Mechizedek
Hebrews 4: 14-5:10
Who is Melchizedek?
What is a priest? In order to explain to you what a priest is and does, I need you to imagine a huge suspension bridge connecting two opposite sides. Think of something like the Capilano suspension bridge. The one side is the realm of God. It is covered in mist. One cannot quite see it clearly, but we instinctively know that it is beautiful and worth moving toward. The other side we can call the human realm. It is the side we know well and must stay in for the time being. It is beautiful as well as ugly at places and times. It is full of wonder as well as pain. We know that compared to the other side there is continuity and discontinuity. It means that some of the beautiful things we adore on the human side, is also on the other side (maybe in an even better form). It means that some of the things on the human side are also things we won’t be able to see or find on the other side. We also know from the book of Revelation that because of what Jesus accomplished the two sides will one day amalgamate to become one. But for now they are two distinct ones connected by a bridge suspended between the two sides.
I have told you before that as human beings we experience a yearning for what is godly, a push to walk over the bridge and even though we are not able to walk all the way, move closer and explore the godly realm from closer. That is why in every culture and at any time in history, you will find that human beings practice religion. Religion is walking on this bridge, yet not crossing it. We know that what we find when we do this sends us back to the human realm with peace, motivations, and new visions. To pray, go to bible studies and church and meditate are all ways we venture onto the bridge, move closer to the godly realm and then return to our side again.
But even though this yearning is so common and so strong, we often fail to even get to the bridge. There are so many counter forces and distractions that draws us away from the bridge. Sometimes our fears of inadequacy and complexity makes us hesitant to venture there. Sometimes other people’s experiences discourage us from venturing out onto the bridge. For various reasons we need help getting on and walking on this bridge. This is where priests come in.
Priests could be seen as gatekeepers of this bridge. They know the bridge intimately. They gathered knowledge of it from many generations past and from their own experiential engagement with it. They help people to get on and walk the bridge by encouraging them, calling out to them and easing their fears and sometimes even by reprimanding and instructing them on their ways. A good priest is an enormous help. A bad one could cause people never to even consider walking that bridge ever again. We need priests. The fact that every culture has not only religions but priests in service of people practicing that religion, testifies to this. Priests are mediators, helpers and representatives of what is godly.
Now that you know what a priest is, time for an interesting question…How do you think God feels about a priest? You would be inclined to say God loves priests. They help people to find Him or at least to look towards Him. But if you study the Bible closely you will find to your astonishment that this answer is not quite correct. God is ambivalent about priests. He doesn’t want them; but He appoints them. He does not need them, but He uses them. He feels much the same about kings. Let me explain this to you some more…
Moses wanted a Priest…
Aaron, Moses’s brother is the first officially appointed priest we read of. His appointment flows from Moses’s request to God. But in Exodus you will read that God’s reaction to this request is similar to His reaction when the Israelites asked Samuel for a King later on. God did not like it. God did not feel Moses needed a priest just as He felt Israel could do without a king. Why? Probably because God felt He will help Moses to walk onto the difficult bridge. Probably because God felt He will rule over Israel Himself. Also because God had a vision of a holy priestdom and a kingdom in mind where everyone is a priest and a king of sorts serving him.
God gives Moses, Aaron and appoints Him and the whole tribe of Levi as priests. God appoints Saul as Israel’s first king, and He later blesses other kings (like King David). In this we should see how loving and gracious God is. He meets people where they are. But there is something God did that show to an even greater extent how awesome a God he is…
Melchizedek
There is the two times in the Old Testament that we read of God sending priests without his people even requesting them! The first time is in Genesis 14. A strange story. Five kingdoms allied and fought against four others. The four kings defeated them and took everything they had as loot. They also took Abraham’s nephew Lot hostage, so Abraham had to act. He defeated the four kings, took all the loot and freed Lot but then the King of Sodom, one of the five defeated kings, was after him…quite a peculiar situation.
And then out of seemingly nowhere the king of Salem (that is what Jerusalem was called way back), a guy called Melchizedek, shows up. It is said that he is not only a king but also a priest, a priest that even though he is not an Israelite, acknowledges the God of Israel as El Alyon, “God Most High”. You can imagine that Abraham at this stage were quite battle fatigued. They probably expected this King to add to their woes. But he brings them what they needed most at that time: bread and wine. And he blesses them. This gives Abraham the confidence to stand his ground to the King of Sodom. Sodom as you know in the Bible becomes a symbol for evil and godless, so Abraham being able to offer resistance is a story of good triumphing over evil.
Who was Melchizedek? Some speculate that he was an angelic being, some even say he was Jesus in disguise. Others say he was either Shem, one of Noah’s song or a disciple or a descendant of Shem. We do not know. What we do know is that God must have revealed himself to this non-Israelite and had him come on the scene at a time and place when Abraham needed it desperately. Abraham gives him a tenth of everything out of gratitude. Melchizedek saved the day. Probably the life and destiny of Abraham himself.
Jethro
Then something eerily similar happens to Moses much later. He is overburdened and his father-in-law shows up unrequested and unexpected just like Melchizedek. He is also not an Israelite. He also acknowledges the God of Israel as the one above all. And he also gives the tired Moses what he needs to stay on course. He is also a priest and a king or leader of sorts. Moses listens to him also with good results.
Jethro and Melchizedek points to the same things. The fact that God rules over all people and reveals himself to people from different cultures. The fact that God knows what we really need when we need it even when we don’t. The fact that God sends priests along our way to keep us on the bridge at just the right time. They show us that God’s ways are mysterious and His timing his impeccable.
So what?
So, I told you what a priest is. I told you about Aaron the first officially appointed priest in Israel and how God was not happy with it. But I also told you about how God sent priests to help Abraham and Moses even though these priests weren’t Israelites. “So what?” you may ask.
The author of Hebrews quotes the Old Testament more than any other book does in the New Testament. He leans heavily on Old Testament themes to explain to his new congregation who Jesus is and what He does. He speaks to Christians wondering if it is still worth it to follow Jesus because they get persecuted for it. He plays with concepts that must have been quite familiar to early Jewish believers but aren’t so to us. They lived in a world saturated by religion and sacrifices and all kinds of priests. I think India today comes closest to this kind of environment today. We need some more explanation than the first readers needed.
And so, Melchizedek explains Jesus. Hebrews calls Jesus a High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Even just by stating that, it says a lot about Jesus. Hebrews says Jesus is not quite the One we expected or knew we needed. Just like Abraham did not know or call for Melchizedek and just like Moses did call for Aaron but not for Jethro. Moses found Aaron. But Jethro found Moses. Just like Abraham did not find Melchizedek but Melchizedek found him. We did not choose Jesus. We found Jesus only because He found us and revealed Himself to us and gave us the gift of faith.
Aaron was God’s response to a human need to feel secure. Melchizedek and Jethro were God’s response to humankind in need of new direction and motivation. In need of redemption. And it is not like Hebrews says to us Jesus was like Melchizedek. It says to us Melchizedek was a foreshadow and a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus was in an ultimate way what Melchizedek was in a wonderful but smaller way. The one on whom the fate of God’s people rested. The one who know exactly what we needed and when we needed it. The one that showed up, finds us; and saved the day.
Close
There are two thoughts I want you to take home today: 1. I am a priest. You and I are indeed people who mediate and who point and help other people to move towards God’s direction. Through what we say and don’t. Through what we do and don’t. By encouraging people, by warning people. In all kinds of ways. People need that and we are called to do that in everything we do. Never forget that. But 2. I am not the priest. We are not Melchizedek. Jesus is. The One that can do what we cannot do. The one able to not only help people to get on the bridge but the one who carries people across it. The one who became the bridge. The One that meets us where we are and knows our weakness and when and how we need help.
Leonard Sweet said that the gospel can be summarize as a call of six words:
“Come down”
“Come out”
“Come home”.
Jesus came down to meet us where we are and so we are called to bend down to the downtrodden. Jesus called Lazarus out of his stinking grave into a new life. We are called to leave sin behind and live a life that attracts others to God.
Jesus said death is not the end and that the house of his Father has many rooms. He calls us toward Him because that is home.
You have a priest. You are one. You are safe!
Amen