The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III
Christ Episcopal Church
Cleveland, NC
RCL Year B (Lent 5) - March 29, 2009
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-13
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
The image of a “high priest” is uncomfortable for us. We remember the Bible stories of Jesus being challenged by the “High Priest” and the scribes… The High Priest and the scribes wanting to trick him up, giving them a reason to persecute him and bring him down from the popular status that he was starting to gain…
We would immediately think of Jesus as the one who was the furthest thing from a “high priest.” But yet, that’s how the letter to the Hebrews refers to him – “a high priest… designated by God.”
The letter to the Hebrew’s uses these uncomfortable images to explain Jesus, because that is what the people the author was writing to would understand. This unique letter by an unknown author (that was originally attributed to Paul, but later decided that he probably didn’t write it…) was probably the only letter in the New Testament canon that was originally written in Hebrew, and then later translated to Greek.
Some scholars say that it wasn’t even letter at all, but maybe a sermon that was later turned into a letter. A sermon directed at Jewish Christians particularly, who were having trouble relating their Jewish roots to their new enlightenment experienced in Jesus Christ.
But whatever the case… The writing to the Hebrews uses metaphors that could be considered to be problematic… Problematic if we let our immediate thoughts rush into our minds, and let those thoughts dominate the passage of scripture that we have just heard. If we immediately picture the “high priest” as the same “high priest” that we learned about in Sunday School, the image is anything but pleasant.
To call Jesus a “high priest” would almost seem to us to be tottering on the edge of blasphemy. It’s at that time that we need to read on and understand what the writer to the Hebrews is trying to accomplish…
It says in the passage that Christ did not glorify Himself, but was appointed a “high priest” by God. The One who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” Then the writer goes on to say that Christ is a “priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
This is the interesting part… The writer relates Jesus to Melchizedek.
Who is Melchizedek anyway? This is what we call “high context language”… The hearers or readers of the original message would know right away that Melchizedek is a priest of the most high God and king of Salem who offers Abraham bread and wine and blesses him… Melchizedek is mentioned twice in Hebrew scripture (once in Genesis and once in the Psalms)
But it just doesn’t seem right does it? Jesus can’t be a priest can he?… Isn’t he from the tribe of Judah? We know that only Levites (or those from the tribe of Levi) are priests, let alone high priests. But the writer to the Hebrews uses the priestly “order of Melchizedek” from the Psalms to justify Jesus’ priesthood.
See, Melchizedek shows up in scripture prior to Israel being divided into tribes and prior to any sacrificial laws laid out for us in Leviticus. Jesus is clearly not of the Levitic priesthood, but he is anointed by God at his baptism and glorified by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
So, let’s plug that into what we know of what a “priest” is… Very simply put, the priests represents God to the people in words and in actions. We know that a priest is fully human, just like the rest of us, struggling through life, living day to day with the same trials and hardships… But this persons task in the midst of all that is to lift before God the needs that are common to us all. We know from scripture that the principal role of a priest is to enter the “sacred space” (or holy of holies) all by himself and bear to God the most important human needs…
So, in fact, Jesus DOES fit this role for us… being fully human and fully divine, he becomes the only mediator that we have between God and humanity. To think of Jesus this way, puts him right in the middle of our nature and our world, doing an important costly work on our behalf. Jesus offers up prayers and supplications with his full humanity… with loud cries and tears to God, and submits to God’s will on our behalf, and becomes for us (those who have faith in him and obey his teachings) – not only becomes a mediator and advocate, but the source of our eternal salvation and everlasting life with God.
If we think of Jesus in this way, then it’s not hard for us to listen to at all… It’s not hard to picture Jesus as a high priest, the priest that intercedes for us, makes sacrifice for us, and lifts prayers to God for us… And Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was a priest of the High Holy God that offered Abraham the nourishment of bread and wine…
Jesus offers us, in his sacrifice – in his death, not only payment for our transgressions… but spiritual nourishment for our journey with his own body and blood that is made present in the bread and the wine that we share in the sacrament of the Eucharist…
Jesus is a priest forever, continuing to this day to teach us, intercede for us, and nourish us on our spiritual journeys…
On our journey through the season of Lent we travel with Jesus to the cross… We go through a season of discipline and introspection… sometimes we even go to God in our own full humanity with loud cries and tears… to God, the only One that is able to save us from our death, wanting him to cleanse us of our sin and make us pure… all while we learn obedience to God’s divine will for our lives… as we are empowered to follow and do God’s work in the world around us.
The pattern seems to make sense, but not to the point that we lay back and do nothing…
It’s up to us to accept it, and respond… tt’s up to us to take up our own cross and follow Jesus… to let God lead us to places we may not want to go… to think outside of our box and our comfort zone…
But we don’t do it alone… Jesus is there for us, being our “great high priest,” offering to us God’s divine hope and comfort…
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