Hebrews 5:5-10
5So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed by the one who said to him,
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you”;
6as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
7In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, 9and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
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The writer of the book of Hebrews proclaims that Jesus is our great high priest, “a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Who is Melchizedek? Just after the flood, in the Book of Genesis, Abram (later “Abraham”) meets a man named Melchizedek, who is both a king and a priest. Melchizedek goes out to meet Abram. And Melchizedek takes with him bread and wine. Melchizedek blesses the bread and the wine, and he gives it to Abram, saying, “bless be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High (14:19).”
And there in the valley, with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah behind him, Abram takes the bread and the wine. And he eats the bread and he drinks the wine. And he tastes and sees the promise of the blessing of the Most High God. Abram grabs hold of it in his hands.
Christ Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek, says the book of Hebrews. Like Melchizedek, Christ comes down and meets us in the valley of the shadow of death, and Christ gives us wine and bread and gives us a promise we can hold on to in the here and now that, as my seminary professor Gerhard Forde said, “the one who runs the whole show is for you.”
God is not waiting around for you to clean up your act and find your way to him; God is here—one-way love—waiting for you to receive him. In Holy Communion, the true and living God says, “You are mine! The one who runs the whole show is for you!”
Prayer: “Eternal God, in your Son you offer your life for the world. Gather us around the cross of Christ, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
–Pastor Mark Nelson