October 21, 2018 – Hebrews 5:1-10
Hebrews 5:1-10
A Priesthood Forever – thanks, Melchizedek!
Lectionary 29B – October 21, 2018
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I rarely preach on Hebrews – and I am guessing I am not alone.
The notion of Jesus as priest is just so foreign to us.
I mean, he never offers a sacrifice – and he does not work in the temple.
In fact, he mostly criticizes the institutional religion of his day.
He cleanses the temple and clashes with the priests –
after which they are among those who plot his death.
What is going on with the writer of Hebrews?
The New Testament is much more comfortable with the notion of Jesus as
some sort of prophet like Moses or Elijah rather than a priest.
And yet, here is the writer of Hebrews for whom the notion of Jesus as priest is
very very important!
I wish the lectionary reading had included the very next verse in Hebrews 5, verse 11,
for there the writer concedes, “I know this is difficult.”
Yes! It is!
The priesthood and the temple and its sacrifices of plants and animals as both
sin offerings and thanksgiving offerings is difficult for us to get our heads around.
And the notion that God required a sacrifice of some kind for our sin –
and that Jesus offered himself as that sacrifice,
a priest who offers his own life to take away our sin – is just not very helpful.
I mean: who would trust a God like that?
And let’s face it.
While there are churches named Christ the King Lutheran, Good Shepherd Lutheran,
Messiah Lutheran, and Beautiful Savior Lutheran, I will bet you a million dollars
there is no church named “Christ the High Priest Lutheran.”
This is just not an idea we are comfortable with
But the writer of Hebrews recognizes this.
I know this is difficult, he states.
And so he gently leads his readers through what it is a priest is and does.
But here is the key thing: and let’s face it: it is also by far the most interesting thing:
He does this by compareing the kind of priest Jesus is to a very obscure Old Testament figure
whom we know almost nothing about.
He says yes, Jesus is a priest – but a priest of the order of Melchizedek.
Now, if you were in a conversation with learned people and someone said to you,
“Oh, you know, Melchizedek and his order of priests” you would just say,
“Oh, yah, of course: Melchiadzek”
as if everyone knows about Melchiadzek and his order of priests.
“Oh yeah, for sure, I just ordered the new book on Melchiadzek and
was hoping to sort of you know join his order myself –
I blush to say it but I’ve been prepping for the
entrance exam at night after work – and what a coincidence you should mention
Melchiadzek because
I just ordered some Melchiadzek-print pajamas from Amazon.
I just adore him.”
For the record – and for the next time you find yourself in that position – save your breath
because almost nothing is known about Melchizadek – or his order of priests.
Among the Israelites there was one order of priests, right?
The Levites, from the tribe of Levi – which Jesus was not from, right?
He was of the tribe of . . . anyone? Judah! Right!
Anyway, the Levites had charge of the temple and its system of sacrifices.
Like Jesus, Melchizedek was not a Levite.
And he did not serve in the temple – because there was no temple at his time.
Moreover, there is not a single other person who was both a priest and a king
except Melchizadek.
Here is what we know about Melchizedek from his story in a few verses way back in Genesis 14.
Abraham is returning from a battle.
The mysterious king-priest Melchizedek goes out to meet Abraham in the wilderness.
There, he serves Abraham bread and wine and blesses him.
And in return, Abraham gives him a tenth of everything he has. (Genesis 14:18-24)
That’s it. That’s the story.
The important point is that Melchizedek is a priest-king who does not serve in the temple.
As I said, there was, in fact, no temple yet for him to serve in.
He exists before and outside all of that.
Like Jesus, his priesthood consists of serving people food and blessing them.
In the mind of the writer of Hebrews, this is the kind of priest Jesus is.
The writer does spend a lot of time telling us just what a priest is,
how a priest stands between God and the people God wishes to serve.
And so, a priest must be both of God and of the people.
That Jesus is of God the writer almost takes for granted – the writers reminds us that
at his baptism God said to Jesus, “You are my Son.”
The same God says, “You are a priest forever.”
And that is where he leaves it.
But . . . as for Jesus being of the people?
A priest who brings God close to the people must be like the people in every way.
A priest must understand the people and all their concerns.
A priest must know what it is to be tested like the people and
a priest must know what it is like to be hungry like the people.
A priest must know suffering and hardship and difficulty and even
what it is like to be abandoned by God – like the people.
And so, in a rare glimpse of Jesus’ earthly life in Hebrews, the writer reminds us of
Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, perhaps at his most human, as he offered up
prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears,
to the one who could save him from death.
Yes, the writer says, Jesus was of the people through and through.
Jesus suffers with the people: with the poor, with the hungry, with the unjustly accused.
Of this, it seems, the writer can never remind us enough.
(Fred Craddock at https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2003-03/jesus-priest)
This is the one who meets us in the wilderness, battle-tired.
This is the one who understands that
what it is we need is bread and wine and blessing – food for the journey.
This is the one who can offer us that.
The priest doesn’t take the difficulty away – the priest sustains us in the midst of the difficulty
with the gifts of God.
That is the way in which Jesus is priest.
Jesus brings the blessings and gifts of God to people he knows and understands and
sympathizes with – not in the temple, but in the wilderness.
Here we are this morning, in Wilderness School, and Jesus again brings us bread and wine and
blessing: manna to share and to strengthen.
He meets us as we come, battle-tired from, well, just about everything:
tired from poverty, from injustice, from hunger, from grief, from sadness, from loneliness.
Tired from addiction and mental illness and depression and worry.
And he knows what to give us: bread and wine and blessing,
friendship and fellowship, prayer and peace.
He knows what to give us because he is of us: he is of the people.
But, as well, he is able give us what we need because he is also of the Triune God, and
shares that God’s gifts of food and blessing and peace and love and
fellowship and forgiveness with us.
Only: here’s another thing.
Lutherans may not have named any churches after Christ the High Priest,
but there is in our tradition a very important notion of priesthood:
something Luther called The Priesthood of All Believers.
Several places in the Bible refer to all of God’s people as a priesthood.
Luther picked up this notion and insisted that in our baptisms
we are all commissioned as the Triune God’s priests, every single one of us!
In our baptisms we are all named – like Jesus was in his baptism – children of God.
That is, apprentices to God’s work of sharing God’s gifts of food and forgiveness.
Each one of you is of the people, for sure: each of you knows, like Jesus,
what it is to be tested and hungry, each of you knows injustice and grief,
each of you knows loneliness and difficulty.
Each of you understands what it is to be human – and that qualifies you to minister
to one another and to all people.
But each of you is also of God,
called by God and named by God a beloved child and priest forever in your baptisms.
Each of you can bring the gifts of God to your brothers and sisters in need.
Each of you stands as mediator between God and the world.
Each of you has God-given gifts to share to those battle-tired in the wilderness.
We are, as the writer of I Peter names us, a holy and royal priesthood,
both of the people and of God, mediating God’s blessings to the world.
Together you are a priesthood forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.
So as we get ready to meet Jesus in the wilderness where he will bring us
bread and wine and blessing, let us also ready ourselves to take his gifts with us
into the world as we leave this place, knowing what it is like to be of the people,
but also knowing that we bear the gifts of a loving and gracious God with us.
So together, let us say, Amen.
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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