Near where we live, there is a wall next to some trees. The roots of the tree have knocked the wall down. These rooted trees have not only branched out from the field and meadow into the streets and a different world, they have broken the walls down to merge the two worlds.
In the prophetic book, Zechariah, in the Old Testament, it is written:
“Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.”
Zechariah 6:12-13
Jesus is the Branch and in this passage his both
- A priest, building the temple/church on according to heavenly principles
- A king, on his throne to bring God’s kingdom rule on to the earth
We see a harmony between priest and king, between heaven and earth.
We also are priests and kings (see Rev.1:5-7). Let’s consider each of them and the harmony between them.
- Priests – rooted in an eternal outlook and heavenly truth: the role of the priest is to worship, pray and minister to God, to be a point of connection between heaven and earth. If Jesus, our High Priest needed to take time to stay rooted in a heavenly outlook and truth, how much more do we?
- Kings – earthly influence, and branching out into the community: God calls us to be kings in his ‘upside-down kingdom’. We are to be servant kings, changing the ethos around us, challenging earthly systems and being a voice for the voiceless.
- Harmony and flow between heaven and earth, between church family and church community: let’s branch out into the world, breaking down the walls that divide us so that, in terms of love and belonging, there is no separation but rather a merging between the two.
Alison Lloyd