Stephen
Terry, Director
Jesus,
the Faithful Priest
Commentary
for the February 5, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"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." Genesis 14:18-20, NIV
While living in Sodom, Abraham's
nephew, Lot, and his family, were taken captive by Kedorlaomer and his allies.
There is little historical evidence for the battle that preceded the sack of
Sodom, but even without robust evidence for a literal confrontation, when we
consider the narrative from a metaphorical perspective, the elements of the story
jump out at us in their significance. This is especially true when we understand
that the story of Lot, from his falling out with Abraham up to the destruction
of Sodom by fire (Do not build your city amid flammable tar pits),[i] is
about choices. Lot is an example for the results of poor choices. Many families
today are familiar with family members who also constantly make poor choices
and suffer for it.
But Lot is not the focus of our
commentary this week. Rather, we are interested in someone who came out to meet
Abraham after he had rescued his nephew from his captors. Despite an alliance
of five kings being unable to defeat Kedorlaomer and his allies, Abraham
miraculously defeats them with a few hundred of his servants. This is echoed
later in Gideon's defeat of the Midianites with only three hundred men per the
account in Judges.[ii]
Abraham's victory is blessed by Melchizedek, who brings out bread and wine for
the victorious party. Abraham responds by giving him a tithe of the spoils he
has taken.
Now that we have the basic
elements of the story, lets unravel the metaphor it contains and see how the metaphor
is like a glowing, golden thread illuminating the Bible. First, Kedorlaomer,
when translated, means servant of Lagamal. In the Elamite pantheon, Lagamal was
a merciless god associated with the underworld.[iii] Abraham,
who was a faithful servant, blessed by the one true God, fought as his
opponent. Like Moses later, who confronted Pharoah and his pantheon in the name
of the one true God, Abraham defeats the servants of the Elamite pantheon. Then
like Moses at Mount Sinai, who comes into God's presence where he receives the
Decalogue carved with the finger of God, Abraham, after winning his conflict,
comes into the presence of Melchizedek where he is fed
the metaphorical bread and wine and is blessed.
So, who is this Melchizedek?
There are clues. Beginning with what many believe to be his name, we find
instead a title. Melchizedek in translation means King of Righteousness. This
is a powerful clue to his identity, for among humanity, the Bible tells us no
one is righteous.[iv]
On the other hand, it also tells us repeatedly that God is righteous.[v]
But Melchizedek is not just righteous. He is the King of Righteousness. If God
alone is righteous and Melchizedek rules in righteousness, that comes about as close
as you can get to equating the two.
A second clue is in the Epistle
to the Hebrews where the writer states Melchizedek had no beginning or end.[vi] This
could mean either he never existed or that he always existed. But that he came
bringing bread and wine to Abraham argues for existence, which leaves only
immortality as an option. Humanity is not presently immortal. Only God is
immortal.[vii]
A third clue is the bread and
wine Melchizedek brings to Abraham. Jesus used this metaphor when referring to
himself, urging people to eat the bread of his body and the wine of his blood.[viii]
This metaphor makes Melchizedek congruent to Jesus. Is Melchizedek God symbolically
offering the sacrifice of Jesus with the bread and the wine? Jesus is God. The
Bible says we are to worship God as the Creator.[ix]
And Jesus created the universe, per the opening verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews.[x]
Jesus is also referred to as the Word, and according to the Gospel of John, the
Word is God.[xi]
As the first chapter of Genesis tells us, each part of Creation was brought into
being because God spoke. His Word, Jesus, is vibrant and lifegiving with the creative
energy of life underived. He gave us our world
But if we see Melchizedek as a metaphorical
representation of God, of Jesus, what does that mean to us? Hebrews tells us that
Jesus is high priest in the Order of Melchizedek. A high priest implies that
there are lower priests in that order. This relates to us, but first let us look
at the Levitical, Aaronic Priesthood in the Old Testament. Those priests became
so by birth. Their ordination to the priesthood was by washing with water,[xii] sprinkling
with blood, and anointing with oil.[xiii]
They then became priests of God, serving in the wilderness tabernacle and in
later generations, in the temple. They served daily for centuries with the
blood of the animal sacrifices and the shewbread that pointed to Jesus but
failed to recognize the fulfillment that Jesus brought with his incarnation.
Instead, the high priest of that order condemned Jesus, high priest of the Melchizedekian
Order, to death,[xiv]
not willing to recognize his ordination.
When Jesus died on the cross,
the sacrifice on Calvary toward which every sacrifice previously made by those
priests pointed reached fulfillment and the need for their order ceased. Once
again metaphor highlighted that end with the rending of the curtain between the
Holy and Most Holy compartments of the Temple.[xv]
During his ministry, Jesus foretold that the Temple would be
destroyed.[xvi]
That prophecy met fulfillment with its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE, and
its furnishings were hauled off to Rome. This lesson about the sacrificial system
ending was even temporarily lost on the Apostles as
Paul was in the process of offering sacrifice in the Temple years after Jesus
had ascended to heaven when he was set upon by a mob and taken into custody by
the Roman garrison. Despite ongoing attempts to equate modern clergy to that
Levitical order, the Levitical priesthood has ended. Those sacrifices were no
longer necessary. They were only metaphorical anyway, never able to provide the
righteousness that Christ could provide on our behalf.[xvii]
This presents an enigma. If
Christ is High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order, and the Levitical Priesthood
is defunct, who are the priests of his order? Peter gives us the answer. He
said that in accepting Jesus' righteousness on our behalf, we are ordained as royal
priests.[xviii]
What is the evidence for that?
First, Melchizedek is the King
of Righteousness. He shares his royalty with us. But our crowns are crowns of victory,
στεφανος in the Greek. We receive not
only Christ's righteousness but his victory, too.
Second, Melchizedek is high priest
forever, so those royal priests serving with him must serve forever as well. To
this end, we must have eternal life as a necessity of our office, and we read
this will happen in Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church.[xix]
Without that it would be hard to serve as priests with Christ for a thousand
years[xx]
let alone for eternity.
Third, if we have accepted Christ
as our savior, we have received all the elements of ordination. Aaron and his
sons were ordained publicly. We also profess Christ, accepting his blood on our
behalf and publicly receive cleansing with water in baptism. Then according to
Peter, the one who says we are royal priests,[xxi]
we will receive the Holy Spirit, represented by the anointing with oil during
the Old Testament Levitical ordination. We then have all we need to fulfill the
gospel commission to go and share the teachings of Jesus with others.[xxii]
Despite all of this, much of religion in the world is an attempt to resurrect the
Levitical priesthood with its manufactured power structures and streams of financial
support. They do not want to recognize people going out on their own and will
use their financial resources to maintain control. As one ministerial secretary
confided to me years ago, they will not ordain anyone not on the payroll because
they could not control such a person. This is a sad admission when it is the
Holy Spirit that is to control and lead in the work. It implies that if a
person is not a paid employee, they are not real priests of God and therefore unordainable.
But the Bible tells a different story. Even in the Old Testament, during the
time of the Levitical Order, while the priests continued their rounds of
sacrifices, they were not the ones usually calling the people to God. It was
the prophets who received their calling directly from God and not through
official recognition by the Levitical clergy who called the people to
repentance. At times, the official priesthood opposed the prophets and sided
with wicked rulers and apostates.
As we have seen in the
centuries since then and up to the present, institutional religion will use its
wealth to control parishioners, and in turn, wealthy people will use their wealth
to control organized religion This is even apparent on a very local level. If a
pastor is visiting with a poorer parishioner after the service and a wealthy parishioner
demands the pastor's attention, in most instances the pastor will break off the
conversation with the poorer person as demanded. Failing to do so can bring
trouble for the pastor on the church board and from denominational
administration who may face pressure by the wealthy to act in their interest
rather than for the good of all. The wealthy can even be guilty of simony, as their
abundant financial gifts can buy them church office and preferential treatment
for their agendas.
The Melchizedekian Priesthood
challenges all of that for its authority comes directly from God and not from powerful
men. It is directed by the Holy Spirit and comes with appropriate gifts and
fruits as the Holy Spirit determines. Too many have heard the Holy Spirit speaking
but have faced power structures that prefer to be in control of everything. As
a result, a vast army that could be serving the Lord sit sequestered in their usual
pews each week and place their money into the offering plate to build modern St
Peter's Basilicas, and very seldom serve the needs of the neighbors who live around
them. Warned against this for fear of evil influences that may overcome them,
they withdraw into themselves. We should not be prisoners to such fears. Those
fears paralyze us from commitment to compassionate service to others. Jesus can
set us free from that. "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
(John 8:36) Let us live the ordination we have received.