Christ, Our Undefiled High Priest Text: Leviticus 21:10-15
Introduction: The Picture of Perfection
We live in a casual age. We want a casual Friday God, a deity who is more of a cosmic buddy than a consuming fire. We have domesticated the Almighty, put Him in jeans and a t-shirt, and taught Him to speak in the therapeutic platitudes of our day. We want a God who makes no demands, who draws no lines, and who is certainly not fussy about details. And when we come to a passage like this one in Leviticus, our modern sensibilities are often baffled, if not altogether offended. Why such strictness? Why these meticulous, seemingly arbitrary rules for the high priest? Why does God care so much about who he touches or who he marries?
The short answer is that God is holy, and we are not. And the entire Levitical system, with all its blood and smoke and regulations, was a massive, technicolor, object lesson designed to teach Israel this fundamental reality. It was a schoolmaster, as Paul says, to lead us to Christ. These laws were not given in a vacuum. They were given to a people surrounded by pagan nations whose priests were often ritual prostitutes, whose worship involved gashing themselves in mourning, and whose gods were capricious, immoral, and anything but holy. The laws in Leviticus are a direct polemical assault on that entire worldview. They are drawing a sharp, bright line in the sand between the worship of the one true God and the chaotic, death-drenched rituals of the nations.
But more than that, these laws are prophetic. They are not just about the son of Aaron; they are a detailed architectural drawing of the Son of God. The high priest was the pinnacle of Israel's worship. He was the one man, once a year, who could enter the Holy of Holies and stand in the immediate presence of God on behalf of the people. For him to do this, he had to be a picture of wholeness, of life, of purity. He was a living, walking, breathing type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every rule laid upon him was meant to paint a clearer picture of the one who was to come. These are not arbitrary rules for an ancient functionary; they are brushstrokes in the portrait of our Savior. If we miss this, we miss the whole point. We are not just studying ancient ceremonial law; we are studying Christology in picture form.
The Text
‘And the priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes; nor shall he approach any dead person nor defile himself even for his father or his mother; nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am Yahweh. And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he shall take a virgin of his own people as a wife, so that he will not profane his seed among his people; for I am Yahweh who makes him holy.’
(Leviticus 21:10-15 LSB)
Set Apart by Oil and Garments (v. 10)
The text begins by identifying the subject: the high priest, set apart from all other men.
"‘And the priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes;’" (Leviticus 21:10)
Notice his qualifications. He is the "highest among his brothers," set apart by God's choice. He is the one on whom the "anointing oil has been poured." This oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, consecrating him for his unique office. And he has been "ordained to wear the garments," the glorious and beautiful high priestly robes described back in Exodus. These things mark him out. He is not his own man; he is God's man, representing God to the people and the people to God.
Because of this high calling, his personal expressions of grief are radically curtailed. He shall not "uncover his head nor tear his clothes." These were the common, accepted signs of deep mourning in that culture. But the high priest is forbidden from doing them. Why? Because he represents life. He serves the living God. His entire office is about securing life for the people through atonement. For him to engage in the traditional rituals of death would be to contradict his very function. It would be like an ambassador of a great king showing up to a foreign court in rags. His personal feelings, however legitimate, are subordinate to his public office.
This points us directly to Jesus. He is our great High Priest, the highest among all His brothers (Heb. 2:11). He was anointed not with literal oil, but with the Holy Spirit without measure (Acts 10:38). And He is clothed in garments of glory and majesty. And when He faced the greatest sorrow, standing before the tomb of Lazarus, He wept, but He did not mourn as those who have no hope. He did not tear his garments in despair. Instead, He commanded death to give up its prize. His office as the Prince of Life superseded the expression of grief.
The Untouchable Priest (v. 11-12)
The restrictions become even more severe, highlighting the absolute separation required between the high priest and death.
"‘nor shall he approach any dead person nor defile himself even for his father or his mother; nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am Yahweh.’" (Leviticus 21:11-12)
Regular priests were forbidden from touching a corpse, with the exception of their closest relatives (Lev. 21:1-3). But the high priest has no such exception. Not even for his own father or mother. This is a staggering requirement. The deepest of natural affections and duties must give way to his sacred office. Contact with death, the ultimate consequence of sin, would defile him and render him unfit to enter God's presence. He must remain utterly separate from sin's pollution and its final outcome.
Furthermore, he is not to "go out of the sanctuary." This doesn't mean he lived there 24/7. It means that when he is on duty, performing his sacred functions, nothing can draw him away. Not even the news of a death in the family. His duty to God in the sanctuary is absolute. To abandon his post would be to "profane the sanctuary of his God." Why? "For the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him." That anointing, that setting apart by the Spirit, is a permanent reality that defines him. It is his identity. He is a holy object, consecrated to God. And God seals this with His own name: "I am Yahweh." This is not a suggestion; it is a divine command rooted in the very character of God.
Who does this paint a picture of? Our Lord Jesus. He was utterly separate from sin and death. Death could not hold Him because it had no claim on Him. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). He touched the dead, not to be defiled by them, but to raise them to life, demonstrating His authority over death. And He never for a moment left His "sanctuary." He never abandoned His mission or was distracted from the work the Father gave Him to do. His consecration was perfect and His focus absolute.
A Consecrated Marriage (v. 13-14)
The requirements for holiness extend from his relationship with the dead to his relationship with the living, specifically his wife.
"‘And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he shall take a virgin of his own people as a wife,’" (Leviticus 21:13-14)
The high priest's marriage was not a private affair. It was a public statement. His wife had to be a virgin from his own people. He could not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman who had been a prostitute. This is not a statement about the worth of these other women. It is a typological requirement for the high priest. His bride had to be a picture of purity, of newness, of undivided loyalty.
A widow, however godly, was connected to a previous man and to death. A divorced woman was connected to a broken covenant. A profaned woman was connected to sexual sin. The high priest's marriage had to be free from any association with death, brokenness, or defilement. His union had to be a living picture of a perfect and pure covenant relationship. It was a symbol of God's relationship with His people Israel, a new and undefiled covenant.
The antitype here is glorious. The Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, has taken a bride for Himself. That bride is the Church. And how does Paul describe her? He says that Christ gave Himself up for her, "that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25-27). Christ is making for Himself a virgin bride. In ourselves, we are anything but. We are spiritual widows, divorced from our first husband Adam, profaned by our idolatries. But in Christ, we are made new. He makes us into the virgin bride that He, as our High Priest, must have.
A Holy Seed (v. 15)
The reason for these marital regulations is made explicit. It is about the preservation of a holy line.
"‘so that he will not profane his seed among his people; for I am Yahweh who makes him holy.’" (Leviticus 21:15)
The high priest's children, his "seed," were in line to continue the priesthood. His lineage had to be kept holy, set apart. To "profane his seed" would be to introduce a compromise into the one office that guaranteed Israel's access to God. The line of mediation had to be protected. If the high priest was compromised, the whole system of worship was compromised. The entire nation's standing before God depended on the integrity of this office.
And again, God grounds this in His own character and action: "for I am Yahweh who makes him holy." The high priest does not make himself holy. His holiness is a derived, gifted holiness. It is Yahweh who sanctifies him, who sets him apart for this task. And because God is the one who makes him holy, God is the one who sets the terms for maintaining that holiness.
This points us to Christ and His seed. Who are the children of our High Priest? We are. All those who are born again by the Spirit of God are His offspring, a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). And Christ will not have a profaned seed. He ensures that His children are kept, preserved, and made holy. Our holiness is not our own achievement; it is His work in us. He is the Yahweh who makes us holy. He is the one who ensures that His bride will bring forth holy children, a people for His own possession, fit to serve in the sanctuary of His presence forever.
Conclusion: Our Perfect Representative
When we read these demanding laws, our first reaction should not be to recoil at their strictness, but rather to be driven to despair of our own ability to meet God's standard. No son of Aaron could ever perfectly embody this ideal. They were all sinners. They all eventually died. Their wives were sinners. Their children were sinners. The entire Levitical priesthood was a magnificent shadow, a glorious picture, but it was ultimately weak and temporary because it was made up of sinful men.
It was a placeholder, pointing to the one who would fulfill it perfectly. The book of Hebrews makes this argument from start to finish. We have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who is "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens" (Heb. 7:26). He had no need to avoid the dead; He defeated death. He had no need for a carefully selected wife to maintain a picture of purity; He takes His bride, the church, in all her filth, and washes her clean, making her pure. He does not simply preserve a holy seed; He creates a holy seed by His own Spirit.
These laws in Leviticus show us the kind of representative we need. We need one who is utterly separate from sin and death. We need one whose covenant is perfect and unbroken. We need one whose holiness is not borrowed or temporary, but inherent to His very nature. We need Jesus. The Levitical code was designed to make Israel long for a better priest. And in the fullness of time, God sent Him. Because of Christ, our undefiled High Priest, we can now draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. He did not just obey the code; He embodied it. And He did it for us.