Melchizedek

You might like me be puzzled about MELCHIZEDEK and the comments in our reading from Hebrews. What is the order of Melchizedek and why is the writer of Hebrews (who most likely was not Paul) equating Jesus with him? What could this be about? A couple of weeks ago now we were speaking about Abram/Abraham and it is in the middle of this story that Melchizedek appears. Abram has successfully defeated a group of eastern kings who among other things had captured Lot (Abram’s nephew) and after this rescue, suddenly without previous mention we read in Genesis 14:18-20b:

And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God most high. He blessed him and said:

“Blessed be Abram by God most high maker of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand”

And Abram gave him one tenth of everything.” 

The first thing perhaps to notice is that he was priest and king - a sacral king therefore exercising authority in Salem later to become Israel’s holy capital and of course the place where Jesus would come to show that he was the Messiah. To understand why this comparison is being made, and the writer will make it more fully in chapter 7, we need to remind ourselves about the office of “High Priest.”

In the Jewish tradition the high priesthood is established (in the book of Exodus) when Moses ordains Aaron as the first high priest, the one charged with entering the Holy of Holies on the day of the atonement. All high priests were to be descendants of Aaron. Originally the high priest’s status was secondary to that of the king but gradually the authority of the high priest extended to the political arena. The important point is that Melchizedek of Salem is pre-Moses - he is not part of this hereditary lineage. He is both priest and king and even Abraham, the father of all Israel paid tithes to him and was blessed by him. 

The author of the Hebrews is determined to explain that Jesus is superior to all other beings, he is uncreated, immortal and permanent, superior to all biblical heroes including Abraham and Moses. His priesthood was divinely appointed:

“So Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed.”

The letter to the Hebrews (although rather more like a sermon than a letter) stresses that the incarnation of Christ is a rupture with the past.The language of continuity between the covenants and laws of the Old Testament and the marriage of the New which we are used to is not found here. Rather it is overturned expressing the suppressionist view that Christianity replaces everything else, particularly Judaism. Hence this link was made to Melchizedek, drawing a line from Genesis directly to Christ bypassing everything else. Hebrews will explain that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the ultimate one, superseding all sacrifices made from Moses to to the end of the Temple period by any high priest, descending from Aaron. 

The purpose of this book then is to reinforce the new covenant to pass us from previous religious rules and to engage unhesitatingly in the spiritual cleansing and renewal that Jesus urges on us. A very suitable passage for the fifth Sunday of Lent.

Amen