This week’s passage from Hebrews begins after the author mentions a particular Old Testament character who makes a cameo appearance in the story about Abram: Melchizedek. Knowing about this person is very important to our Christian faith despite his limited mention. So let’s look at the 10 verses preceding this week’s Sunday passage:
For every high priest taken from men is appointed in service to God for the people, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this, he must make a sin offering for himself as well as for the people. 4 No one takes this honor on himself; instead, a person is called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 In the same way, the Messiah did not exalt Himself to become a high priest, but the One who said to Him, You are My Son; today I have become Your Father, 6 also said in another passage, You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. 7 During His earthly life, He offered prayers and appeals with loud cries and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8 Though He was God’s Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. 9 After He was perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, 10 and He was declared by God a high priest in the order of Melchizedek. — Heb 5:1–10 (HCSB)
Just one historical mention about Melchizedek:
Early in the Book of Genesis. The only other reference is by David in Psalm 110, in which he prophesies that the Lord is “…a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”
For the next thousand years, no one mentions him in Scripture at all—not a single prophet. Not until after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, in the Book of Hebrews, do we see any mention of Melchizedek again. In all 66 books of the Bible, Melchizedek is mentioned in just three. But those three references give an amazing image of Christ.
In Genesis 12, we see that Abraham is still Abram. God promised to give him many children, grandchildren, and so on—but he hasn’t yet changed Abram’s name to Abraham. Abram so far has followed God’s will, leaving his home in Ur and setting out for the unknown with his wife Sarai, and other relatives.
By Genesis 13, Abram and his nephew, Lot, have so much livestock and servants that they’re crowding each other out wherever they camp. So, they go their separate ways, with Lot taking the plains along the Jordan River near Sodom, while Abram travels on to Canaan. The kings in that region begin to battle each other, four against five. The five include Sodom and Gomorrah. The four victorious kings, and their armies, take all the food and wealth with them, including Abram’s nephew, Lot, and all his property.
When Abram finds out about it, he gathers his people together and attacks the four kings, bringing back Lot and the other people who had been captured, along with all their property.
The King of Sodom meets Abram when he returns. So does Melchizadek.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. — Gen 14:18-20
There’s a lot to unpack in those five sentences.
1) Melchizedek isn’t just some funny Jewish name from the Old Testament. It’s really two Hebrew terms connected by a hyphen, and more accurately pronounced: “MAHL-kee-TSED-ek” (Malki-Tzedek). It means “my king is righteousness.” Also, Malki-Tzedek was the king of Salem, which means “peace.” Salem was not one of the nine kingdoms involved in the war. Malki-Tzedek was both King of Righteousness and King of Peace.
2) He brought out bread and wine for the blessing. Jesus used bread and wine; we use it today; and the Levite priests used bread and wine as well. Aaron was the first Levite priest under Mosiac Law (described in Leviticus). They were called Levites because they were descendants from the tribe of Levi. All priests
were from that tribe.
We see that Malki-Tzedek was a priest of God Most High, but he wasn’t a Levite. There were no Levites because Levi hadn’t been born yet. But Malki-Tzedek was a priest, without descending from the Levite lineage, and his use of bread and wine is still part of worship services today.
3) He blessed Abram. In Hebrews 7:7 we read, “And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater.” Abram is the one God chose to create a covenant with. He became known as “Father Abraham,” “Friend of God,” and “Father of Multitudes.” You’d think he would be the one presiding over the worship and blessing everyone else. Yet we see Abram instead receiving God’s blessing through Malki-Tzedek, who also received Abram’s offering of ten
percent of everything he had.
4) Abram tithed. God instructed the Israelites to give one tenth of what they earned or grew to the Levites. The Old English word “teotha”means a tenth, and that’s where we get the English word tithe. But Abram didn’t have any Old English words or Levites. The tithing requirement from God was part of Mosaic Law, not Abram’s covenant. Yet, Abram gave MalkiTzedek 10 percent of everything.
5) Malki-Tzedek was a priest-king. Saul was Israel’s first king, selected by the Israelites. God warned them against it, but they decided to do it anyway (1 Samuel 11-31). God chose a shepherd boy, David, from the tribe of Judah to replace Saul. All Hebrew kings after that came from the House of David, which is part of the tribe of Judah.
Jewish kings were from the tribe of Judah, and Jewish priests came from Levi. A priest-king is impossible under Mosaic Law! Birth determines the tribe one is part of, and Jews could not transfer tribal membership. It was impossible to be from both Judah and Levi.
Malki-Tzedek’s role as priest-king is unique in the Bible, except for one other person: Jesus. Both king-priests share a metaphorical similarity.
Malki-Tzedek was around before he greeted Abram. He had obviously been a priest-king for some time before the event we see in those three short verses. He also remained a kingpriest after that, continuing to serve. We now the life history of many people described in the Bible: their parents, their hometowns, how many siblings they have, who their children are, even their favorite food (Esau traded his birthright for the red stew that his younger brother, Jacob, was cooking).
Here’s the only other priest-king in the Bible, and we don’t know his beginning or his end. He appears, does what God expects from him, and then disappears from our view.
Likewise, Jesus has no origin or ending. He appears in the story, and then disappears from our sight. Both are without beginning or ending, and both demonstrate God’s love and blessing before the covenant with Abraham.
God has loved us since before we were fearfully and wonderfully made. His covenant is a reminder of his love for us. It’s not a contract that God is forced to keep against his better judgment. The covenant demonstrates to us how much God loves us and wants to draw us to him.
Jesus is not just the priest who offers our sacrifice to our Father in heaven. He offered himself as a living and perpetual sacrifice for the whole world for all time.
As our great high priest, Jesus provides the sacrifice we can never offer ourselves. Only Jesus was sinless and holy, an unblemished lamb who could be sacrificed so that we could live. His sacrifice pays for our sins and we are given new life when we accept the offer of his sacrifice on our behalf.
As king, Jesus has the authority to welcome us into his kingdom, having made us sinless by his own sacrifice. Only the priest-king Jesus has the ability to both offer and accept that sacrifice.
Then the author of Hebrews hits his audience with these comments:
We have a great deal to say about this, and it’s difficult to explain, since you have become too lazy to understand. 12 Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. 13 Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. 14But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil. — Heb 5:11-14
Tough statement, isn’t it? The author describes our salvation in terms of a sacrifice made by the greatest high priest ever, reminiscent of the Temple and Tabernacle atonement sacrifices made by Levitical priests. He then tells his audience that they should know this already, that in fact they should be knowledgeable enough to teach it!
But they are too lazy to bother even keeping up with what they’ve already been taught; so bad that they need to be re-taught what they’ve already learned. Like children returning to school from summer vacation, they need to relearn what they’ve forgotten. They should be having “solid food” but can barely digest “milk”!
That rebuke applies to Christians today as well. Many people come to church Sunday morning and hear the scripture readings but have no context or understanding of how they fit into the rest of the Bible story. They know Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and Easter has him rising from the dead, but little else about the
Gospel message or Israel’s history and role in it.
The Book of Hebrews leaves us with a couple questions:
- What am I doing to enhance my understanding of the Bible?
- How would I explain Christ’s sacrifice for us to a stranger who asked me?
These questions are crucial for anyone wanting to be a disciple. That’s not an overstatement, and I mean the term quite literally. Crucial means decisive or extremely important for something to happen or succeed. The word comes from the French word crux, meaning “cross-shaped.” Our lives depend on what happened at the cross, and our discipleship is based on Christ’s sacrifice upon it. Being able to explain Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to others can only be regarded as crucial to our development as disciples.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Austin