The Beauty of Intercession

The Life I Want

I picked up a little book which has shaped many people through the decades yet is new to me: The Christian Priest Today, by Michael Ramsey. It is so rich and such a joy to read. There’s much to say about it, but today I want to simply reflect on what Ramsey says about intercession, particularly as it relates to the ministry of the priest (or pastor). Let’s start with his explanation of what intercession is not.

“When we say ‘he [Jesus] lives to make intercession’ we note that the verb έντυγχανείν which we habitually translate ‘intercede’ means literally not to make petitions or indeed to utter words at all but to meet, to encounter, to be with someone on behalf of or in relation to others.”^⁠¹

I’ve often thought of intercessors as those who, for hours, utter verbal prayers on behalf of others. For how many of us does this seem out of reach, even if desired? Ramsey, however, says that this is not necessarily the case. It is not the fact, of course, that it cannot also involve this, but he points to a deeper reality, one in which words aren’t necessary for intercession to take place. And it is here where he defines the priestly vocation of intercession in two movements: first it is adoration, second it is intercession. The two naturally flow into each other like two clear streams converging.

“The daily time of being quietly with God becomes ‘adoration.’ And because you are with him and near him whose name is love you will have the people you care for on your heart. In this way adoration turns into ‘intercession’…Be with God (adoration) with the people on your heart (intercession). It is like Aaron of old who went into the holy of holies wearing a breastplate with jewels representing the tribes of Israel whose priest he was: he went near to God with the people on his heart.”^⁠²

And so this morning, at the place for silence in the Daily Office, I sat before God – encountering God, or better, being encountered by God – with the people in our congregation on my heart. Their names, their faces, and their struggles entered my mind and lodged themselves in my heart. I said very little, but I presented them to Jesus, our great high priest. This, I’m learning, is intercession. It is intercession when I am alone in my study, or wherever I may be, and it is most certainly intercession as they come, in whatever state of mind or heart they happen to be in – content, brokenhearted, angry – when they approach the Table.

I don’t always do this, but I often say people’s names as I place the bread in their open hands and declare “The Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven.” When I say their names I am not simply letting them know that I know them, rather, I am lifting their names in intercession in the very presence of our Lord which they are, in that moment, receiving. And a stunning thing happens when they receive. Ramsey explains:

“The Eucharist is the supreme way in which the people of Christ are, through our great high priest, with God with the world around on their hearts.”^⁠³

When in the Eucharist liturgy we say:

“Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven…”

we actually mean this. And, I should say, it’s not true because we mean it, it is true whether we mean it or not and therefore gives us meaning and shapes us into a people who learn and love to mean it. It works on us; takes us in. And just as the priest holds her people in her heart before God at the Table, so the people, coming to the Table in response to the Word, through the great mercy and mystery of our God, are joined with the world around them – with all the saints living (including those they’ve never met), and with those who have gone before – and with all the Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven. This reality enters the hearts of the people and transforms them in the presence of Jesus, our great high priest, who comes to them in bread and the wine. Oh mystery of mysteries! What else can be said but “Thanks be to God!”

This beauty, simplicity, and gracious mystery has overtaken me today. I’m praying that my life can be one of intercession, of being with God with the people on my heart.

This is the life I want.

1. Michael Ramsey, The Christian Priest Today (London, UK: SPCK, 1972, this ed. 1985), 13-14.

2. ibid. 15.

3. ibid. 16. Emphasis mine.