Remember that this community of believers were facing pressure to return to their Jewish roots and to abandon the sole Lordship of Christ. They are under intense pressure of persecution to let go of Jesus as their King and their Priest. What they battled with was the origin of Jesus not coming from the line of Aaron, their historical priest. But to let go of Jesus was to let go of their only hope. They/we are sinners who need saving from what we deserve which is God’s wrath and Jesus our High Priest is our only hope.
Over the next few days we will walk slowly through these verses to understand what the author is saying.
“This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. (Hebrews 7 v 1-3)
The only reference in the Scriptures is that of Genesis 14:18-20 and Psalm 110:4. Yet it appears they know about Melchizedek more than those verses tell of him and maybe more than we would expect. Maybe there was some Jewish folklore about him.
Melek means king and zedek means righteousness. He is also king of Salem which means peace.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham, he was superior to the founder of their faith.
Melchizedek received from Abraham, he was his king of righteousness and peace.
The Scriptures are silent about his background and origin. He is rootless and timeless and there is silence to these questions.
Which priest of God Most High came after Melchizedek? It wasn’t Aaron. It was Jesus.
They didn’t worry about the silence surrounding Melchizedek’s origin so why are they so hung up about the origin of Jesus now?
The motivation for these sentences is not that we compare Christ with Melchizedek but that Christ is in the order of him of which there was no one like him. That is until Christ came and not only succeeded him but was superior to him!
Jesus does not fit into our little boxes of understand and intellect. He is far too big for all the political voices of thinking and experience that we carry around. That’s the point.
Jesus is the High Priest of God Most High. He is the one to bless and the one to receive from what we offer, not just a tithe but our whole lives. He knows humanity which is essential as the High Priest. This is who Jesus is. And as such we must not walk away from Him or turn back to the Jewish system because anything else is inferior to who He is. There is no one greater and no one we can go to, other than the High Priest of God Most High, Jesus Christ!
Missions Paul 