve moved towards a person in pain and offered comfort, council, care and life. Think of the times when you saw disorder and worked towards establishing order. When we recognize these as priestly behaviors, we start to see the priesthood of all believers unfolding.
Priestly work, ancient or modern, points to Jesus. The writer of Hebrews calls him the great high priest, and reminds us “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses”. Jesus clothed himself in frail human flesh and “took our infirmities and bore our disease” (Matt 8:14 quoting Isaiah 53:4). He is the great physician that reminds us it’s the sick who need a doctor. He moved, from heaven to earth, towards those of us broken and in pain. He ministers life by giving his and conquers death in resurrection power, giving him the final word, which will one day address every painful “why” that has gone without answer.
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