Jesus as High Priest

We return to our series called “Finding Jesus in the Old Testament.” The title can be a little misleading because often our main texts come from the New Testament, like today for example, but they’re always New Testament passages that are interpreting the Old Testament if that is the case.

There are three different ways to find Jesus in the Old Testament that we’re focusing on in this series, Prophecies, Types and Christophanies. Today we’ll be talking about another Type of Jesus, specifically Melchizedek.

As a reminder a type of Jesus is someone or something that in some way functions as a foreshadowing of Jesus before he came. Often the reason we classify something as a type is because an author in the New Testament has either called that person or thing a type or because they’ve made a significant comparison or contrast with Jesus and that person or thing. So a type is used as an image to teach us something about the nature of Jesus.

Melchizedek shows up in Genesis 14:17-20. For context this story takes place during the life of Abraham, who is a man who God chose to bless and whose descendants eventually became the nation Israel. In this part of Abraham’s story he hasn’t been renamed by God yet and is still called Abram. His relative Lot had just left the tribe to go settle somewhere else because the land was getting too small for both of them to share, and sadly Lot got kidnapped along with a lot of other people by a few Kings who were working together. So Abraham gets together a bunch of men and rescues Lot along with all the other captives. This is where our story picks up.

Genesis 14:17–20 ESV

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

That’s it. That’s all the historical record of who Melchizedek is. His name doesn’t appear again in the Old Testament until David alludes to him in Psalm 110:4

Psalm 110:4 ESV

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Melchizedek seems like a very mysterious figure. He appears out of nowhere and brings “bread and wine” which the well versed student of the New Testament will immediately notice as being interesting and significant. The bread and wine are in the New Testament representating Jesus’ broken body and shed blood on our behalf as we talk about every week during communion. Not only that but this Melchizedek is both King and Priest, which wasn’t unheard of but was a no-no from the Israelite perspective. He also was a priest of the most high God but not from Israel or even obviously related to Abraham in any way. When the text says “most high God” it means the God of Israel, Yahweh.

So without the New Testament we’re left with a lot of questions about this Melchisedek guy. Our passage today, which starts in Hebrews 4:14-5:14 and then jumps down to Hebrews 7, seems to supply at least part of the answer to the mystery. He was a foreshadowing, or type, of Christ. So let’s read our passage together. Hebrews 4:14-5:14

Hebrews 4:14–5:14 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Hebrews 7 ESV

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’ ” This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

So a couple words about Hebrews before we dive into what it teaches us about Jesus from the image of Melchizedek. First, the book is a bit mysterious itself because we can’t be quite certain who wrote it. The earliest sources disagree. Some say it was Paul, some say Barnabas and some say Apollos. I won’t be taking a position on that today. One commentary I read just called the author “the preacher,” and I liked that so I will follow suit.

Hebrews seems to have been written to address the concern that some Jewish believers were pining for the old law and sacrificial system to show that Jesus was better than everything the Old Covenant has to offer.

One of the things that the Old Covenant or “the Law” had to offer was the priesthood. The priests of Israel were men chosen to be intermediaries between God and men. They had to be from the tribe of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Abraham, in order to be a priest. One of those priests, who had to be specifically descended from Aaron, functioned as a High Priest. Once a year after giving a sacrifice for His own sins, He would go into the temple and into the holy of holies, a place only the High Priest was allowed to go, and give an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people.

Perhaps the Jewish believers missed relying on a system that they could see, where a physically present person was giving a yearly blood sacrifice on their behalf to pay for their sins. Maybe this was reassuring in a way they were having trouble feeling about the once for all payment Christ made on their behalf. For that reason the preacher wants to show them that Jesus is in every way better than the old High Priest, and He accomplishes that by showing us Melchizedek and how Jesus is a High Priest in his order and not in the order of Aaron. From this passage we learn three things about Jesus:

Jesus is a humble high priest

Jesus is a kingly high priest

Jesus is an eternal high priest

1. Jesus is a Humble High Priest

Now when you think of a human high priest in a really elaborate religion humility is probably not the image that first comes to mind. More likely you think of pomp and circumstance, fancy elaborate uniforms and someone who commands the respect of his peers. Yet the author of Hebrews makes an argument for why any High Priest in Israel should have been humble and gentle with lost people. We read in Hebrews 5:1-4

Hebrews 5:1–4 ESV

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

The preacher lists three reasons why any high priest should be humble: Because he was chosen from among men just like himself and shared all the same weaknesses that they did, that they are required to offer a special sacrifice for their own sins before they could offer one for the sins of the people, and because they had to be called by God and couldn’t just claim the title for themselves.

In practice though these reasons as good as they may be didn’t always keep High Priests humble. Some of them grasped for power and treated people harshly. Some men not chosen by God tried to claim priesthood from themselves. This was actual a significant problem in the time of the roman occupation because politicians would appoint people to the priesthood who weren’t from the tribe of Levi.

Jesus on the other hand has humility greater than any high priest before Him. This is because He actually deserved glory and fame where they didn’t, so He was giving up something real where even a humble man is giving up glory he doesn’t even have a right to. He also actually practiced humility perfectly where they were flawed and often proud. As Paul says in Philippians 2:5-8

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So Jesus shows His incredible humility by becoming human like us. Even just becoming human was humble but He became a human baby born in a feeding trough in a nowhere town in an occupied country and lived a humble life of love and service towards others.

Not only does Jesus’ humanity make him humble but it also makes Him more sympathetic than any high priest before Him. Hebrews 4:14-16 says,

Hebrews 4:14–16 ESV

He became weak like us so that He could be our sympathetic High Priest. Jesus knows just what it’s like to be weak, to be tempted, to be limited. So when you’re hurting lost and failing you can count on your High Priest to be compassionate on you because even though He never sinned He knows what it’s like to be tempted and to be frail.

Some may think that being sinless makes Jesus less sympathetic, but C.S. Lewis of course says it better than I ever could:

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), pp. 124, 125.

So Jesus has more sympathy for us than any of us can even have for others. We can count on His soft heart and on His patience with our failures. So what does that mean for us as disciples of Jesus? How does this better equip us to be disciples and to make other disciples?

Well first it should inspire us to do likewise. As disciples of Jesus we seek to be like Jesus, so if He is humble and sympathetic than we should remain humble and sympathetic. We should never get the idea that by being saved by grace we are somehow better than other people. Jesus actually was better than other people and He never Lorded it over them.

D.L. Moody was the most famous evangelist in the world in the late 1800s. People came from around the world to attend his Bible Conferences in Northfield, Massachusetts. One year a large group of pastors from Europe were among the attendees. They were given rooms in the dormitory of the Bible school. As was the custom in Europe, the men put their shoes outside the door of their room, expecting them to be cleaned and polished by servants during the night.

Of course there were no servants in the American dorm, but as Moody was walking through the halls and praying for his guests, he saw the shoes and realized what had happened. He mentioned the problem to a few of his students, but none of them offered to help. Without another word, the great evangelist gathered up the shoes and took them back to his own room where he began to clean and polish each pair. Moody told no one what he had done, but a friend who interrupted him in the middle of shining the shoes and helped him finish the task later told the story of what had happened. Despite the praise and fame he received because of God’s blessing on his life and ministry, Moody remained a humble man.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God and King of Heaven, had the right to honor, praise, and worship. Yet to be our Saviour, He laid all of His privileges aside and became a lowly servant. We often hear people talk of living as Jesus lived, and while He truly is the model for us to follow, many who speak of following Him are unwilling to give up their rights and reflect His humility. We will never be like Jesus unless we are humble and lowly.

Source: A Call to Excellence, Gary Inrig

Jesus’ humility should also inspire us as the scripture says to have confidence to draw near to the throne of grace. Because we know our High Priest is humble and gentle we know that we need not fear to come to Him and He will represent us to God. We now have access to the Father because His Son is representing us to Him, and we know that His representation will be gracious because of the grace that He demonstrates through His humility and sympathy.

2. Jesus is a Kingly High Priest

One of the most beautiful things about Biblical Christianity are the mysterious tensions that it maintains. Beliefs that at face value seem contradictory but when understood together help us get a glimpse of the fullness of God’s character. One of those is the humility and glory of Jesus.

One of the reasons that Melchizedek serves as a type of Jesus is because of His unheard of combination of being both priest and king. Now this wasn’t unheard of in the world at large. In many cultures throughout history men have claimed to be both King and High Priest so as to avoid a power struggle with the religious groups that often swayed more peoples hearts than the crown could. This was not the case in Israel. God made the distinction very clear between the priesthood and the monarchy. Perhaps this is because God wanted to keep politics out of the people’s relationship with Him, maybe that’s a lesson for us today. So ingrained was the seperation of the offices of King and High Priest in the minds of the Israelites that there were many Jewish thinkers that expected there to be two Messiahs, since in some prophecies about Him He is called a King and in some He is called a High Priest. Perhaps they should have seen as the author of Hebrews does the implication from Psalm 110:4

Psalm 110:4 (ESV)

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

that He would be both High Priest and King as Melchizedek was.

Now Melchizedek was not an Israelite, because he lived before their was a nation called Israel and he lived alongside the man who was the ancestor of all Israelites, Abraham. Even so he is called a priest of “the Most High God” which in the Hebrew Scriptures always refers to the one God of Israel. The Scripture writers would never call any other diety by that name. So that gives Melchizedek the unique status of being the only High Priest of Yahweh who was also a King.

Not just any King, but as the preacher says in Hebrews 7:1-2

Hebrews 7:1–2 ESV

So this Melchizedek is symbolically the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace. This is an amazing image of who Jesus is. As a King of Righteousness He is perfectly Holy and qualified to judge all of mankind for their sins and failures. As a King of Peace He makes a way for us sinners and failures to be at peace with God.

As King of Righteousness He is the only one who has the authority to forgive sinners, and as King of Peace He is the only one loving enough to forgive sinners. Both of His seemingly contradictory qualities meet in the amazing beauty of the cross where in the words of Psalm 85:10

Psalm 85:10 ESV

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Because we follow Jesus and because He is King we can live out His calling on our lives with boldness and know that in the words of Romans 8:37-39

Romans 8:37–39 ESV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is why when Jesus gives the Great Commission to His disciples before He leaves the earth He begins it based on His authority and ends it based on His continued presence with them. Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew 28:16–20 ESV

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So when we go out in the world as disciples of Jesus to make other disciples of Jesus we cannot do it on our own strength and authority, but must do it based on the authority of Jesus, and on His promise that he will be with us “even to the end of the age.” Which leads well into my final point:

3. Jesus is an Eternal High Priest

Remember our author here is writing to Jewish believers who are being tempted to return to the law that Jesus had freed them from. So when He begins to argue with them that Jesus is a better High Priest he has to justify two things - first that He’s a High Priest who isn’t descended from Aaron or even Levi, and Second that He is in some way superior to the priesthood of Aaron. This is basically the whole heart of the letter. As you may have guessed Jesus is superior to the Levite high priests for a number of reasons.

First because the prediction in Psalm 110:4 that God would appoint a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek implies naturally that there was some flaw in the Levite priesthood, since God wouldn’t have to replace it if it was perfect. Second God never swears any oaths to the Levites. For example God made oaths to Abraham that He would have many descendants and that He would bless the nations through them. God gives an oath to David that He will give Him a descendant on the throne of Israel forever. No such promise is given to Aaron or any of his descendants to give them a high priest forever.

Psalm 110:4 however does give an oath to Messiah that He would be “a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” That means that Jesus has an oath gaurunteeing His priesthood that the Levites don’t have.

Finally, and this is the point of emphasis I want to land on here, Jesus’ priesthood is forever where the Levite High Priests are temporary. Melchizedek serves as an image of this truth as explained in Hebrews 7:3

Hebrews 7:3 ESV

He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

This doesn’t in my opinion mean that Melchizedek is literally without father or mother and that he literally lived forever, but that because the Scriptures never give him a genealogy and don’t record his death, it appears as if he didn’t have a father or mother and that he didn’t die. This was intentional, so that he would serve as a better type of Jesus.

This eternal nature of the priesthood of Jesus makes Him a better priest for reasons the preacher explains in Hebrews 7:16-25

Hebrews 7:16–25 ESV

who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’ ” This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So the temporary nature of the levitical priesthood is contrasted with the eternal priesthood of Jesus. High Priests in the tribe of Levi came and went because they like anyone eventually all die. By some records by the time the second temple was destroyed in 70ad there were over 300 High Priests in the history of Israel. Because they were flawed and temporary they could only intercede for a season and had to atone for their own sins, and only could offer animals for the sins of men. Jesus on the other hand is still living and seated beside God the Father in Heaven forever, so that means that He’s not only qualified as the sinless one to atone for us, and to atone for us perfectly because of His perfect sacrifice of Himself, but He also atones for us eternally because He lives forever. So He’s the only one who can “save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

So no matter how much we screw up Jesus has an eternity to intercede for us to the father. The same obviously could not be said for the High Priests who came before Him.

Conclusion: Let Jesus do for you what you could never do yourself

I hope that over the course of this sermon you’ve seen the benefits of having Jesus Christ as our High Priest. He is as both God and Man the perfect intermediary between God and man. He has the humility and sympathy of His humanity joined together with the authority and eternality of His Godhood.

In many religions throughout History and all around the world people feel as though they need to earn their way to God. Sometimes through priests and always through keeping some law or moral code. The Good News about Jesus is that we don’t have to earn our way to a relationship with God, which is good because we couldn’t do so anyway.

Jesus does what we could never do for ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to do what’s right, but it does mean that we should stop trying to Jesus’ job. You’ll only do a much worse job. Jesus does the interceding for us, so that now we can do what’s right out of a spirit of thankfullness for the grace and mercy of Jesus.

So when the going gets tough we can be reassured that Jesus is at this very moment seated beside Our Father and interceding on our behalf. What could give us more peace? More hope? More boldness? We can know that Jesus is taking care of us in a more meaningful and powerful way than we can understand. All because He is forever a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

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