The Transfer Of The Priesthood Series

When a man reached the proper age and was ready to begin his service, he would be required to wash himself and his clothing, and then present himself to his father or an older priest who would anoint his head with oil and lay his hands on him symbolically transferring the work and duties and honor of the priesthood on to the next generation.

Well, God wanted there to be no doubt that He had started a new priesthood and that His Son would now be the priest for His people. So, in order to transfer the priesthood from the old order to the new in a manner that His people would understand, He followed the same ceremony as was used in the Old Testament. (Which we will see more clearly in a few minutes.)

I. Conditions for Transferring Priesthood

A. Thirty Years of Age

But in order to do so a few conditions had to be met. First, Jesus would have to be at least 30 years old before He could become a priest. And interestingly enough, the Bible tells us in Luke 3:23 that He was indeed 30 years old when He began His ministry on earth. “Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry…”(NIV). So that requirement was met.

B. A True Priest of the Levitical Line

But, secondly, God needed a priest from the old Levitical priesthood who would be able to symbolically transfer the priesthood to Jesus. (And this is where it becomes exciting, because we will begin to see new meaning behind some Biblical events which we are all familiar with.)

Now, we know that Jesus’ earthly genealogy didn’t put Him in the line for the old Levitical priesthood. As we read two weeks ago in Hebrews 7:14, Jesus didn’t come from the tribe of Levi as all previous priests had. He was from the tribe of Judah. “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.”

This is an important and necessary fact, because Jesus had to be descended from Judah and King David in order for Him to fulfil the prophecy in Psalm 132:11 that promised that the seed of David would be the rightful king to sit upon the throne and rule. Psalm 132:11, “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it: Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.” Jesus had to come from David’s line in order to be seen as the rightful king and heir to David’s throne.

And indeed Jesus was descended from David. Luke 1:27, 31-32, “To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.”

It was likewise important for Jesus NOT to be descended from the tribe of Levi, because He was starting a new, unique, and different priesthood – not continuing the old one.

So, God needed a true Levitical priest to symbolically transfer the priesthood to His Son. But as we discussed earlier this was a bit of a problem. The priesthood had become corrupted over the years and Rome was appointing their own priests for political reasons instead of allowing the true priests to serve. So, where was God to find a true priest devoted to serving Him?