Identity, Priesthood, and What God Has Entrusted to Us
By Pastor Jason Catalano

When we talk about identity, I think there are a couple of questions that almost immediately come to mind: “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” Those are important questions, and I think Scripture gives us answers to both. But I also wonder if we have a tendency to get them out of order.

We usually want to start with what we are supposed to do. What is my purpose? What is my calling? What does God want me to accomplish with my life? But when I go back to Genesis, that isn’t where God starts.

Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule…’”

I think the order matters. God first says that humanity will be made in His image, and then He gives them something to do. They are created to represent Him on the earth, and out of that identity comes the assignment to rule.

We tend to reverse that. We approach life as though we have to do something in order to be someone. If I accomplish enough, succeed enough, serve enough, or maybe even become spiritual enough, then I can establish who I am.

But that isn’t the order we see in Genesis. We are, and then we do. Our identity is supposed to be the place from which our purpose flows, not something we are trying to establish through what we accomplish.

But sin disrupted humanity’s ability to live and function as God intended. Adam and Eve were driven from Eden, the dwelling place where they had walked with God and fulfilled the purpose He had entrusted to them. And the rest of Scripture tells the story of God restoring what was broken—and that restoration is ultimately found in Jesus Christ.

John tells us in his Gospel that Jesus didn’t begin when He was laid in a manger. He is the Word who was there in the beginning. So when we read Genesis, we should be reading it with Jesus in view. Colossians 1:15 calls Him “the image of the invisible God,” and Hebrews 1:3 says He is “the radiance of His glory and the representation of His essence.”

If humanity was created in the image of God, and Jesus is the perfect Image of the invisible God, then Jesus shows us what that identity was always supposed to look like.

There is a moment in His life that I think helps us see this.

At Jesus’ baptism, the Father says, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Think about when that happens. This is Matthew 3. What has Jesus done at this point to earn the Father’s pleasure? He hasn’t preached to thousands. He hasn’t healed the sick, opened blind eyes or raised the dead. None of the things we normally think about when we talk about the ministry of Jesus have happened yet.

And yet the Father is already pleased with Him. So if it wasn’t the doing that earned the Father’s approval, what are we supposed to notice?

I think it’s the relationship. The Father says, “This is My beloved Son.”

Luke gives us another glimpse of this when twelve-year-old Jesus tells Mary and Joseph, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).

Those are the first recorded words of Jesus in Luke. 

We basically have eighteen years of Jesus’ life between that moment and His baptism that Scripture tells us very little about. I find that fascinating. We know almost nothing about what Jesus did during those years, but the two moments on either side tell us something about who He was. At twelve, He speaks about His Father. At thirty, His Father speaks about His Son.

What happened in between?

I think we’re meant to see relationship in those years. Jesus walked with the Father. He knew the Father. He grew in wisdom and favor. Long before the public ministry that we know so well, there was the relationship of Father and Son.

That takes us back to the Garden. Adam and Eve were also supposed to live this way. God walked with them. They were created in His image, lived in His presence, and were given something by Him to accomplish.

And this is where identity begins to connect to something else: priesthood.

There is a Hebrew word that has helped me understand this connection: mishmeret. It comes from the Hebrew root shamar, which carries the idea of keeping, guarding, watching or preserving. I don’t think “purpose” quite captures the idea. Mishmeret speaks to something that has been entrusted to you—something you have a responsibility to keep, guard, serve or fulfill.

That distinction matters because God hasn’t simply created us to “find our purpose.” He entrusts things to us.

Hebrews 5:5–6 gives us an interesting picture of this in Jesus. The passage brings together two ideas: “You are My Son,” and, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

There is birthright, and there is priesthood. They are connected, but they aren’t exactly the same thing. Sonship speaks to who Jesus is in relationship to the Father. Priesthood speaks to what has been entrusted to Him.

And if we follow priesthood backward through Scripture, we eventually end up somewhere we might not expect: back in the Garden.

Genesis 2:15 says that God put Adam in the Garden “to cultivate it and keep it.” Those words become important because that same Hebrew language appears later when God gives the priests and Levites responsibility for the Tabernacle. In Numbers 3 and 18, they are charged with serving, keeping and guarding the holy place and what God has entrusted to them.

So priesthood didn’t suddenly appear with Aaron. The pattern was already present in Eden. Adam was created in God’s image, placed in God’s dwelling place, and entrusted with the responsibility to serve and guard what God had given him. His identity came with a mishmeret.

And that helps us see the failure in Genesis 3 a little differently. Adam and Eve didn’t just break a rule about a tree. Instead of receiving and faithfully guarding what God had entrusted to them, they reached for something He had not given them. Adam also failed to guard the holy place entrusted to his care, allowing the serpent access to the Garden.

This is where Jesus becomes so important to the whole story. Jesus is the true Image of the invisible God. Where Adam failed, Jesus was faithful. He didn’t grasp for something the Father hadn’t given Him. He received what the Father entrusted to Him and faithfully carried it out.

Through Christ, we are brought back into relationship with the Father. We receive the birthright of sons and daughters, and from that restored relationship we can begin to understand what God has entrusted to us.

So maybe “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” aren’t bad questions. Maybe they’re just incomplete. 

We first need to know who we are in Christ. We don’t accomplish enough to become sons and daughters. We receive that identity through Him. Then, from that place of belonging, we can begin asking, “Father, what have You entrusted to me?”

What is my mishmeret? What have You given me to serve, keep and guard?

That may be your marriage or your family. It may include your business, ministry, friendships or the people God has placed around you. Most likely, it isn’t just one thing. There are things God has placed into each of our hands that He intends for us to faithfully steward.

Maybe that’s a better way to think about purpose. Instead of spending our lives trying to accomplish something so that we can figure out who we are, we begin by receiving our identity from the Father. Then we look at what He has placed in our hands and ask how we can faithfully care for it.

You were someone before you did anything.

And once you know who you are, you can begin to understand what you’ve been entrusted to do.