Read
“You are a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek.”
Hebrews 7:17b
Reflect
The evening of March 6, 1987 was crisp and clear – a perfect night for a leisurely trip across the English Channel. More than 450 guests crowded into the ship, the Herald of Free Enterprise, many of them bringing their cars with them for the four-and-a-half hour trip from Zeebrugge, Belgium to Dover, England. It was cold outside, but the semi-luxurious 
accommodations inside meant that the travelers would be safe and cozy until they arrived that night around 10:30 p.m.
Everything seemed to be normal as the ship unmoored and started its journey, but just over 20 minutes into the trip – and less than a mile from the outer channel marker – the Herald of Free Enterprise began to lurch from side to side before it rolled completely to the port (or left side) and capsized. With little warning, hundreds of guests and crew were plunged into icy water and were fighting for their lives.
Throughout the ship, things that were vertical were now horizontal and vice versa. In one place what had been a corridor was now a vertical shaft with water gushing through the opening. It was too large for people to leap over – except for one very tall man. Andrew Parker stretched his 6-foot-3 frame across the opening and became a human bridge for others to cross. First came his wife, Eleanor, and then his daughter, and then 18 other people. According to Eleanor, “All the people in our corner there got over Andrew’s human bridge. Otherwise, we couldn’t have crossed that space.”
In Latin, the word used for priest is pontiff, which literally means, “bridge builder.” Even though that’s not what “priest” means in Hebrew or Greek (the languages used to write the Bible), the Latin root paints a perfect picture, because that’s what a priest actually did. The priest was essentially the bridge between God and man in the Old Testament, and priests in the Christian church continued to serve in that role, building bridges between the Lord and His people.
The thing is that the New Testament tells us that we are all essentially priests. (See 1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 5:10) And while many liturgical churches still have priests (like my Anglican church), that doesn’t eliminate the legitimacy of our role in society as a “priesthood of all believers” – bridge builders between the Lord God and the people who desperately need Him.
So many people view their faith as something that’s intensely personal and meant just for them, but the heart of the Gospel is evangelistic. God wants us to reach out with our faith to the lost and to lovingly invite them to a relationship with Jesus Christ. The question we each have to answer is, “Am I willing to be a human bridge?” Will you span the gap for those around you so that they may walk across your life to safety in the Lord?
Reflection copyright © 2021 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
